Divina comedia

So begins the Inferno. Dante realizes he has wandered from the "True Way" in mid-life, and finds himself in the Valley of Evil. He is rescued by the spirit of Virgil (author of the Aeneid), who tellshim he has been sent to guide him out of Hell because of prayers by Beatrice, the woman whom Dante admired all his life. To leave Hell, they must go through all nine circles of Hell, the deeper thecircle, the more grave the sin and its appropriate punishment. Perhaps the worst punishment is that no one helps or cares for another in Hell. By going through Hell, Dante - and the reader - learn torecognize and detest man's sinful nature and the power of evil, and the need to guard against it. Dante learns those in Hell choose to go there by their unrepentance. Dante enters Hell on Good Fridayand reads the following posted above the gates of Hell as he is about to enter (Canto III, line 9):
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

PURGATORIO

Dante and Virgil emerge from Hell justbefore the dawn of Easter Sunday, and in Purgatorio Dante begins the difficult climb up Mount Purgatory. Souls that are repentant of their sins against God and man go to Purgatory and become free oftemptation, and know that they will eventually be with God. The renunciation of sin occurs in Purgatory, as one begins his ascent to Purity. Purgatory is a Mountain with seven ledges or cornices, one foreach of the seven deadly sins (pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust). On the first cornice (just above Hell), one is purified of Pride by learning the corresponding virtue, Humility.When one is cured of Pride, he moves up to the next cornice, Envy, to be purified by Caritas, love of others, and so on. Virgil, the voice of Reason, takes Dante step-by-step up the mountain ofPurgatory to the Garden of Eden, where man resided before his fall, and releases him in Canto XXVII (27) to himself, as he is now purged from sin. He meets Beatrice, the unrequited love of his earthly...