Welcome to part two of this journey into the realms of hell, we have nine circles still to discover! I am enjoying researching this all far too much. I guess that is the benefit of being able to pick your own subject matter.. On a random tangent, I always hated Art GCSE at school because they told you what to create; not what I thought it was all about to be fair.
If you are new to this little series, the first part can be found here:
But otherwise.. Let's get back to it!
So here is the next portion of the story, thanks to lovely wikipedia (again):
At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this, Charon is destroyed when Dante tears his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos. After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her
that Dante broke his vows to Beatrice with a captive woman back in Acre, in exchange for sparing the life of her "brother". Reaching the top of the tower, Dante confronts and slays the gigantic Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony. Entering the third circle Gluttony, Dante slays its guardian the "Great Worm" Cerberus. It is here where Lucifer shows Dante how Beatrice and his father Alighiero met their demise, both being slain by the assassin from Acre, revealed to be the husband of the captive Dante slept with.
that Dante broke his vows to Beatrice with a captive woman back in Acre, in exchange for sparing the life of her "brother". Reaching the top of the tower, Dante confronts and slays the gigantic Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony. Entering the third circle Gluttony, Dante slays its guardian the "Great Worm" Cerberus. It is here where Lucifer shows Dante how Beatrice and his father Alighiero met their demise, both being slain by the assassin from Acre, revealed to be the husband of the captive Dante slept with.
The Gates of Hell
The concept of having gates to hell or the underworld is not uncommon, and this is where Dante is lead to try and save Beatrice. The entrance to the gate was depicted in Canto III of the Inferno section of the poem, there was no real description of the gate in terms of visuals. It was described audibly to have shouts and screams in horrible voices, with tongues of many different languages, which is what you would expect to hear - I guess? The imagery of the gate in the game, I feel is very reminiscent of a sculpture that was inspired by the Divine Comedy also which looks like this:
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| The Gates of Hell, The Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich |
From my memories of the game, the gate was very much the same as this just much much bigger, this one is about six meters high, four meters wide and one meter in depth. In the game, you ride a beast to rip the door open as you are forcing your way in. It appears in the poem that Dante just enters the gate, possibly because he is already dead? That's my idea anyway. I really like this sculpture though, it is amazingly detailed and depicts different elements such as the torment and different voices of the people. I find it quite impressive in all honesty that a poem can trigger this sort of inspiration in someones mind, and a video game!
The concept of gates of hell are actually quite common, usually they are believed to be in areas where there is some sort of geographical anomaly such as deep caves or, my personal favourite, burning gas deposits. There is a natural feature literally call 'Door to Hell' in Derweze which is a crater which was filled with natural gas, this was lit in 1971 by Soviet engineers, and has been burning since. It looks pretty awesome.
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| The 'Door to Hell' |
Virgil
In the poem and game, Virgil accompanies Dante on his journey acting as a guide through the inferno. A bargain was made with Dante whereby if he helped to guide him, Beatrice, once saved, would put in a good word for him in heaven. I was intrigued by this because it would suggest that Virgil himself was damned in hell, and I can't find any reason for him to be. From what I can tell, he was a respected poet much like Dante, the only reason I can see for it to be this way is possibly that he felt like Virgil had been like a guide to him, through his academic career as a poet and wished to continue that as a theme in his work.
In the game itself, he appears as an ethereal being, glowing blue and sort of just.. Appearing at each significant way point to tell a little bit more of the story. I believe this may be a reference to legends surrounding him originating back to the second century. It was believed that his work had magical properties, and later in the 12th Century, he was actually regarded to be a magician! Looking at it, it might be quite farfetched in terms of a link to history, it probably plays out more appropriate for him to be this ethereal character to allow him to appear at random intervals when needed.
Charon and the River Styx
Charon is a character out of Greek mythology, who is basically the ferryman of the dead. He would ship across the souls of newly departed people from the world of the living, to the world of the dead. Charon was the reason that a lot of people were buried with a coin in their mouth to pay the free to be transported across; those who weren't buried or did not have a coin would have to aimlessly wonder the shore for 100 years until he would take them. He would gather up the dead by hitting them with his oar, what a lovely fellow. This is directly referenced in the third Canto of the Inferno. In the game, he is depicted completely different, Charon was actually the ship itself which had a head that bellowed at the dead to round them up. I am not sure if there was a reason for this but it worked for the game as it fit into the story.. Because you kind of rip his head off to make him do what you want which is ferry you across..
He takes the dead across the river Styx, which is one of the main rivers from the underworld, it is often referenced that there are five. The Styx itself is said to divide the realms of the living and dead, and apparently can make people invulnerable. This is the river that Achilles was said to be dipped in, his mother held him by his heel, hence it being his only weak point as it was not affected by the waters. In the poem, they cross the river Acheron but I am pretty sure in the game it is the Styx, but the Styx is also referenced to be the marsh at which all the rivers converge. I think it may be this way around because Virgil was one of the people who referenced Charon being at the Styx, and he being Dante's guide in the game may influence the choice of river.
