Creatures & Monsters
Contrapasso I
Symbolism
Residents of Hell
Contrapasso II
100
This threesome of evil beings call for Medusa to change Virgil and Dante to stone at the Gate of Dis.
Who is The Three Furies?
100
Because they believed and taught that the soul dies with the body, these sinners are in eternal, fiery graves.
What are the Heretics?
100
This symbolizes the utter lack of warmth and love in the hearts of the Betrayers, which allowed them to commit treachery and treason.
What is ice?
100
He is the chief blasphemer in Circle 7, Round 3 who continues to blaspheme God even in Hell.
Who is Capaneus?
100
This is the punishment for the Hypocrites who appeared to be moral on the outside but were really immortal on the inside.
What is walking in an endless circle while wearing beautiful robes that are lined with heavy lead?
200
These half-horse/half-man creatures patrol the banks of the boiling river of blood in Circle 7.
Who are the Centaurs?
200
As they wallowed in blood during their lives, so they are immersed in boiling blood eternally, each according to the degree of his guilt.
Who are the Violent Against Their Neighbors?
200
This symbolizes the "sliminess" and secrecy of the Thieves when they attempted to make someone else's property their own.
What is snakes?
200
By his "crucifixion" on the ground, Dante suggests that this individual is the worst hypocrite in all of Hell.
Who is Caiaphas?
200
This is the punishment for the Falsifiers who corrupted things, persons, and their words for selfish reasons.
What is diseases and physical corruption of all manners?
300
These odious bird-like creatures feed on the leaves of the trees in which the souls of the Suicides are housed.
Who are the Harpies?
300
As they spoke "filth", so they eternally lie in "filth".
Who are the Flatterers?
300
This symbolizes how the Giants, being formed from the darkness of the earth, are returned to the darkness of the earth.
What is the Central Pit of Malebolge?
300
He is the chief sinner of the Simoniacs and reveals that Pope Boniface VIII will one day take his place when he dies.
Who is Pope Nicholas III?
300
This is the punishment for the Evil Counselors who used their advice and their words for low or selfish purposes.
What is being hidden inside tongues of fire?
400
This winged beast represents fraud and transports Virgil and Dante to the 8th circle of Hell.
Who is Geryon?
400
Because they participated in unnatural and sterile actions, these sinners wander in a sterile desert with unnatural fiery rain falling upon them.
Who are the Violent Against God, Nature, and Art? (or the Blasphemers, the Sodomites, and the Usurers)
400
This symbolizes the perversion of the qualities of the Trinity.
What is Satan's three faces?
400
As he is the chief sinner of the Sowers of Religious Discord, his organs dangle between his legs, a sign of Dante's view of Islamic doctrine.
Who is Mohamet (Mohammed)?
400
This is the punishment for all of the Sowers of Discord.
What is being hacked and torn open by a great demon with a bloody sword?
500
He is the "chief" of the demons guarding the pit of the Grafters, and his name means "Bad Tail".
Who is Malacoda?
500
Since they attempted to move themselves forward in time, so must they only see and walk backwards through all eternity.
Who are the Fortune Tellers?
500
This symbolizes resurrection and an emergence from death to life.
What is Dante's exit from Hell on Easter Sunday?
500
These three betrayers are eternally chewed in Satan's mouth in the final round of Circle 9.
Who are Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius?
500
This is the punishment for the Simoniacs who sold church favors and offices.
What is being placed in tube-like holes upside down with their feet on fire?
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