Dante

1
Dantes Inferno

• Canto 3

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3
Cowards,Neutrals

• This idea of a marginal place--inside the gate of
  hell but before the river Acheron--for souls
  neither good enough for heaven nor evil enough
  for hell proper is a product of Dante's
  imagination, pure and simple. Included among
  these cowardly souls--also known as
  fence-sitters, wafflers, opportunists, and
  neutrals--are the angels who refused to choose
  between God and Lucifer. What does this original
  idea say about Dante's view of human behavior and
  its relation to the afterlife?

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5
The great refusal

• From among the cowardly fence-sitters, Dante
  singles out only the shade of one who made "the
  great refusal" (Inf. 3.60). In fact, he says that
  it was the sight of this one shade--unnamed yet
  evidently well known--that confirmed for him the
  nature of all the souls in this region. The most
  likely candidate for this figure is Pope
  Celestine V. His refusal to perform the duties
  required of the pope (he abdicated five months
  after his election in July 1294) allowed
  Benedetto Caetani to become Pope Boniface VIII,
  the man who proved to be Dante's most reviled
  theological, political, and personal enemy. An
  alternative candidate is Pontius Pilate, the
  Roman governor who refused to pass judgment on
  Jesus. Why does Dante refuse to name any of the
  shades--including the notorious one--in this
  particular region?

6
Abandon all hope

• It is not until the beginning of canto 3 that
  Dante finally enters hell-- at least its outer
  region--by passing through a gateway. The
  inscription above this gate--ending with the
  famous warning to "abandon all hope"--
  establishes Dante's hell as a creation not of
  evil and the devil but rather of his Christian
  God, here expressed in terms of the Trinity
  Father (Divine Power), Son (Highest Wisdom), and
  Holy Spirit (Primal Love).

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8
The Boatman

• In the classical underworld (Hades), which Dante
  knew best from book 6 of Virgil's Aeneid, Charon
  is the pilot of a boat that transports shades of
  the dead--newly arrived from the world
  above--across the waters into the lower world.
  Like Virgil's Charon, Dante's ferryman is an old
  man--with white hairs and fiery eyes-- who at
  first objects to taking a living man on his boat.
  In each case, the protagonist's guide-- Virgil
  for Dante--provides the proper credentials for
  gaining passage on Charon's boat.

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10
The three rivers

• This is the first of the rivers and marshes of
  Virgil's underworld in the Aeneid that Dante
  includes in his topography of hell. Whereas
  Virgil makes no clear distinction between the
  locations and functions of these bodies of water
  (Charon seems to guard them all), Dante's
  infernal rivers are more sharply drawn. Here the
  Acheron functions as a boundary separating the
  cowardly neutrals from the souls in the circles
  of hell proper. Charon ferries these shades
  across the river. This attention to detail
  reflects Dante's desire to underscore the reality
  of hell and the protagonist's journey through it.