Artist Gustave Doré and Recognizing Hell on Earth

“Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell,” 1861 by Gustave Doré. Oil on Canvas, 10.3 feet by 14.7 feet, Musée municipal de Bourge-en-Bresse. Public Domain

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done? Take a moment to think about it. What is the one thing you are so ashamed about that you refuse to tell anyone that you actually did it? What is the one bad thing that you wish you could take back, the one horrible deed you wish you never did? What caused you to do it?

We all have something we’ve done that we regret. Some of us learn to live with these regrets. Others grow from the negative effects of their actions and vow to never do them again. Still others can’t help themselves and continue to knowingly hurt others and themselves. 

Dante’s ‘Inferno’ and Doré’s Worst Circles of Hell

Dante Alighieri, a 14th-century Italian poet, sums up the medieval understanding of bad deeds and their consequences in a well-known poem titled “The Inferno,” which is the first of three sections of a larger work titled “The Divine Comedy.” “The Inferno” alone will serve our purposes here.