1 circle of hell according to Dante. How many circles of hell are there and why do they say: go through seven circles of hell

STRENGTH OF MIND -
INNOKENTY MIKHAILOVICH SMOKTUNOVSKY (1925-1994)
One woman came to my temple who witnessed an unusual episode in the life of I.M. Smoktunovsky in May 1994, three months before his death.
While she was on editorial business in the actor’s apartment, a delegation came to him with a request to sign a petition of theater workers to the President of the Russian Federation in defense of the Student Theater and against the opening of the temple.
By this time, the letter had already been signed by Galina Volchek, Kirill Lavrov, Yuri Nikulin, Valentin Gaft, Mark Zakharov, Mikhail Ulyanov, Leonid Kheifets and other actors.
In parentheses, we note that there was another letter - in defense of the temple, signed by Nikita Mikhalkov, Irina Arkhipova, Marlen Khutsiev, Georgy Sviridov, Alexander Mikhailov, Svetlana Druzhinina, Sergei Solovyov, Vadim Abdrashitov.
But Smoktunovsky was only acquainted with the first letter, which stated that “the restoration of the church in this particular building is not due to historical necessity,” since this is already the third location of the Tatyana Church.

Meanwhile, the “historic house” on the street. Herzen is “the shrine of the theatrical art of our country,” and the Moscow State University Student Theater is “the platform from which University students spoke in defense of democracy and progress.”
The famous actor behaved extremely strangely:
“Tell me,” he asked the uninvited guests, “what meanness have I done in my life and how did I give you reason to think that I would sign a letter against the Church?”
“Before the war, I lived with my aunt, I was six years old, on some holiday she gave me thirty rubles: “Go to church, give it to the temple.” Thirty rubles! I remember they were so long and red.
From an interview with I.M. Smoktunovsky:
I did not know then that thirty pieces of silver existed, and my aunt, although a believer, did not know this. You couldn’t hold a Bible back then; you were punished for it. And the ice cream that I loved so much cost 20 kopecks. With this money you can eat ice cream for a year and a half! No, I won’t give thirty rubles to some aunts and uncles in the church. And with a clenched fist I found myself near the church. I went inside, it was so beautiful there, I stood completely exhausted, and then easily approached the servant and said: “Take it to the temple, take it, please.”
Without faith, a person would not come out of the forest, he would grunt, howl... A pig is good, this is wonderful, but still it has no reason, and we, in addition to reason, also have a soul.”
“I felt that some force was leading me at the front, I thought that not a single bullet, not a stray bullet, not any other, not even a shrapnel could knock me down. As if I was being protected by someone. It is possible that I was protected by the Lord God. Because even then, without knowing the Bible at all, without knowing the New Testament, I knew that there was a God.”
In the photo: Kesha Smoktunovich (left) with her brother Volodya and aunt Nadezhda Petrovna Chernyshenko

Vladimir (Archpriest Vladimir) Vigilyansky

Hell and its 9 circles made some noise in due time.

The effect continues to this day. Once upon a time, the great dreamer and entertainer Dante Alighieri described hell in his “Divine Comedy”. In his opinion, the underworld consists of 9 circles. The lower each circle, the more serious the sins that a person committed during his lifetime.

Today for you is a colorful guide to the circles of hell from The Divine Comedy.

Now you will see that not everything is so bad in this world ☺

1st CIRCLE OF HELL - LIMBUS.

Its guardian is none other than CHARON.

A stern, gloomy and principled grandfather. He transported the souls of the dead across the river STYX. Performing your duties clearly and specifically. Moreover, under no circumstances did he take anyone back. Souls in this circle are tormented by the punishment of “painless sorrow.” Basically, representatives of the first circle of hell are infants who have not been baptized and virtuous non-Christians. That is, these are just good people who did not completely obey the church.

Limbo is home to ancient philosophers and poets (including Virgil): Noah, Moses and Abraham were also here - all the righteous men mentioned in the Old Testament, but then they were allowed to ascend to Paradise.

2nd CIRCLE OF HELL - LUST.