Limbo and King Minos
I have always thought of Limbo as this area in between heaven and hell, an area where people who were not righteous enough could go before a decision was made as to their fate in the afterlife. Theological Catholicism suggests the area is for those who were not freed from the original sin or have sinned but have not been assigned to the hell of the damned. The original sin being Adam and Eve eating the apple from the Garden of Eden. People who have sinned in their life, but died in the friendship of God would go here to await redemption from Christ. Now, the poem goes in a completely different direction with this idea, stating that it is in fact the first ring of hell.
In the poem, hell is split into nine separate distinct circles, the first of which being Limbo. This are sort of used as a sorting area for the newly deceased, and King Minos would judge their sins upon approach, and then assign them to the appropriate circle of hell for the rest of eternity. Minos may be better known for a Greek myth when he was the King of Crete, when every year, he would force seven boys and seven girls to enter the labyrinth and be killed and eaten by the minotaur. According to the Greek myth, when Minos died, he had to judge the dead alongside his two brothers. One would be responsible for Asians, the other European but Minos would have the overall deciding vote. In the poem and game, he is on his own judging. I am not too sure if this is of any significance but for the games purposes makes sense, a single boss for you to fight.
Lust, Carnal Tower and Succubi
So Lust is the second circle of hell, according to the Divine Comedy. Lust is more commonly paired with the Seven Deadly sins, as are the majority of Dante's nine circles of hell. A more modern meaning of lust, has always been compared to sexual feelings and usually when people have not honoured their commitments to an individual. This is how lust is depicted in the Divine Comedy and definitely in the game, which shows some quite adult themes over all. The word originally meant strong desire, but this could be applied to many things for example, lustful after power or wealth. I presume that these meanings were.. Removed from it? As the other deadly sins cover these areas.
The punishment here was described as "the infernal hurricane that never rests." The hurricanes are filled with the souls of the damned, who will be thrown around for all eternity to represent their lack of commitment in the Earthly world, where they would flit between partners and think nothing of it. This form of punishment, makes sense in terms of the idea behind, I do wonder how this idea came to Dante but then again, everyone's mind works in different ways.
The Carnal Tower was rather, odd. It was basically a tower with very phallic inspiration, which was not mentioned from what I can see in the Canto. I think it was just the developers way to very much oversexualise this area of the game, because the enemies were basically women who would try to attack you in way which were.. Strange and I will leave it at that. The tower also acted as a domain for one character from the Canto, Cleopatra who is a very famous, powerful female figure in history. Cleopatra was written to have had a relationship with Mark Anthony - who is in the game as a boss alongside Cleopatra. I believe they were included because they had an illicit romantic relationship, because he was already married. Despite this, they wed and parented some children. This would be a sin of lust because it was an affair, that they both partook in knowingly, hence being sent to this circle of hell.
Right - this last part is one I find pretty interesting. A succubus, is a female demon who would seduce men and through the activities they partook in (gracefully sidestepped..) slowly kill them. I don't find this idea interesting - it is modern sciences explanation of them that is. So the concept of a demon, is quite easily dis-proven through science that we have today - well, I say that but this is based on what we have to study around us. The majority of listed examples stated that the succubus would come during the night when individuals were sleeping - which lead us to link these occurrences to sleep paralysis. It is not uncommon for people to see weird things during sleep paralysis because where you can't move, the mind kicks in to overdrive and forms shapes making you see monsters - sometimes. These monsters could be the succubus people saw, or maybe it was just some means way of being unfaithful and having an elaborate excuse.. Maybe that is just the sarcastic side of me.
Gluttony and Cerberus
Gluttony is the third circle of hell, according to the Divine Comedy. It is described as being "eternal, maledict and cold, and heavy." I feel like this is describing how the body feels when you have been glutenous, if you've over eaten - you feel quite heavy. Maledict means cursed or ill-fated, maybe as if you were annoyed with yourself for eating that much. The cold feeling I am not too sure about, because when I am full I feel quite content and warm as I have a lot of energy to burn to warm myself up. The main concept of gluttony is eating too much to the extent that you are keeping it from those in need, for example the poor. Some people also went as far as to say it related to how you ate the food, if it was too early/late, fast/slow.. This depends on which branch of religion you follow personally. There was no real mention of how people would suffer, if this is the sin they committed. In the game, they were forced to wallow around in what looked like a marshland of organs, waste and blood with no food but always being hungry. Wealthy gluttons would be slowly eaten by demons for all of eternity - nice eh?
