Continuing on with Inferno...
Dante and Virgil continue on into the middle circles of hell, and in Canto VI they enter the Third Circle of Hell, where the gluttonous sinners lie. There they learn that the three most common sins committed by man are jealousy, avarice, and pride (conceit). Dante encounters Ciaccio, and wants to know if some of his fellow poets and thinkers have either been "poisoned in Hell, or sweetened into Heaven".
In Canto VIII they encounter Pluto and the sinners of greed and lavishness, who are forever condemned to roll large heavy stone wheels back and forth in opposite directions with their chests. Dante and Virgil descend lower and come to the river Styx, where they encounter the captain of the boat, Flegias who will take them across. He is not happy to be carrying Dante, who as a human being and not a dead sinful soul has no right to be in this underworld. Virgil accosts Flegias, once again telling another demon that this trip has been willed from above and shall not be prohibited. Flegias takes them across the river into the city of Dis, where the gates are locked and the inhabitants will not allow them entrance for the purpose of Dante not being one of theirs. Even after talking with Virgil, they slam the doors in his face and now Divine Aid comes to the rescue when the pair must wait for an angel from Heaven to descend the depths of Hell to unlock the gates of Dis.
In canto IX they enter into the city of Dis, and the Three Furies, who claw and tear at their own chests invoke the Gorgon Medusa to deal with Dante, and Virgil covers Dante's eyes with his own hands lest Dante be turned to stone from her glance. In the city of Dis in Canto X they encounter the heretics and those who follwed them. There are condemend Shades that approach Dante and Virgil and they are punished with the sight of knowing the past and foreseeing the future, but never knowing what is happening at the present, and when one of them Speaks to the author of his own son, Dante uses the past tense, sending the Shade into sorrow thinking that his son is "no more".
Entering the Sixth Circle of Hell in Canto XI they stop to rest so they may grow used to a most foul stench coming from below. Dante sees the tomb of Pope Anastacio, and here Virgil starts to explain a little of the geography of the lower depths of Hell, saying that in the Seventh Circle there are three smaller circles, each filled with different sinners, blasphemers, and murderers. One circle houses those who have done evil against neighbors, themselves, or the makers of war, including arson, plunder, and extortion.. .etc. The second circle houses those who have done evil against themselves by means of suicide. The third and final ring of the Seventh Circle houses those who have done evil against God, art, or nature. This includes blasphemers, sexual deviants, and money lenders. Dante believed money lending to be a sneaky art, where the lender charged interest on a loan for their own greed.
I'll try to get in a few more lines before bed, but I'm not promising anything. Each Canto gets more and more interesting!
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