This place is guarded by MINOS - an intractable, fair judge of the damned and the father of the Minotaur, who distributes souls in circles.

During his lifetime, King Minos was a great lover of women, but he was also a good ruler. He wrote laws for all Cretans (Island of Crete). He received these notes from Zeus himself, in a cave. What else? =)

So, Minos rules on the second circle and judges the souls of the departed. Voluptuous people spend eternity with him. That is, all adulterers, harlots and just people who showed excessive ardor in bed. The 2nd circle of hell punishes these scoundrels with torsion, torment by a storm and blows of souls against rocks.

3 CIRCLE OF HELL - Gluttony

This circle is guarded by CERBERUS, and it guards the exit from the world of the dead, and not the entrance, as many people think.

In general, Cerberus is, in fact, a beautiful three-headed dog, which has a poisonous snake instead of a tail. The heads are very similar to those worn by his mother, Echidna. Some are inclined to believe that he has 50 goals or even a hundred.

This handsome man was killed by Hercules.

The 3rd circle of hell is inhabited by unfortunate gluttons, gluttons and even gourmets! The most famous, thanks to Dante Alighieri, is Ciacco. This glutton lives in a stinking swamp, where cold rain constantly falls on him.

In general, in the third circle of hell, everyone is punished - rotting. They decompose there under the scorching sun and pouring rain.

4TH CIRCLE OF HELL - STINGY (GREED).

PLUTOS rules there.

In Greek mythology, he is known as the god of wealth. Most often, when depicting Plutos, a cornucopia was attributed to him.

But Dante described him in his “Divine Comedy” as a bestial demon.

In the 4th circle of hell, misers, greedy people and wasteful individuals languish, unable to make adequate expenses. Their punishment is not as vile as on the third round, but more “heavy”.

They drag huge weights from one place to another and, if they somehow collide with each other, they immediately begin a furious fight.

5 CIRCLE OF HELL - ANGER and LAZINESS

A rather gloomy and gloomy place, guarded by the son of ARES (the god of war) himself. His son's name is PHLEGIUS.

To get to the 5th circle of hell you need to be very angry, lazy or sad. Or better yet, all at once!

I went and killed a bunch of people, was too lazy to clean up the corpses and became sad =))

So, in the fifth circle of hell there is an eternal fight. The place of the fight is the STYX swamp. The darkest thing about that river is the bottom. It consists of those who were depressed and bored during their lifetime.

So, smile all the time, you never know...

6 CIRCLE OF HELL - THE WALLS OF THE CITY OF DITA.

These are the walls of the city DITA (the Romans called Hades, the god of the underworld, DITA, also known as Orc). Yes, all these are the names of the underground god, after whom the city was named.

Guard the 6th circle of hell - FURY. Grumpy, cruel and very angry women.

They say that the furies appeared as a result of the very first crime - Kronos wounded his father Uranus, drops of his blood that fell to the ground gave birth to these evil ones.

The furies mock heretics and false teachers.

Punishment in the 6th circle of hell is existence in the form of ghosts, in red-hot graves.

The transition to the seventh circle is fenced off by a fetid abyss.

7 CIRCLE OF HELL - CITY OF DIT. It is divided into three belts. The main inhabitants are people who committed violence. But in each zone there live different types of rapists:

1 BELT is called FLAGETON.

Those who committed violence against their neighbor, against their material values ​​and property. So, tyrants, robbers and robbers spend their time in the first belt. The guys are boiling in a ditch of hot blood, and if anyone emerges, the CENTAURS shoot at him.

By the way, according to Dante Alighieri and his “Divine Comedy”, the Macedonian and the tyrant Dionysius swim precisely there, splashing in the warm waves of the blood of their victims.

2 BELT is the FOREST OF SUICIDES.

Those who committed violence against themselves languish there, they are turned into trees and they are torn to shreds by HARPIES (daughters of the sea deity Thaumant).

Known for suddenly appearing and kidnapping human children and souls. Also, those who senselessly disposed of their wealth are gamblers and the like.

Spenders and gamblers are tormented by hound dogs.

