The Divine Comedy
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The contrast between Inferno and Purgatory
First circle was Limbo. There were unbaptized and virtuous non-Christians, many wise and well-known people such as Homer, Horace, Avicenna, Cicero, Hippocrates, Socrates, Aristotle and others. In the second circle (Lust) were people, who took possession of lust. Here Dante saw Cleopatra, Semiramis, Dido, Helen of Troy. A strong wind threw their souls back and forth without a pause. The third circle (Gluttony) was for gluttons, guarded by a huge Cerberus. They laid here in mud, under the cold rain, unable to see anything around and not paying attention to each other. Here, Dante met Florentine Chacko, who died recently. In the fourth circle (Greed) were wasteful and mean people. They moved heave objects from place to place. In the fifth one (Anger) were angry and lazy people. They fought each other in Styx marsh. Dante met Filippo Argenti there. The sixth circle (Heresy) was a haven of heretics who believed that the soul dies with a body. They were burned alive in the fiery tombs. Here he met Epicurus, Emperor Frederick II, and Pope Anastasius II. The 7th circle (Violence) was the circle of violence. Here were three rings. In the outer ring, sinners were boiled in a bloody Phlegethon river. Here lived Alexander the Great, Dionysius I of Syracuse, Guy de Montfort Obizzo d'Este, Rinier Pazzo, Rinier da Corneto, and Azzolino da Romano. In the middle ring were suicides and profligates. Suicides were turned into thorny bushes. The ferocious dogs always chased profligates. Finally, in the inner ring, the desert with a red-hot sand and rain of fire, lived blasphemers, usurers and sodomites. Here, Dante saw a warrior Capaneus, Brunetto Latini, Florentines Guido Guerra, Catello di Rosso Gianfigliazzi, Ciappo Ubriachi, Iacopo Rusticucci, and Giovanni di Buiamonte; and the Paduans Vitaliano