The Inferno Read Online

As he descends, pity leaves him, and he even goes so far as to add to the torments of one sinner. The allegory is dear: we must harden ourselves against every sympathy for sin.

HELL

FIRST SEVEN CIRCLES

Canto IV

CIRCLE ONE: Limbo

The Virtuous Pagans

As soon as Dante’s strength returns, the Poets begin to cross the FIRST CIRCLE. Here they find the VIRTUOUS PAGANS. They were born without the light of Christ’s revelation, and, therefore, they cannot come into the light of God, but they are not tormented. Their only pain is that they have no hope.

Ahead of them Dante sights a great dome of light, and a voice trumpets through the darkness welcoming Virgil back, for this is his eternal place in Hell. Immediately the great Poets of all time appear-HOMER, HORACE, OVID, and LUCAN. They greet Virgil, and they make Dante a sixth in their company.

With them Dante enters the Citadel of Human Reason and sees before his eyes the Master Souls of Pagan Antiquity gathered on a green, and illuminated by the radiance of Human Reason. This is the highest state man can achieve without God, and the glory of it dazzles Dante, but he knows also that it is nothing compared to the glory of God.

A monstrous clap of thunder broke apart
the swoon that stuffed my head; like one awakened
by violent hands, I leaped up with a start.

And having risen; rested and renewed,
I studied out the landmarks of the gloom
to find my bearings there as best I could.

And I found I stood on the very brink of the valley
called the Dolorous Abyss, the desolate chasm
where rolls the thunder of Hell’s eternal cry,

so depthless-deep and nebulous and dim
that stare as I might into its frightful pit
it gave me back no feature and no bottom.

Death-pale, the Poet spoke: “Now let us go
into the blind world waiting here below us.
I will lead the way and you shall follow.” (15)

And I, sick with alarm at his new pallor,
cried out, “How can I go this way when you
who are my strength in doubt turn pale with terror?”

And he: “The pain of these below us here,
drains the color from my face for pity,
and leaves this pallor you mistake for fear.

Now let us go, for a long road awaits us.”
So he entered and so he led me in
to the first circle and ledge of the abyss.

No tortured wailing rose to greet us here
but sounds of sighing rose from every side,
sending a tremor through the timeless air,

a grief breathed out of untormented sadness,
the passive state of those who dwelled apart,
men, women, children—a dim and endless congress. (30)

And the Master said to me: “You do not question
what souls these are that suffer here before you?
I wish you to know before you travel on

that these were sinless. And still their merits fail,
for they lacked Baptism’s grace, which is the door
of the true faith you were born to. Their birth fell

before the age of the Christian mysteries,
and so they did not worship God’s Trinity
in fullest duty. I am one of these.

For such defects are we lost, though spared the fire
and suffering Hell in one affliction only:
that without hope we live on in desire.”

I thought how many worthy souls there were
suspended in that Limbo, and a weight
closed on my heart for what the noblest suffer. (45)

“Instruct me, Master and most noble Sir,”
I prayed him then, “better to understand
the perfect creed that conquers every error:

has any, by his own or another’s merit,
gone ever from this place to blessedness?”
He sensed my inner question and answered it:

“I was still new to this estate of tears
when a Mighty One descended here among us,
crowned with the sign of His victorious years.

He took from us the shade of our first parent,
of Abel, his pure son, of ancient Noah,
of Moses, the bringer of law, the obedient.

Father Abraham, David the King,
Israel with his father and his children,
Rachel, the holy vessel of His blessing, (60)

and many more He chose for elevation
among the elect. And before these, you must know,
no human soul had ever won salvation.”

We had not paused as he spoke, but held our road
and passed meanwhile beyond a press of souls
crowded about like trees in a thick wood.

And we had not traveled far from where I woke
when I made out a radiance before us
that struck away a hemisphere of dark.

We were still some distance back in the long night,
yet near enough that I half-saw, half-sensed,
what quality of souls lived in that light.

“O ornament of wisdom and of art,
what souls are these whose merit lights their way
even in Hell. What joy sets them apart?” (75)

And he to me: “The signature of honor
they left on earth is recognized in Heaven
and wins them ease in Hell out of God’s favor.”

And as he spoke a voice rang on the air:
“Honor the Prince of Poets; the soul and glory
that went from us returns. He is here! He is here!”

The cry ceased and the echo passed from hearing;
I saw four mighty presences come toward us
with neither joy nor sorrow in their bearing.

“Note well,” my Master said as they came on,
“that soul that leads the rest with sword in hand
as if he were their captain and champion.

It is Homer, singing master of the earth.
Next after him is Horace, the satirist,
Ovid is third, and Lucan is the fourth. (90)

Since all of these have part in the high name
the voice proclaimed, calling me Prince of Poets,
the honor that they do me honors them.”

So I saw gathered at the edge of light
the masters of that highest school whose song
outsoars all others like an eagle’s flight.

And after they had talked together a while,
they turned and welcomed me most graciously,
at which I saw my approving Master smile.

And they honored me far beyond courtesy,
for they included me in their own number,
making me sixth in that high company.

So we moved toward the light, and as we passed
we spoke of things as well omitted here
as it was sweet to touch on there. At last (105)

we reached the base of a great Citadel
circled by seven towering battlements
and by a sweet brook flowing round them all.

This we passed over as if it were firm ground.
Through seven gates I entered with those sages
and came to a green meadow blooming round.

There with a solemn and majestic poise
stood many people gathered in the light,
speaking infrequently and with muted voice.

Past that enameled green we six withdrew
into a luminous and open height
from which each soul among them stood in view.

And there directly before me on the green
the master souls of time were shown to me.
I glory in the glory I have seenl (120)

Electra stood in a great company
among whom I saw Hector and Aeneas
and Caesar in armor with his falcon’s eye.

I saw Camilla, and the Queen Amazon
across the field. I saw the Latian King
seated there with his daughter by his throne.

And the good Brutus who overthrew the Tarquin:
Lucrezia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia;
and, by himself apart, the Saladin.

And raising my eyes a little I saw on high
Aristotle, the master of those who know,
ringed by the great souls of philosophy.

All wait upon him for their honor and his.
I saw Socrates and Plato at his side
before all others there. Democritus (135)

who ascribes the world to chance, Diogenes,
and with him there Thales, Anaxagoras,
Zeno, Heraclitus, Empedocles.

And I saw the wise collector and analyst—
Dioscorides I mean. I saw Orpheus there,
Tully, Linus, Seneca the moralist,

Euclid the geometer, and Ptolemy,
Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna,
and Averrhoës of the Great Commentary.

I cannot count so much nobility;
my longer theme pursues me so that often
the word falls short of the reality. (150)

The company of six is reduced by four.