3 BELT – COMBUSTIBLE SANDS.

Blasphemers who have committed violence against deities spend their time there. Also those who showed violence against their nature (Sadomites), as well as art (extortion).

The punishment is staying in an absolutely barren desert, the sky of which drips fiery rain on the heads of the unfortunate.

Protects those languishing in the 7th circle of hell and its belts - MINOTAUR.

A creature that resulted from a perverted relationship between the wife of King Minos, Pasiphae, and a bull donated by Poseidon.

Pasiphae copulated with a bull, seducing him by lying down in a wooden model of a cow made by Daedalus (an outstanding artist and engineer who built a labyrinth on the island of Crete).

8 CIRCLE OF HELL - SINS, EVIL CREVICES.

The circle consists of 10 ditches. And this is the most fucking popular of all circles!

It is also called EVIL CRACKS or SINUSES.

The guard of the 8th circle of hell is GERION - a giant with six arms, six legs and wings. This monster consisted of three human bodies.

He was killed by none other than Hercules!

In Evil Crevices, deceivers suffer their difficult fate. And now, about the types of torture and executions in each of the 10 ditches:

1 ROV.

Seducers and pimps sit there. All these sinners are walking in two columns, towards each other. They are constantly tormented by demon drivers.

2 ROV.

Filled with flatterers. Mired in fetid excrement, they while away their time.

As if, watching TV and surfing the Internet all day and night, we are not like these unfortunate people.

3 ROV.

The 8th circle of hell, according to Dante Alighieri and his “Divine Comedy,” is occupied by high-ranking clergy who traded positions in the church.

They are Simonists. Simonists received their definition thanks to the attempt of the Jew Simon to buy the gift of performing miracles from the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John.

The punishment for them is imprisonment of the body in a rock, head down. Hot lava flows down the feet of the Simonists.

4 ROV.

The edges are filled with astrologers, witches, fortune tellers and soothsayers.

Their heads are turned 180 degrees (towards the back).

At 5 RVE

The raking demons are having fun. They boil the bribe-takers in tar, and pierce those who stick out with hooks. So, if you are a “dirty” politician, train yourself not to breathe under tar for as long as possible during your lifetime;)

6 ROV

filled with hypocrites clad in lead robes.

7 ROV

- thieves who are killed again and again by the poisonous reptiles of the earth.

8 ROV

9 ROV

- a haven for the instigators of discord. They are subjected to eternal torture - disembowelment.

10 ROV

- false witnesses, counterfeiters, counterfeiters of metal and words.

People who work with metal are very lethargic, but at the same time they suffer from terrible scabies. False witnesses in hell run around in rage and bite everyone they meet.

The counterfeiters are disfigured by dropsy and die (but not completely).

Forgers of words are exhausted from fever and headache.

9 CIRCLE OF HELL DANTE.

The most sinister and thus the most attractive. His name is BETRAYAL, THE BELT OF CAIN, THE MIDDLE, THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, THE BELT OF JUDECCA AND THE ICY LAKE OF COCYTHUS.

Among the most famous celebrities who spend eternity there are: BRUTUS, JUDAS ISCARIOT and CASSIUS.

The 9th circle of hell is guarded by stern guards. Giants named EPHIALTES, ANTHEAUS, BRIAREUS AND LUCIFER.

BELT OF CAIN - Traitors to relatives.

CAIN in Western Semitic and biblical mythology

1) eldest son of Adam and Eve,

2) son of the angel Samael and Eve, or

3) the son of the evil one (devil) and Eve, in general, the very first person born on Earth.

Cain is the father of Enoch and the founder of his line.

And also Cain is a fratricide.

ANTENORA BELT - Traitors to the Motherland and like-minded people.

ANTENOR - in ancient Greek mythology, a Trojan, friend and adviser to Priam, husband of Theano (Theano), daughter of the Thracian king Kissei. Antenor himself is a traitor according to post-Homeric legend.

TOLOMEY'S BELT - Traitors to friends and table mates.

This circle received its name from the name of Ptolemy, the governor of Jericho, who, having invited his father-in-law, the prince-high priest of Judea, and his two sons, treacherously killed them at a feast.

