This is just for a bit of fun fiction since I haven’t posted an update in a while and I’m working on a writing project and trying to find a window of time to finish an interview with Hydra M. Star. In the meantime, you can catch Hydra’s interview on the Demented1 YouTube channel.

Here are the Nine Circles of Hell, as defined in Dante’s Inferno:

1st Circle – Limbo

The souls of the unbaptized and pagans wander the caves of Limbo, including Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid, Socrates, and Saladin.  It is said that they are struck with grief from a lack of God’s presence here.

2nd Circle – Lust

Violent, spiraling storm winds ravage the lost souls here endlessly.  Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo are here.

3rd Circle – Gluttony

The souls of gluttons are made to lie in disgusting, freezing slush.  This circle is guarded by Cerberus, and contains Ciacco of Florence.

4th Circle – Greed

The miserly and spendthrift, including many clergymen, are made to push heavy weights together, jousting with them.  Plutus guards this circle.

5th Circle – Wrath

In this swampy, foul-smelling circle, the wrathful fight one another on the surface of the river Styx while the sullen drown beneath it.  Fillippo Argenti is one of this circle’s inhabitants.

6th Circle – Heresy

In this circle, heretics are trapped within flaming tombs for all eternity.  Notable inhabitants of this circle include Epicurus, Florentines Farinata degli Uberti, and Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti.

7th Circle – Violence

Murderers, vandals, blasphemers, sodomites and more find a home here.  The circle of violence is sub-divided into three rings.  The first ring is for those that commit these acts against neighbors, and is intended for murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and tyrants. The second ring is for those that commit these acts against themselves, which includes those who commit suicide.  The third and final ring is for those that commit these acts against God, art, and nature.  The blasphemers, sodomites, and usurers find themselves within the third ring.

8th Circle – Fraud – “Malebolge”

This circle of hell contains the souls of panderers, seducers, flatterers, sorcerers, pimps, false prophets, and more.  This circle is shaped into a giant stone funnel that resembles an amphitheater, with each concentric rung being another of ten trenches.  Sinners from these various groups are subdivided into the trenches where they can enjoy the stench, the darkness, the disease, the filth, and the thirst together as they scratch and scrape one another to avoid the whipping chains.  Ulysses and Diomedes are notable inhabitants of the 8th circle.  Giants guard the entrance to the 9th circle, at the bottom of the funnel.

9th Circle – Treachery – “Cocytus“

Dante explains that the ninth circle of hell is not a fiery abyss as one might imagine, but a frozen desolation.  Betrayers of special relationships such as Satan, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are in the 9th circle of hell.  This lake of ice is divided into four sub-sections, called rounds, to further divide sinners by their specific type of betrayal.  The first round is for those that are traitors to their kindred.  The second round is for those that are traitors to their country.  The third round is for those that are traitors to their guests.  The fourth and final round is for those that are traitors to their lords and benefactors.  Finally, at the center of the frozen lake, there is Satan (pictured).

There is decent additional reading on Wikipedia about Dante’s Inferno.