In Dante’s Inferno, the first section of his long narrative poem The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–21), Hell is structured into nine circles, each representing specific sins, such as gluttony and wrath, with punishments corresponding to the nature of the sins. For example, the wrathful are condemned to Hell’s fifth circle, where they spend eternity attacking one another in the muddy waters of the Styx. At the bottom of the pit of Hell are the notorious traitors Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, each of whom is being eternally chewed on by Lucifer, a giant who has three mouths and is frozen in a lake of ice, representing the complete absence of warmth, love, and goodness—and the farthest point from God.
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