GIUDECCA BELT

is the last circle, or rather the central circle of hell. The belt is named Giudecca after the Apostle Judas, who betrayed Christ.

In the middle of the Giudecca (in other words, in the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, LUCIFER, frozen with his shins into an ice floe, torments in his three mouths the traitors to the majesty of the earthly and heavenly (Judas, Brutus and Cassius).

And now a little about the wonderful guards of the 9th circle of hell:

BRIAREUS

- half-bull, half-snake or giant with 100 arms and 50 heads. He defended himself with 100 shields from the lightning of Zeus himself.

EPHIALTE

- simply an aggressive giant with immeasurable physical strength. Known for asking for the hand of Athena herself. Although, some believe that to Hera. But what difference does it make who disgraced him? After all, neither one nor the other were seen in an intimate relationship with Ephialtes.

ANTEI

- son of Gaia and Poseidon.

Antaeus received incredible strength when he came into contact with the ground. And the earth is his mother, named Gaia.

He is the king of Libya. During his lifetime, this giant loved to fight with all travelers and defeat them all. He even built an entire temple out of the skulls of the losers.

He was defeated by, who do you think, HERCULES!

This cunning son of Zeus tore the unfortunate, lover of skull structures, from the ground, and then strangled him or broke his back.

By the way, they say that Hercules made life in Libya better.

LUCIFER, as well as DARNISH.

By the way, from Latin Lucifer is nothing other than luminous.

Once upon a time this “light bearer” was an angel. As they say, he became proud and wanted to take the throne of God.

Well, mutual hatred began there, Lucifer became what we know him now, after which he was expelled from paradise. Thus he ended up in hell.

As for the 9th circle of hell, Dante describes in detail the prince of darkness Lucifer: he has three mouths, in each of which the greatest traitors in history are tormented, namely Judas, Brutus and Cassius. VIP seats, so to speak.

Traitors are doomed to the 9th circle of hell. The most insidious sin, according to Dante Alighieri. All possible types of traitors languish there. Traitors to the Motherland, traitors to loved ones, traitorous friends, and so on. All of them were frozen up to their necks in ice, and their traitorous faces were turned to the bottom. They experience eternal torment in the cold.

That's all 9 circles of hell by Dante Alighieri.

I hope you gained some knowledge. But I hasten to remind you that this is not a lie, this is a purely Catholic idea of ​​hell. So, if this is knowledge, then only in the field of fiction, from which you fell asleep in lessons and classes, without even trying to remember it.

Not all of them, of course, but still...

In the form of a funnel. Unbaptized infants and virtuous non-Christians in limbo are given over to painless grief; voluptuous people who fall into the second circle for lust suffer torment and torment by a hurricane; gluttons in the third circle rot in the rain and hail; misers and spendthrifts drag weights from place to place in the fourth circle; the angry and lazy always fight in the swamps of the fifth circle; heretics and false prophets lie in the burning graves of the sixth; all kinds of rapists, depending on the subject of the abuse, suffer in different zones of the seventh circle - boil in a ditch of hot blood, tormented by harpies or languish in the desert under the fiery rain; deceivers of those who did not trust languish in the cracks of the eighth circle: some are stuck in fetid feces, some are boiling in tar, some are chained, some are tormented by reptiles, some are gutted; and the ninth circle is prepared for those who deceived. Among the latter is Lucifer, frozen in ice, who torments in his three mouths the traitors of the majesty of the earth and heaven (Judas, Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius - traitors of Jesus and Caesar, respectively).

The map of Hell was part of a large commission - an illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy. The exact dates of creation of the manuscripts are unknown. Researchers agree that Botticelli began working on them in the mid-1480s and, with some interruptions, was busy with them until the death of the customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent de' Medici.

