Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno presents a very interesting view of hell, in which hell is a funnel shape made up of several circles, with Satan in the center of it all. Along this funnel are different circles of hell, each of which holds a punishment for a different sin. Above, I've included a simple map of the hell that Dante depicts. You can find a larger, slightly less simple map on this page about halfway down.

I noticed that the number three was basically everywhere in Dante's Inferno. The poem both starts and ends with the number three-- beginning with the three beasts and ending with the three heads of Satan. There are also three books to the Comedia, with three categories of sin each containing three circles, and according to this website, each book contains 33 cantos. And of course, it was written in written in terza rema, with three lines to each stanza. It probably should have been obvious, but I had trouble figuring out why Dante used all of these threes. Finally, I realize that it was most likely a religious reference. After all, three is a very significant number in Christianity, representing both the holy Trinity, and heaven, hell and purgatory. 


I found some interesting things online during my research, including a test that told me which level of hell I would spend eternity in, which you can take here.