The Inferno (Italian for "Hell") is the first book of the Divine Comedy by Dante. In this part of his three-part journey, Dante (the author character in his own book) finds himself lost in a wood, allegorically representing despair and sin. It is Good Friday, and Dante has reached the midpoint of his life, his 35th birthday. All hope seems gone, and Dante is contemplating suicide. He calls upon his departed love and muse, Beatrice Polinari, and she appears to him as an angelic figure.
In answer to his prayers, Beatrice grants Dante the incredible privilege of being allowed to descend into the Inferno to see for himself the consequences of sin and despair. She assigns to him the poet Virgil, to act as his guide. Virgil is himself a resident of Hell, though not being particularly evil - just unfortunate enough to have been born before the birth of Christ and therefore unredeemed from original sin - Virgil resides in the upper level where the punishments are not to severe.
Together, Dante and Virgil penetrate into the Inferno, which is shaped like an inverted hollow cone. The cone is composed of different levels, each enormous and forlorn. These circles of Hell are each deeper than the rest, and as one descends to the bottom of this Pit, the punishments and tortures inflicted on the souls of the damned become increasingly cruel and severe, in keeping with the gravity of their sins, which have literally dragged them down to the appropriate level of the Inferno.
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