Fragment of a map of hell. (wikipedia.org)

Not all pages have been preserved. Presumably, there should be about 100 of them; 92 manuscripts have reached us, four of which are fully colored. Several pages of text or numbers are blank, suggesting that Botticelli did not complete the work. Most are sketches. At that time, paper was expensive, and the artist could not simply throw away a sheet of paper with a failed sketch. Therefore, Botticelli first worked with a silver needle, squeezing out the design. Some manuscripts show how the design changed: from the composition as a whole to the position of individual figures. Only when the artist was satisfied with the sketch did he trace the outlines in ink.

The torment of sinners. (wikipedia.org)

On the reverse side of each illustration, Botticelli indicated Dante's text, which explained the drawing.

Context

"" is a kind of response to the events of his own life. Having suffered a fiasco in the political struggle in Florence and being expelled from his hometown, he devoted himself to enlightenment and self-education, including the study of ancient authors. It is no coincidence that the guide in The Divine Comedy is Virgil, the ancient Roman poet.

The horrors of hell. (wikipedia.org)

The dark forest in which the hero gets lost is a metaphor for the poet’s sins and quests. Virgil (reason) saves the hero (Dante) from terrible beasts (mortal sins) and leads him through Hell to Purgatory, after which he gives way to Beatrice (divine grace) on the threshold of heaven.

The suffering of sinners. (wikipedia.org)

The fate of the artist

Botticelli was from a tanner's family; as a teenager he was apprenticed to a jeweler. However, the boy liked sketching and drawing much more. Immersed in a world of fantasy, Sandro forgot about his surroundings. He turned life into art, and art became life for him.

"Spring", 1482. (wikipedia.org)

Among his contemporaries, Botticelli was not perceived as a master of genius. At that time, they generally did not think about their contemporaries in terms of genius. The more orders, the higher the aristocracy valued the artist. And Botticelli experienced both his rise, when his workshop was extremely busy, and the Pope himself invited him to paint the Sistine Chapel, and his fall, when the aristocracy turned away from the beautiful Sandro.

"Birth of Venus", 1484−1486. (wikipedia.org)

Botticelli was patronized by the Medici, famous art connoisseurs. Vasari writes in his biography that the painter spent his last years as a decrepit, beggarly old man, but this is not so.

The artist was significantly influenced by his acquaintance with the monk Girolamo Savonarola, who in his sermons convincingly called for repentance and renunciation of luxury. After the monk was found guilty of heresy, Botticelli practically closed himself off from the world in his workshop. In recent years he has worked little, suffering in body and soul. The artist died at the age of 66 in Florence.

Heaven and hell exist in the imagination of people, and many minds over the centuries have been occupied by the question: what does the place where souls move look like? Writers and artists try to give answers, and people look at the world through their eyes. No one knows for sure what the Underworld looks like, but many know what the circles of hell are like according to Dante Alighieri.

What are the circles of hell?

The concept of hell first appeared in the biblical New Testament. Christians were convinced that after death sinners go to the afterlife, where they are subjected to suffering and torment. After going through 7 circles of hell, they are cleansed of filth and can be accepted into heaven. A specific sin is clearly attached to each section, the punishment for it is determined in advance. No one says exactly how many circles of hell the offender must cross, but the hierarchy of the underworld changes in Catholicism. Aristotle increased the number of circles to nine, and then his idea was picked up by the Italian thinker Dante Alighieri.

9 circles of hell according to Dante

In his most famous work, The Divine Comedy, Alighieri builds a clear scheme for building the afterlife. In it, each new arrival, or rather his soul, finds himself at his own level - the so-called circle of hell. Dante was not the first to give the underworld such a structure, but his nine circles of hell received a colorful and detailed description. As a rule, the “Divine Comedy” is often remembered when talking about the Underworld and its appearance. Dante's circles of hell are located in the shape of a huge funnel, the narrow end of which rests on the very center of the Universe.

The number 9 is not accidental. You can divide nine by 3 by 3, and this number has a symbolic meaning for Dante:

• his main work consists of three parts;
• Every person has three powers of the soul (animal, natural, vital);
• the three also reminds us of the years of Jesus’ life – 33.

