Dante's Inferno

The seventh circle is designated for the sinners who commit violence, either violence against others, violence against themselves, or violence against god. The seventh circle is divided into 3 zones, one for each of those forms of violence. The first of the three is violence against your neighbor, or in other words, murder. Canto 12 is the canto that entails the details about this sin. In this canto, Dante and Virgil come across a fiery, red river. In that river, the sinners who committed violence against their neighbors are submerged into the blazing water determined upon the magnitude of their sin. This punishment is symbolic for this sin because when you think of murder you think of blood, and the sinners are boiling in blood, theoretically meaning they are being submerged in the blood of their sins. Dante and Virgil meet a few centaurs, and one even lets them ride on his back while the transports them through the ring. The centaur alludes to a few of the most punished sinners in the river, such as Alexander, most likely Alexander the Great, Dionysius, and Atilla the Hun. They then cross the river, and proceed onto the next ring. 

            Canto 13 is the canto that illustrates the sin of violence against oneself, the equivalent to suicide. In this canto, Dante and Virgil vacate the fiery river and emerge into the strange, obscure wood filled with dark, gnarled trees that makes up the 13^th canto. Dante hears countless cries of desperation and suffering but can’t seem to locate the source. This is when Vigil advises Dante to break off a limb of one of the trees and when Dante does so, the tree lets out a cry of pain and blood starts gushing out. The tree-soul told Dante that the sinners of this region, the ones who committed violence against themselves, souls are malformed into trees. This is symbolic because in this zone, there are Harpies, which are half bird, half woman creatures who peck and wound the tree until the soul-branch falls off. When the soul-branch is broken, it causes the soul the same pain as when a limb is removed from the body. Then when the time comes for the souls to reunite with their bodies, they can’t fully because in their past lives they didn’t respect their body, so now instead of reuniting, the bodies hang from the soul’s trees so they are constantly reminded of what they did to themselves and have to feel the pain. This is so emblematic because when a person commits suicide, their soul is denying its God-given immortality and declaring that the person doesn’t want their body anymore; and their punishment is for their wish to be granted only after they have recognized the miscalculation in it. After Dante and Virgil’s conversation with the tree-soul they have a quick infraction with two young men, but things were resolved quickly and they make their way on to the next ring.

            Canto 14 is the canto that depicts the third zone of the seventh circle of hell. In this circle, the blasphemers, the violent against god are punished. There is an eternal downfall of sparks falling from the sky and a plain of sand. The sinners are forced to lay, face-up and naked upon the sand. The sparks ignite the sand and make it perpetually hot, therefore, the sinners’ burn from the hot sand and from the falling flakes from above. Consequently, the sinners’ souls burn from both bottom and top all the way through over and over again because their souls are faulty since they committed violence against the up-most important figure in their lives. On their journey, Dante and Virgil run into a giant named Capaneus who serves as a symbol for a model blasphemer and Dante learns the source of all the rivers in hell. Then, Dante and Virgil continue on to cantos 15,16, and17 which are just more complex forms of blasphemy and violence.