William Blake, “Antaeus Setting Down Dante and Virgil in the Last Circle of Hell” (between 1824 and 1827), pen, ink, and watercolor, 20.7 x 14.72 inches; The National Gallery of Victoria ...

As Dante and Virgil are swiftly ferried across the swamp by Phlegyas, a mud-covered sinner rudely asks Dante what he—being alive—is doing in the kingdom of the dead.

This is one of the hardest lessons the pilgrim Dante learns as he marches through Hell with Virgil. The reason for the infernal leg of Dante’s pilgrimage is to restore his awareness of the ...

Dante's Inferno is the first part of a 14th Century Italian epic poem about a Crusader poet named Dante who is lead through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise by Virgil and later his lady love, Beatrice.

Based on the geological knowledge of his time, Italian poet Dante Alighieri imagined an especially elaborate version of Hell in his Divine Comedy.

In the poem’s first canto, Dante learns that he can’t reach God by himself. He needs the help of others to guide him to our common telos. When heavenly mediators are moved by divine love to summon ...

Virgil distracts him by throwing mud in his mouth. The dog is himself such a glutton that he busies himself digesting the earth, giving Dante and Virgil the liberty to pass through.