Dante's Assessment of Violence vs. Fraud

In Dante's Inferno, his circles of hell are divided in chronological order, the sins getting worse as you descend into hell. In the order of his circles, Dante puts sins of violence as less severe as sins of fraud such as fortune tellers, hypocrites, thieves, grafters, etc. Dante himself believes that sins of violence are less severe as sins of fraud. Circle seven includes all of those who have committed various types of violence. The next circle, circle eight contains all those who have committed some sort of fraud. Circle seven, violence, is placed as less severe than circle eight.

Dante assesses the sins of violence by dividing them into three categories, violence against one's self, violence against one's neighbors, and violence against art and nature. He puts these sins in the circle above sins like thievery and fortune telling. I believe that Dante considered sins of violence to be less severe because he thought that a direct sin is better than a sin of the mind involving deceit. When one commits an act of violence, you cut to the chase, its straight forward, a direct act of sin. Dante views sins of fraud to be more severe because they are indirect, they do not always have direction intentions as well is it is not a "clean break" like an act of violence. When one commits an act of violence, you are being very upfront about your feelings, where as when one commits an act of Fraud you are trying to deceive those around you, deceiving God by default. In Dante's eyes, a direct act of violence is not as bad as deceiving God himself by committing Fraud. Also, it is very dumb of a person to try and deceive God because God is all-knowing and by trying to deceive him you are just asking to be punished.

Palm reading, a form of fortune telling

Many of the sins of Fraud go directly against God himself, such as the fortune tellers and the diviners. The sin of fortune telling goes against God. This is because God is supposed to be the only one who can see the future, followers of God are supposed to be guided through life by faith in God. By telling fortunes you are denying faith in God as well as God's will to be the only one allowed to see into the future. In their punishment they are distorted in form and forced to walk backwards with their heads facing backwards eternally. Virgil describes one of the sinners as, "In life he wished to see too far before him, and now he must crab backwards around this track"(176). The sinners defied God by looking into the future, now they spend eternity only being able to see backwards, not even being able to see the present. Another group of sinners in circle eight, the simoniacs, defy God himself in their sin. The simoniacs sinned by selling church positions and using church positions for their own personal benefit. In doing so, the church was badly corrupted with the sin of greed. This is extremely deceptive because the church is supposed to be extremely pure, obeying the ways of the lord, but by being corrupted by greed for high positions, the church becomes hypocritical of itself. Also, by selling/buying church positions one is disrespecting the purity of baptism. Also, the people of the church become more concerned with the worshiping of money rather than God. The simonacs are described as, "Gold and silver are the Gods you adore! In what are you different from the idolator?"(170). In the sin of the simoniacs they are contradicting the beliefs which they preach, such as that idolizing is wrong in the Christian faith, a sin against god himself.

Pope Nicholas III, one of the Simoniacs 

I agree with Dante's assessment in the sense that I do believe that violence could be argued as a less severe sin due to the fact that its direct and a sin of Fraud is not. I see the point in Dante's argument but I do not agree that in this day and age that a crime of violence is worse than a crime of Fraud. For example, you wouldn't put someone on death row for committing fraud and convict another person for murder only for a couple of years. In this modern age, Dante's argument doesn't make sense. But from the standpoint of Dante's time period where everything revolves around religion, it would make sense that fraud is worse than violence since fraud is more of a crime against God himself. Therefore, I can see the point in Dante's argument and I do believe his argument is correct for a middle ages mindset, but for a twenty-first century mindset, it is wrong.

The Archetypal Symbol of The River of Blood

Dante and Virgil arriving at the river of blood with Centaur

In Round One of Circle Seven, the sin of its inhabitants is violence against their neighbors. The punishment for this sin is to be forever immersed in the boiling river of blood. Dante uses the river of blood as a symbol for the sin itself, as blood is representative of violence. The river is a symbol of the sin in the sense that in their lives they sinned in immersing themselves in the causing bloodshed of their neighbors, so in death they are forcibly immersed in bloodshed. Except in death they are forced to be the victims of violence's pain. The sinners feel the result of their selfish choices for eternity. Dante says, "Oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity which spurs us so in the short mortal life and steeps us so through all eternity!". (112) They are immersed in their sin of causing bloodshed due to their own selfishness in choosing violence.

Centaur, Chiron, and Pholus watching over the sinnners,
shooting them with their bows if they lift themselves out of the river

As the blood itself symbolizes the result of the sin, Dante uses the river of blood in many other ways to show the sin and its punishment. The river is very deep in some areas and very shallow in others. The deepness of the area in which a sinner is placed depends on the severity of the violence of which the person has committed. Their are shallower areas for less severe crimes and much deeper areas for violence which is considered very severe. Centaur describes a part of the river of blood as, " I would have you know that on the other, the bottom sinks anew more and more, until it comes again full circle to the place where tyrants stew"(115). For tyrants, who committed a lot of violence, their area of the river was very deep compared to other parts, Dante says, "Some were allowed to raise the head and all the chest from the river" (114). These were the ones who committed violence on smaller scales than others. Also, the sinners cannot relieve themselves from the boiling water by lifting themselves above the water, they must stay at their designated depth. Chiron and Pholus make sure of this. Dante describes this regulations as, "They run by that stream in thousands, snapping their bows at any wraith who dares to raise himself out of the blood more than his guilt allows" (113). In this circle, the river of blood is used as a punishment and is clearly an archetypal symbol of the sin of violence as well as its many levels of severity. 

The Contrapasso of The Vestibule

The Vestibule of hell is the area of hell which holds those who are neither good nor bad but only lived for themselves and their own opportunities. These people are not technically in hell but are not in heaven either, they are not allowed a place in hell. Dante says, "As they sinned so are they punished. They took no sides, therefore they are given no place" (41). Their lack of a place in hell represents their sin in the sense that they were the people who never chose a side due to the fact that they were too busy looking out for themselves. Even though the Vestibule isn't technically in hell the punishments there are still quite harsh. The punishments include being constantly stung by wasps and hornets, having worms and maggots eating their blood, and chasing a banner they can never catch.



On the punishment of being constantly stung by wasps and hornets Dante says, "As their own guilty conscience pursued them, so are they pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets "(41). The sinners in the Vestibule spend their lives ignoring a guilty conscience for their own personal interests, the constant sting of the hornets represents this. On the punishment of constantly chasing a banner which cannot be caught Dante says, "As they pursued the ever-shifting illusion of their own advantage, changing their courses with every changing wind, so they pursue eternally an elusive, ever-shifting banner" (41). The sinners of the Vestibule spent their life chasing opportunities for themselves, so they now will spend eternity in hell chasing an opportunity which can never be reached. On the maggots and worms of the Vestibule Dante says, "As their actions were moral filth, so they run eternally through the filth of worms and maggots which they themselves feed" (41). The maggots and worms symbolize the moral filth of the people. The use of the word filth shows Dante's view on the sin of the people and how he sees them as despicable. These punishments imply Dante's view of these sinners as scum, that they are immoral and despicable.