Punishment For The Falsifiers In Dante's Inferno

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In the early 1300’s a series of poems were written by the author, Dante Alighieri, and how he goes on a journey through Hell guided by his escort, Virgil. In the story, Inferno, Dante made himself the protagonist, with each circle representing some sort of sin. As they get deeper into hell, Dante and Virgil encounter sinners in each “circle”, who were all condemned and punished for different purposes. In some circles, the punishment for its inhabitants was much more severe than what it should have been. The lines of how the sinners are punished were blurred, as seen through the incorrect sentence for the greedy and the fitting penalty for the falsifiers. In the fourth circle, those who are condemned must push weights up a large hill, as well…show more content…
The falsifiers in ditch ten were accurately penalized for their crimes through sickness and sores because of their practice of magic. While Virgil escorts Dante through circle eight, Dante describes how, “just like the sufferings that all the sick of Val de Chiana’s hospitals, Maremma’s, Sardina’s, from July until September would muster if assembled into one ditch- so it was here.” (Alighieri XXIX.46). Dante shows that the gathering of all the people in those large Italian hospitals demonstrated the scene before his eyes. He described them as all being sick, which displays that the alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and imposters are all metaphorically a “sickness” to humanity, as they are to themselves. As Dante and Virgil walk through ditch ten, Dante sees, “two people sitting propped against each other- as pan is propped on pan to heat them up- and each, from head to foot, spotted with scabs.” (Alighieri XXIX.73). Dante tells of how he encounters two people with scabs all over their bodies. The falsifiers of magic are ironically punished with what they used to try and treat as magicians. It is clearly shown that the falsifiers are correctly punished through eternal sickness because of their wrongdoings as
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