Dante and Virgil have entered the City of Dis.
Its ramparts enclose what is known as Lower Hell, where sins of a more sinister sort are punished.
EXCERPT OF THE COMEDY: Inf. 9, 124-133
Open tombs engulfed in flame cover the entire surface area of the sixth circle. Heretics are here grouped together in different areas according to the heresy they profess, doomed to spend eternity buried in hot coals.
The illumination represents Dante and Virgil meeting Farinata degli Uberti, who is emerging from his tomb. Cavalcante emerges from the central tomb. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 40.7, f. 20v-21r.
One of the damned, recognizing in Dante a fellow speaker of the same tongue, rises from his tomb to summon the poet. This is the soul of Farinata degli Uberti, a Ghibelline Florentine of noble birth. Adopting a proud and somber posture, Farinata questions Dante about his origins and his ancestors, who were Guelphs, which is to say they belonged to the political party in opposition to the Ghibellines. Farinata then prophesies Dante’s approaching exile from Florence.
The conversation between Dante and Farinata is soon interrupted by the appearance of another damned soul, Cavalcante de’ Cavalcanti. Cavalcante raises his head above the edge of the tomb, and addresses him hesitatingly: why is his son, Guido, not accompanying his dearest friend Dante on this journey through the afterlife? Dante, puzzled by the question, provides an ambiguous answer; Cavalcante, thinking his son already dead, lets himself fall back into his tomb, crushed.
Text of Guido Cavalcanti’s canzone entitled Donna me prega perch’io voglio dire, with English translation by Charles Lyell. - The Lyrical Poems of Dante Alighieri, Including the Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito. Translated by Charles Lyell, London, Smith, 1845, p. 44. McGill Rare Books and Special Collections, PQ4315.52 L8 1845.
EXCERPT OF THE COMEDY: Inf. 10, 61-69
Dante and Virgil proceed through the valley of tombs until they reach the inner edge of the sixth circle. From the abyss-like depths below rises the foulest stench. The smell is so revolting they must pause for a moment to allow their noses to acclimate before moving on.
Making good use of their impromptu break, Virgil outlines for Dante the structure of Lower Hell. At the bottom of the cliff atop which they have paused lies the seventh circle, where the souls of the violent are divided into three concentric regions to suffer their respective punishments. Lower still lies the eighth circle, where those who have committed fraud against strangers are punished. The damned souls of the eighth circle are split across ten sections, called bolgias. The ninth and final circle is reserved for traitors, those who have committed fraud against people who knew and trusted them. The traitors surround Lucifer, who is situated in the very center in the lowest rung of Hell.