Dante's Inferno

Senior year of high school '04, my senior English class read Dante's Inferno. From the book we had to do a literary project and for extra credit had the option of either creating a chapter of our own or depicting a scene from the book. I choose to depict several scenes as you can see.

All quoted excerpts are from the book The Inferno: Dante's immortal drama of a journey through hell, translated by John Ciardi.

The River of Blood.
Canto XII: "Below them they see the RIVER OF BLOOD, which marks the First Round of the Seventh Circle. Here are punished the VIOLENT AGAINST THEIR NEIGHBORS, great war-makers, cruel tyrants, highwaymen all who shed the blood of their fellowmen. As they wallowed in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in the boiling blood forever, each according to the degree of his guilt."

Forest of Suicides.
Canto XIII. "Nessus carries the Poets across the river of boiling blood and leaves the in the Second Round of the Seventh Circle, THE WOOD OF THE SUICIDES. Here are punished those who destroyed their own lives and those who destroyed their substance."

"The souls of the Suicides are encased in thorny tree whose leaves are eaten by the odious HARPIES, the overseers of the damned."


The Hypocrites.
Canto XXIII. "They are ow in the SIXTH BOLGIA. Here the HYPOCRITES, weighted down by greed leaden robes, walk eternally round and round a narrow track. The roes are brilliantly gilded on the outside and are shaped to look like a monk's habit, for the hypocrite's outward appearance shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under that show lies the terrible weight of his deceit which the soul must bear through all eternity."

"Caiaphas was the High Priest of the Jews who counseled the Pharisees to crucify Jesus in the name of public expedience. He is punished by being himself crucified to the floor of Hell by three great stakes, and in such a position that every passing sinner must walk upon him."