Dante's first circle of hell

If you believe an authoritative source on the structure of the afterlife - “The Divine Comedy” - you can get into it if you pass through a dense forest covered in darkness. Alighieri began to “place” sinners even before entering hell. In front of the gate, according to his plan, there were crowds:

• the so-called pitiful souls who, during their lifetime, do nothing good or bad;
• angels (they could not be with God or the devil).

The gates swung open and the first circle of hell opened. All arrivals were greeted by the old man Charon, the hero of ancient Greek mythology. At this point, the souls of those who did not deserve eternal torment, but for reasons beyond their control, did not have the right to go to heaven, were in continuous sorrow. Limbo is the first circle of hell, in which unbaptized, virtuous non-Christians, ancient philosophers and poets languished.

The second circle of hell according to Dante

The second circle of hell, according to the Divine Comedy, was called “Lust.” Here were imprisoned voluptuous people, adulterers, all those whom love pushed onto the path of sin. The fair king Minos kept order. On this section of the sinful path, darkness reigned and a strong wind blew, twisting and throwing souls against the rocks. Those who arrived were forced to endure the torment of the storm forever and ever because they could not pacify their flesh during their lifetime.

Dante's Third Circle of Hell

In the third circle, gluttons - gluttons and gourmets - languish. Everyone who was not restrained in food during life is forced to rot under the incessant rain and hail. Bad weather is their main punishment. The 3rd circle of hell according to Dante is guarded by Cerberus - a huge three-headed dog with a snake tail, from whose mouth a poisonous mixture flows. He gnaws away especially guilty souls. He who ate without measure will be eaten himself.

The fourth circle of hell according to Dante

According to Dante, people were punished for greed and wastefulness by the 4th circle of hell. Those who did not know how to combine reasonable expenses were forced to fight with each other every day and carry heavy loads. The offenders dragged huge boulders across the field and rolled them up the mountain, collided at the top and began their difficult task all over again. Like the previous circles of hell according to Dante, this purgatory was guarded by a reliable guard. The Greek god of wealth Plutos kept order.

The fifth circle of hell according to Dante

The fifth circle of hell is the last refuge of lazy and angry souls. They are destined to fight in a huge dirty swamp (another option is the River Styx), the bottom of which is lined with the bodies of the most important lazy people who are bored even in the Underworld. Phlegias, the son of the god Ares and the ancestor of the mythical robber tribe of the Phlegians, was assigned to control the execution of punishments. The hellish swamp is a gloomy and unpleasant place; in order not to end up there, you must not be lazy during your life, not get angry and not be sad over trifles.

The sixth circle of hell according to Dante

The worse the offense, the greater the punishment awaiting it. And the 6th circle of hell according to Dante is a place where heretics who preached other gods during their lifetime languish in fiery graves. The souls of false teachers are constantly burning in open pits, as in furnaces. The guardians of this terrible place are three evil and grumpy sisters, Tisiphone, Alecto and Megaera. Instead of hair on their heads there are snake nests. The next circles of hell, according to Dante, are separated by a fetid ditch, because next they are tormented for the most terrible ones.

The seventh circle of hell according to Dante

In the steppes where it rains fire, the Minotaur guards souls stained by violence. Starting from the seventh, Dante’s circles of hell are divided into separate segments. The seventh is delimited into belts:

1. Rapists, tyrants, robbers boil in a ditch filled with hot blood. Those who emerge from the scarlet boiling water are shot with arrows by three centaurs.
2. Suicides turned into trees in hell are tormented by harpies, and players (that is, those who violated themselves and their property) are chased by hounds.
3. Blasphemers and sodomites are forced to vegetate in the fiery desert under the incessant rain of fire.

The Eighth Circle of Hell according to Dante

Just like the previous one, the eighth circle of hell is divided into sections - ditches. Under the supervision of the six-armed giant Geryon, deceivers of all stripes are punished. And each has its own “gap”:

• seducers and pimps are scourged by demons;
• flatterers are forever mired in feces;
• the holy merchants are suspended upside down from the rocks, and fire flows down their feet;
• fortunetellers and soothsayers are struck dumb, and their heads are thrown back;
• bribe takers boil in tar, and demons turn purple on those who dare to stick their heads out;
• hypocrites are clad in robes of lead;
• thieves are annoyed by all sorts of reptiles - snakes, spiders, etc. - copulate with them;
• the souls of crafty advisers burn in eternal fire;
• those who became the instigators of discord are disembowelled;
• false witnesses, falsifiers, counterfeiters suffer from diseases (dropsy, rabies).

