DANTE ALIGHIERI'S INFERNO

CIRCLES 7-9

An image of crossed swords, symbolically representing Violence.

CIRCLE 7: VIOLENCE

The seventh circle, Violence, is separated into three sub-rings for who the violence was against: Others, the self, and God. Others are - in similar fashion to Wrath - submerged in a river. Unlike Wrath, however, this river is not the Styx, but the Phlegethon, which is boiling and made of blood. Ouch. The self is an entire forest full of briary trees made of the screaming souls of those who took their own life. Harpies sometimes descend to painfully snack on the fruits of these trees. Yeouch. Lastly, violence against God is a gigantic plain comprised of predominately actively-on-fire sand that rains ashes, embers, and other unpleasantly-scorching goodness. Yikeserooley-dooley.

CIRCLE 8: FRAUD

The eight circle, Fraud, is where the tricksters, hucksters, and charlatans go when they die (even if I don't agree, all I'm saying is that I understand). The punishments here are so wild and varied that it's easier to list off the more metal album cover ones. We've got heads snapped backwards, politicians in boiling tar and pitch (again, all I'm saying is that I understand), transmuting snake bites, personal hellfire pits, blokes getting ripped apart by the angry meat cleaver machine, and a the Every-Disease-All-At-Once Pit. Metal.

An image of crossed fingers, symbolically representing Fraud.
An image of a dagger dripping, symbolically representing Treachery.

CIRCLE 9: TREACHERY

The ninth and final circle, Treachery, is reserved for who Dante thought were the worst of the worst: Betrayers. In a bit of an atypical twist for Hell, this lowest part of Hell is absolutely freaking freezing, and the sinners here are mostly frozen in their entirety in ice. Some have their heads peeking out, but most are frozen waytoo deep in the ice and put into horribly uncomfortable positions of pain. At the very bottom of Hell lay Satan, frozen halfway up his chest in the ice. He's got three heads, each eternally chewing on a real nasty betrayer: Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Judas Iscariot. Unsurprisingly, Hell ends here, but oh boy, it's not a fun place. At least our narrator, Dante Alighieri, makes it out intact.

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