The Divine Comedy

Character Guide

Spoiler-free — fuller detail (with spoilers, if you want them) lives in the reader's Guide tab.

Dante Alighieri (The Pilgrim)

The poem's narrator and protagonist, a man lost in a dark wood who is led on a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise to save his soul.

Virgil (The Mantuan, the Bard)

The Roman poet (author of the Aeneid) sent to guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory, prized for his wisdom and poetic authority though himself denied Heaven for lack of faith.

Beatrice

A blessed lady in Heaven who, moved by love and pity, sets Dante's rescue in motion and appears as his guide once he reaches the higher realms.

Lucia

A saint in Heaven who carries Beatrice's plea onward, described as 'of all cruelty the foe,' setting in motion the chain of intercession that saves Dante.

Minos

The monstrous infernal judge who examines each arriving soul's sins and assigns it to its circle of Hell by wrapping his tail around himself.

Farinata degli Uberti

A proud, commanding spirit encountered upright in a burning tomb among the heretics, who questions Dante about his ancestry and Florentine politics.

Vanni Fucci

A violent, self-described 'beast' of a man punished among the thieves, who bitterly confesses his crime of sacrilege to Dante.

Sordello

An Italian poet-spirit met on the mountain of Purgatory who greets Virgil with reverence and offers to guide the travelers to a resting place before nightfall.

Statius

A Roman poet spirit encountered undergoing purification in Purgatory, who reveals to Virgil the nature of his own past sin and eventual repentance.

Glossary

Malebolge

The vast, rock-walled region of lower Hell divided into ten concentric trenches ('bolge'), each holding a different category of fraud.

Bolge / trenches

The ten ditch-like compartments of Malebolge, each punishing a specific kind of fraudulent sin, connected by rocky bridges.

Neri and Bianchi

The 'Black' and 'White' Guelf political factions of Florence and Pistoia whose feuding is prophesied to bring disaster in the poem.

Hosanna

A liturgical shout of praise to God, sung repeatedly by angels and blessed souls in Paradise.

Contrapasso (the law of retribution)

The underlying principle, evident throughout Hell and Purgatory, by which a soul's punishment mirrors or inverts the nature of its sin.

Terza rima

The interlocking three-line rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc...) Dante invented for the poem, giving it a continuous forward momentum.

SIPA

A word in the Bolognese dialect meaning 'yes,' cited by a damned soul as a marker of his native city's speech.

Empyrean / the celestial spheres

The nested heavens of Paradise (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars, Primum Mobile) through which Beatrice leads Dante toward God.

Cornices

The terraced ledges of Mount Purgatory, each dedicated to purging one of the seven deadly sins.

Limbo

The outermost, mildest circle of Hell where virtuous pagans and unbaptized souls dwell without torment but without hope of Heaven.

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