The Ninth Circle of Hell according to Dante

The most terrible, ninth circle of hell is Alighieri’s last. It is a huge ice lake Cocytus with five belts. Sinners are frozen in ice up to their necks and forced to suffer eternal torment in the cold. Three giants Antaeus, Briareus, Ephialtes do not allow anyone to escape. The three-headed devil, cast down from heaven by God, is serving a life sentence here. Frozen into an ice floe, he torments the traitors who came to him: Judas, Cassius and Brutus. In addition to them, the ninth circle gathers apostates and traitors of all stripes. Traitors come here:

• relatives and friends;
• friends;
• homeland;
• God.

Circles of Hell according to the Bible

The highest quality, detailed description of the structure of the Underworld in secular literature belongs to Alighieri. His work from the late Middle Ages describes the afterlife from the point of view of the Catholic concept, but Dante's circles of hell differ from those presented in the Bible. The understanding of hell is interpreted in Orthodoxy as “conscious non-existence,” and each believer himself creates his own refuge forever and ever. After the death of the body, souls fall into fiery Gehenna.

The exact date of birth of Dante Alighieri is unknown. However, there is information that on May 26, 1265, he was baptized in Florence under the name Durante.
Dante is an Italian poet, one of the founders of the literary Italian language. In his work, the poet repeatedly touched upon issues of morality and faith in God.
In “The Divine Comedy” we are talking about the mortal essence of man, as well as the afterlife. Dante subtly and skillfully describes hell, where eternally condemned sinners go, purgatory, where they atone for their sins, and heaven, the abode of the blessed.

9 circles of hell in The Divine Comedy

According to Dante Alighieri, just before entering hell you can meet people who have led a boring life - they have done neither evil nor good.

1 lap The first circle of hell is called Limbo. Its guardian is Charon, who transports the souls of the dead across the River Styx. In the first circle of hell, infants who have not been baptized and virtuous non-Christians suffer torment. They are doomed to suffer eternally in silent sorrow.

2 round The second circle of hell is guarded by Minos, the intractable judge of the damned. Passionate lovers and adulterers in this circle of hell are punished by being torn and tormented by a storm.

3 circle Cerberus is the guardian of the third circle, in which gluttons, gluttons and gourmets live. All of them are punished by rotting and decay under the scorching sun and pouring rain.

4 circle Plutos rules in the fourth circle, which includes misers, greedy people and wasteful individuals who are unable to make reasonable expenses. Their punishment is an eternal dispute when they collide with each other.

5 circle The fifth circle represents a gloomy and gloomy place, guarded by the son of the god of war Ares - Phlegius. To get to the fifth circle of hell, you need to be very angry, lazy or sad. Then the punishment will be an eternal fight in the Styx swamp.

6 circle The sixth circle is the Walls of the city of Dita, guarded by furies - grumpy, cruel and very evil women. They mock heretics and false teachers, whose punishment is eternal existence in the form of ghosts in hot graves.

7 circle The seventh circle of hell, guarded by the Minotaur, is for those who have committed violence.

The circle is divided into three zones:

The first belt is called Flageton. It includes those who have committed violence against their neighbor, against their material values ​​and property. These are tyrants, robbers and robbers. They all boil in a ditch of hot blood, and those who emerge are shot at by centaurs.

Second belt - Forest of Suicides. It contains suicides, as well as those who senselessly squandered their wealth - gamblers and spendthrifts. Spenders are tortured by hound dogs, and unfortunate suicides are torn to shreds by Harpies.

The third belt is Burnt Sands. Here reside blasphemers who have committed violence against deities and sodomites. The punishment is staying in an absolutely barren desert, the sky of which drips fiery rain on the heads of the unfortunate.

