Inferno by Dante Alighieri

¶ … Inferno by Dante Alighieri

The gates of hell are littered with monsters, and the monsters are the gates to the sinners' hearts. In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, monstrosity is not only shown through the punishments of the sinners in each circle of hell; it is also shown in the grotesqueness and violent traits exhibited by each corresponding demon that Dante meets. Cerberus, the Harpies, and Lucifer are just some of the prominent creatures inhabiting the underworld, all exhibiting the ugliness of the sins portrayed in their own circles -- gluttony, suicide, and betrayal.

As Dante enters the gates of the underworld in Canto VI, he is met with "monstrous and cruel" (12) Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the entrance of the dead. Cerberus is a fearsome creature, a giant beast that claws at the sinners of the first circle: gluttony. In classical Greek mythology, Cerberus is nothing but a fearsome guard dog to the Underworld. In Dante's interpretation, however, the three-headed monster is depicted in a much more symbolic way. Cerberus "[barks] doglike at the souls immersed here, louder / for his triple throat. His eyes are red, his beard / grease-black, he has the belly of a meat-feeder / and talons on his hands" (13-16). The sinners showcased in this canto are the gluttons, those who have over-indulged and enjoyed in excess. To show the ugliness of the gluttons' indiscretions, Cerberus has a "triple throat" (14) and has a "belly of a meat-feeder" (15). To show the punishment and cruelty fitting of the sin, Cerberus "claws the horde / of spirits, [and] flays and quarters them in the rain" (17).

In Canto XIII, Dante walks into the ring of those who committed suicide. Roman Catholicism forbids suicide, as the religion sees this act a heinous crime to the soul. Those who have committed suicide have run from reality, and by willfully destroying the body, the soul is considered deformed. Dante portrays this monstrosity in the Harpies, Greek monsters with half the body of a bird, and half the body of a woman; "[they] have broad wings, a human neck and face / clawed feet, and swollen, feathered bellies" (13). The Harpies' grotesque bodies are the physical manifestations of the sin committed by the suicides in the ring of Hell. They nest in a tree with numerous bleeding branches, perhaps from the blood that the sinners took from their own bodies. Because the sinners have inflicted pain on themselves, then forever they suffer the pains of maiming inflicted by the Harpies: "[the] Harpies, feeding on the foliage, create / pain, and an outlet for the pain as well" (94).