Dante's Inferno is one of the best written
works of all time because it was written as an
allegory inside
an excellent story. A key part of this
allegory was how Dante used
different
guardians in the various circles of hell.
These guardians were used to symbolize
the punishments
of the sinners.
Minos is the guardian of Circle II, the
circle of the Lustful. He symbolizes an
accusing
personality
because his job is to give punishments to the sinners. The bodies of the sinners
confess the sins
automatically, and that shows the sinners know everything about
themselves when
it is too late to repent. Minos is
important because he is used to stress
that none of the
sinners can doubt which sins they have committed, and that the crime will
receive a
matching punishment. The lustful were
carried away by their passions in their
previous lives,
and therefore they are thrown about by a black wind. Dante considers lust
to be the highest
sin because it is mutually committed to the pleasure of both parties.
Cerberus is the guardian of Circle III, the
circle of the Gluttons. Cerberus is
meant to
portray the image
of uncontrolled appetite. In mythology,
he was known to devour
people who
approached hell, and therefore is a glutton himself. However, being a glutton,
he must surrender
himself to his appetite. His appetite
just overtakes him when Dante
throws dirt in
Cerberus' mouth, and the poets are allowed to enter the circle. Cerberus is
an example of how
everything must submit to the glutton's appetite, including his soul.
This is a dark
sin because they now worship food instead of God, and this is reciprocated
by the rain,
which belies the jolly nature of gluttons and gives them dark temperaments.
Gluttony is a sin
which involves one person, and it is more of a selfish sin, but the
gluttonous are
alone because they always ate alone.
Pluto is the guardian of Circle IV, the
circle of Misers and Spendthrift. Pluto
is meant
to symbolize riches,
as he is the god of wealth that springs from soil in ancient mythology.
This is
appropriate because he guards those who hoarded money and those who spent it
foolishly. This is a different type of appetite, as
these people hate each other because
everybody wants
to have all the money or spend all of it.
These people conflict with each
other, and their
mutual hatred for each other is symbolized by their rolling rocks against
each other. They actually give the punishments to each
other. This is also a selfish sin,
but it is also
hating others who are also selfish. This
is why the Misers and Spendthrifts
are always
battling, with Pluto watching them.
Phlegyas is the guardian of Circle V, the
circle of the Wrathful. The circle is
really the
Styx river, and
Phlegyas is the ferryman. Phlegyas is
the symbol of supreme rage, as he
burned Apollo's
temple after his daughter Coronis fell in love with him. There are two
types of wrath,
active rage and silent sulleness. The
raging ones fight on top of the marsh
and the sullen
ones just sigh deep in the mud. They
symbolize the worse sin yet, the
hatred for all of
man. The raging ones want to harm
people, and therefore they hit each
other. The sullen ones are stuck in the bottom
because they bottled up their wrath for
others inside
themselves, and they withdrew into a black sulkiness. Dante is attacked by
Filippo Argenti,
and he begins to feel wrathful towards his old enemy. For the first time
there is no
sympathy for these people, as they hated others. Phlegyas is a good example of
how the guardian
can portray the people he guards.
The Furies are the guardians of Circle VI,
the Heretics. They are the avenging
goddesses who
went after great sinners. They symbolize
remorse that does not lead to
repentance. This is how the Heretics are. They deeply feel remorse for the fact they
interpreted
things outside the judgment of the Church, preferring their own judgment
against the
Church's. However, they still do not
change their ways. The fitting
punishment is
that they would be buried in iron tombs and surrounded by fire. However,
none of the fire
is inside the tomb. This shows how the
outside appearance of holiness is
different from
the inside one of hereticism. The iron
symbolizes the unwillingness to bend
towards the
church's decisions. They are sinners who
will never repent, so the Furies will
always be after
them.
The Centaurs and the Minotaur are the
guardians of the first ring of Circle VII, the ring
of the violent
against neighbors. They are the symbol
of man with animal behavior, since
they are part
men, part beasts. This describes the
violent against the neighbors, as they
experience
passions for shedding blood, and therefore their punishment is to wallow in the
river of blood,
the Phlegethon river. The blood
symbolizes all the blood that they have
caused to fall,
and now they must be surrounded continuously to remind them of how they
got here. The Centaurs and Minotaur killed many people
and they are the bloodthirsty
guardians of this
ring.
The Harpies of the guardians of the second
ring of Circle of VII, the ring of the violent
against
themselves. Harpies are another breed of
animal-humans. They are symbol of the
will to destroy
things, which the suicides had to have in order to kill themselves. Suicide
is to get rid of
one's body, and it insults it.
Therefore, they are not even allowed to have
their own bodies
in Hell. They hated themselves and had
no life energy, so the trees are
dead and
withered. These people took away the
gift of life that God gave them, and they
will not get it
back. This connects back to the Harpies
because the Harpies also wanting
to destroy
everything.
Geryon is the guardian of Circle VIII, the
Malbowges. He has a just man's face,
beautiful color,
the paws of a beast, and the sting in his serpent's tail. This mixture
misguides in the
front and attacks in the back. He is the
symbol of Fraud. From here on,
the sins are
darker and darker. First sex, then
religious offices, civil offices, language,
ownership,
counsel, authority, psychic influence are all perverted.
The Giants are the guardians of Circle IX,
home of Cocytus and the traitors. The
Giants
symbolize the
tainting of the heart that have not yet been uncovered. They are only blocks
of blood and
flesh that can commit only treachery because they don't have hearts. Nimrod
is a stupid
braggart; Ephialtes is senseless rage; and Antaeus is brainless vanity. These
symbolize how the
whole rational thinking of man and nature is overturned in hell.
Lucifer is the symbol of ultimate treachery
because he eats the treacherous Cassius,
Brutus, and
Judas. Lucifer is crying and he is not
active, but rather extremely passive. He
is the symbol of
anything that is Anti-Christianity. His
wings are symbol of a distorted
angelic
properties - he is an extremely
distorted version of an angel with 2 arms and 4
wings. He is not powerful, but is subject to God's
punishment, and he is the punisher of
the sinners.
As can be seen, the guardians of Hell
symbolize the characteristic oand punishments of
the sinners. It must be kept in mind that this story was
used to bring about repentance of
the soul because
of it was only a vision. Once the soul
sees the real Hell, it is too late to
repent.
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