The Inferno

When someone commits a sin on earth, they are punished for it in the afterlife. The

amount of suffering one must take is based on the gravity of the sin. The sin and the punishment

must balance out. God created hell out of the concern for justice. According to Dante's Inferno

we either have eternal punishment, which is Hell, or a lesser punishment called Purgatory. The

poet Dante has lost his way on the "true path" and has to pass through these places in order to

free himself of the temptations to sin and reach God's city, Heaven. A great Roman poet, Virgil,

offers to serve as Dante's guide.

When Dante enters the gates of Hell he hears cries of torment. Virgil tells him that these

are the cries of the people who were never dedicated to good or evil. They never really made

moral choices. Heaven or Hell will not except them. Instead they are in the Ante-Inferno where

they must chase a blank banner, and are attacked by flies and wasps, and worms...