8 circle The eighth circle of hell consists of ten ditches. The circle itself is called Evil Cracks, or Evil Sinuses. The guard is Geryon - a giant with six arms, six legs and wings. In the Evil Crevices, deceivers suffer their difficult fate.

The first ditch is filled with seducers and pimps. All of them walk in two columns towards each other, while they are constantly tormented by demon drivers.

In the second, flatterers languish. Their punishment is fetid excrement, in which lovers of flattery are mired forever.

The third ditch is occupied by high-ranking clergy who traded positions in the church. The punishment for them is the imprisonment of their torso in a rock, with their heads down and hot lava flowing down their feet.

The fourth moat is filled to the brim with astrologers, witches, fortune tellers and soothsayers. Their heads are turned half a turn (towards the back).

In the fifth there are bribe takers, whom demons boil in resin, and those who stick out are pierced with hooks.

The sixth ditch is filled with hypocrites clad in lead robes.

In the seventh there are thieves, with which earthly reptiles copulate: spiders, snakes, frogs, and so on.

Cunning advisers fall into the eighth ditch, whose souls burn in hellfire.

The ninth ditch serves as a refuge for the instigators of discord. They are subjected to eternal torture - disembowelment.

False witnesses and counterfeiters fall into the tenth ditch. False witnesses run around in rage and bite everyone they meet. The counterfeiters are disfigured by dropsy and die of constant thirst.

9 circle

The ninth circle of hell is the Ice Lake Cocytus. This circle is guarded by stern giant guards named Ephialtes, the son of Gaia and Poseidon - Antaeus, half-bull, half-snake - Briareus and Lucifer - guardian of the road to purgatory. This circle has four belts - the Belt of Cain, the Belt of Antenor, the Belt of Tolomei, the Belt of Giudecca.
In this circle Judas, Brutus and Cassius languish. Besides them, traitors of their homeland, relatives, loved ones, and friends are also doomed to fall into this circle. All of them are frozen in ice up to their necks and experience eternal torment in the cold.

Charon- in Greek mythology, the carrier of the souls of the dead across the River Styx (Acheron). Son of Erebus and Nyukta.

Minos- Dante has a demon with a snake’s tail, entwining the newly arrived soul and indicating the circle of hell into which the soul will descend.

Cerberus- in Greek mythology, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a three-headed dog with a poisonous mixture flowing from its mouth. Guards the exit from the kingdom of the dead Hades, not allowing the dead to return to the world of the living. The creature was defeated by Hercules in one of his labors.

Plutos- an animal-like demon guarding access to the fourth circle of Hell, where misers and spendthrifts are executed.

Phlegy- in ancient Greek mythology, the son of Ares - the god of war - and Chryse. Phlegias burned the temple of the god Apollo and, as punishment for this, was killed by his arrows. In the underworld, he was condemned to eternal execution - to sit under a rock, ready to collapse every minute.

Dit- the city of Hades, the god of the underworld.

Minotaur- a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, which originated from the unnatural love of Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, for the one sent by Poseidon.

Geryon- in ancient Greek mythology, a giant from the island of Erithia, who had six arms, six legs and wings, and a body consisting of three human bodies. He held three spears in three right hands and three shields in three left hands, and three helmets on their heads.

Ephialtes- the son of Poseidon and Ifimedea, had superhuman strength and a violent temper.

Gaia- the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, the mother of everything that lives and grows on it, as well as the mother of the Sky, Sea, titans and giants.

Poseidon- in ancient Greek mythology, the god of the seas, one of the three main Olympian gods along with Zeus and Hades.

Briareus- in Greek mythology, the son of the sky god Uranus and the earth goddess Gaia. A monstrous creature with 50 heads and a hundred arms.

Lucifer- a fallen angel identified with the Devil.

Brutus Marcus Junius- in Ancient Rome he led (together with Cassius) a conspiracy in 44 BC. e. against Julius Caesar. According to legend, he was one of the first to stab him with a dagger.

Cassius Gaius Longinus- killer of Julius Caesar, organized an attempt on his life.