![]() Canto I from the Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri | |
Author | Dante Alighieri |
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Language | Italian |
Series | Divine Comedy |
Genre | narrative poem |
Publication date | c. 1321 |
Publication place | Italy |
Text | Inferno at Wikisource |
Inferno (Italian: [iɱˈfɛrno]; Italian for 'Hell') is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century narrative poem The Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes the journey of a fictionalised version of Dante himself through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm [...] of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".[1] As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.[2]