Inferno Notes -Infernois the first part of 14th century Italian writer Dante Alighieri's epic poemDivine Comedy. -TheInfernodescribes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. -In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen" (Alighieri). -Inferno has influenced a notion that paved the way for the Renaissance, for the Reformation after that, and for the secular humanism that overtakes intellectual discourse today. -It is so impactful that it has influenced many unbeknownst to their knowledge. -Dante’s biases inform much about how we see Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, and he mixes Christian theology and pagan Greco-Roman myth as if both are true, so that Greco-Roman mythological characters, including the gods, can coexist with Christianity in a way that can logically make sense.
