In his "Divine Comedy" Dante Alighieri described in detail both hell and heaven, moreover, the former seems especially interesting to the reader, since it contains a lot of familiar images, as well as people with bright, strong emotions, more "alive" and natural than creatures in Paradise.
Top 5 circles of hell
The first circle is called Limb, and in fact, speaking about it, the poet talks not so much about hell as about purgatory. It is in Limb that children who died before baptism go, as well as all pagans who are glorious in their deeds. It is there that Virgil and many ancient philosophers, poets, playwrights, warriors are located. Limb is not at all a terrible place, and there is no torment, since the people who are on this circle are to blame only for the fact that they were not Christians during their lifetime.
Near the descent to the second circle, the demon Minos distributes sinners according to their crimes and decides who deserved what punishment during his lifetime. Having got to the second circle, the poet sees a hellish whirlwind in which the souls of voluptuous people are endlessly spinning. There are many lovers who do not part after death, and Cleopatra and Elena the Beautiful were also there.
The ruler of the third circle is Cerberus. There he guards those who, during their lifetime, often sinned by gluttony. The souls in this place are lying in the mud under a terrible downpour. Going down below, to the fourth circle, the poet sees the demon Plutos - the one who protects and punishes misers and profligates. In this place, you can see many cardinals, popes and other clergy who thoughtlessly spent the wealth of the church and appropriated other people's money. The fifth circle represents the Stygian lowland, where people endlessly drown and suffer, whose sin has become anger and laziness. They are immersed in a swamp that does not allow them to escape, but does not destroy either.
The four lower circles of hell
The sixth circle of hell strikes fear even in those who only need to go through it. It is full of tombs on fire. From these tombs can be heard the cries of heretics locked inside, forever burning and not burning. To pass between them, you have to step very carefully, since a narrow road leads to the seventh circle, and a flame is blazing around. Near the next "floor" of hell, Virgil and Dante see the grave of Pope Anastasius, who also received his punishment for heresy.
The seventh circle represents an area compressed by mountains, in the middle of which a boiling bloody river flows. Tyrants, rapists and robbers endlessly cook in it, and centaurs shoot at these sinners with bows. It is there that the poet sees the Minotaur and the centaur of Ness. Accidentally breaking one of the branches of a bush, seeing black blood and hearing a painful groan, he learns from his guides that these bushes contain the souls of suicides. There are tormented, burned by fire, those who indulged in same-sex love, and among them the teacher Dante Brunetto Latini.
Having descended to the eighth circle on the flying beast Geryon, the poet sees 10 ditches - one for a crime. Seducers of women, flatterers, merchants of church offices, sorcerers, bribe-takers, hypocrites, thieves, treacherous advisers, sowers of unrest and alchemists languish there. Finally, the ninth circle of hell is an icy lake in which Lucifer eternally tortures traitors, including Judas, those who went against their relatives, murderers, tormentors.
