What is Dante's Inferno about?

Dante wrote a long poetic story called the 'Divine Comedy' that is divided into three parts: inferno, purgatory, and heaven.

The story starts with Dante winding his way home one dark night when he is confronted by a RABID LION!!! who blocks his every way. (Curious that something as formidable as a rabid lion would nothing more serious than block his way.) So dante prays for deliverance and his guardian angle appears to help him. The angel is a little perplexed at first but then comes up with a way to get Dante home that the lion can't possibly block - that is to take the extremely round about detour through hell, purgatory and heaven.

So Dante and his angel decend through hell (abandon all hope all ye who enter here in-- except for Dante of course who's just passing thorugh) and on the way they descend through the many levels of hell (its starts off rather pleasent in fact) visiting with the souls imprisoned there and examining the particular tortures associated with each level and each sin that got them there, gets rather gruesome near the end. Its surprising how many greeks, romans, italians and mythical creatures occupy hell and hardly any people of any other racial orientation. And really that's all there is to the first part (inferno) not much of a story, more a travelogue through hell, visiting with infamous people and relishing in their torture. After the very depths of hell the path goes onto purgatory but then you didn't ask about that part of the story.

First answer by ID1178790388. Last edit by ID1178790388. Question popularity: 10 [recommend question]