The guardian of the circle, was Cerberus which is traditionally a three headed dog. In many pieces of mythological work, the creature is described in very similar ways with the three heads, serpentine tail and on some occasions, a man of snakes. It is directly described as a 'Great Worm' which I feel like the game developers took very literally as the enemy in the game is hardly a three headed dog. Looks completely different, with heads more like worms. I feel cerberus was placed in this circle of hell as Virgil, likely an inspirational writer for Dante, was present in a piece of his work called Aeneid. I feel like this creature was chosen as the idea of it having three heads would possibly suggest it could eat three times as much, making the creature itself gluttonous.
So there we go - that is the end of part two which was a lot longer than part 1 and took me off guard a little hence why it took so long.. But enjoy. Especially if you made it this far, you've done a lot of reading! I shall get on part 3 at some point.. Some point..
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| A mosaic of Virgil |
Charon and the River Styx
Charon is a character out of Greek mythology, who is basically the ferryman of the dead. He would ship across the souls of newly departed people from the world of the living, to the world of the dead. Charon was the reason that a lot of people were buried with a coin in their mouth to pay the free to be transported across; those who weren't buried or did not have a coin would have to aimlessly wonder the shore for 100 years until he would take them. He would gather up the dead by hitting them with his oar, what a lovely fellow. This is directly referenced in the third Canto of the Inferno. In the game, he is depicted completely different, Charon was actually the ship itself which had a head that bellowed at the dead to round them up. I am not sure if there was a reason for this but it worked for the game as it fit into the story.. Because you kind of rip his head off to make him do what you want which is ferry you across..
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| An image by Gustav Dore of the dead being rounded up |
Limbo and King Minos
I have always thought of Limbo as this area in between heaven and hell, an area where people who were not righteous enough could go before a decision was made as to their fate in the afterlife. Theological Catholicism suggests the area is for those who were not freed from the original sin or have sinned but have not been assigned to the hell of the damned. The original sin being Adam and Eve eating the apple from the Garden of Eden. People who have sinned in their life, but died in the friendship of God would go here to await redemption from Christ. Now, the poem goes in a completely different direction with this idea, stating that it is in fact the first ring of hell.
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| An uncredited depiction of Limbo |
Lust, Carnal Tower and Succubi
So Lust is the second circle of hell, according to the Divine Comedy. Lust is more commonly paired with the Seven Deadly sins, as are the majority of Dante's nine circles of hell. A more modern meaning of lust, has always been compared to sexual feelings and usually when people have not honoured their commitments to an individual. This is how lust is depicted in the Divine Comedy and definitely in the game, which shows some quite adult themes over all. The word originally meant strong desire, but this could be applied to many things for example, lustful after power or wealth. I presume that these meanings were.. Removed from it? As the other deadly sins cover these areas.
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| "The infernal hurrice.." William Blake |
The Carnal Tower was rather, odd. It was basically a tower with very phallic inspiration, which was not mentioned from what I can see in the Canto. I think it was just the developers way to very much oversexualise this area of the game, because the enemies were basically women who would try to attack you in way which were.. Strange and I will leave it at that. The tower also acted as a domain for one character from the Canto, Cleopatra who is a very famous, powerful female figure in history. Cleopatra was written to have had a relationship with Mark Anthony - who is in the game as a boss alongside Cleopatra. I believe they were included because they had an illicit romantic relationship, because he was already married. Despite this, they wed and parented some children. This would be a sin of lust because it was an affair, that they both partook in knowingly, hence being sent to this circle of hell.
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| An artist's depiction of a succubus |
Gluttony and Cerberus
Gluttony is the third circle of hell, according to the Divine Comedy. It is described as being "eternal, maledict and cold, and heavy." I feel like this is describing how the body feels when you have been glutenous, if you've over eaten - you feel quite heavy. Maledict means cursed or ill-fated, maybe as if you were annoyed with yourself for eating that much. The cold feeling I am not too sure about, because when I am full I feel quite content and warm as I have a lot of energy to burn to warm myself up. The main concept of gluttony is eating too much to the extent that you are keeping it from those in need, for example the poor. Some people also went as far as to say it related to how you ate the food, if it was too early/late, fast/slow.. This depends on which branch of religion you follow personally. There was no real mention of how people would suffer, if this is the sin they committed. In the game, they were forced to wallow around in what looked like a marshland of organs, waste and blood with no food but always being hungry. Wealthy gluttons would be slowly eaten by demons for all of eternity - nice eh?
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| Cerberus by William Blake |
So there we go - that is the end of part two which was a lot longer than part 1 and took me off guard a little hence why it took so long.. But enjoy. Especially if you made it this far, you've done a lot of reading! I shall get on part 3 at some point.. Some point..
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