This is a post I did for a little thing I'm working on.

Dear Reader

It seems that our warning has not been heeded. Therefore we must proceed then.

Welcome sinners to Hell as our heroes arrive at the gates to the underworld. The line starting with ' abandon hope' is often misquoted as being the start and indeed the end of a statement, as oppsed to it merely being the end of a much longer statement. Without further ado I introduce to you Dante's Inferno Canto III

Canto III

'Righteous anger made me be 1
My master is divinity'
These words their meaning so unclear
'Abandon hope, who enter here' 4
Inscribed above the gate it read
The words above my quaking head
Had seen and to my master cried
Who looked at me with counting eye 8
'Beyond this gate' he says to me
'A journey through calamity 10
Now you must set your fear at bay
If you would last this fearsome way 12
For you will see the land of death
Where first to go is intellect
And you must never hesitate
If you would see far heaven's gate' 16
And saying so he took my hand
And entered we among the damned
Where whispers strange and dreadful sounds
Came pouring from the very ground 20
And beating hands fanned turbid air
For those who failed to choose dwelt there
Then Virgil turned to me and said
With words of fear full dipped in dread 24
'These souls that writhe before your eyes
Are those in life who chose no side
And angels who from conflict strayed
When God and Satan battle made 28
And so from world made black and white
These cowards who chose not to fight
The heavens cast them out in shame
Their greatest sin, they lived in vain' 32
'But why so loud do these souls wail?'
I asked him with my lips turned pale
He looked at me with hooded gaze
'I'll say it short I can' he says 36
'The world will let no fame endure
Of these poor souls from heaven spurned
Beyond all hope we must disdain
These wretched souls that live in pain' 40
And so the great one quickly passed
As vision on my eyeball cast
A banner moved across the plain
And conga line there chased in vain 44
A million souls and more I saw
And some I knew to break God's law
The sky was filled with wasps and flies
As tears of blood fell from their eyes 48
That rained onto a mess of worms
Which feasted as their bellies churned
Beyond the press of screaming souls
A river cross the landscape flowed 52
And then I saw the crowded shore
'Who are these souls?' I then implored 54
But Virgil did not answer me
He moved away then beckoned he
And once beside the restless stream
A shape I saw from darkest dream
As boat then sails from out of dark
By Charon helmed with eyes like sparks 60
Then cried he loud in dreadful shout
And gestures as he sorts souls out
'Oh woe to you corrupted souls
By heaven now abandon hope 64
I'll lead you to the other side
To darkness, pain and burning fire'
And then he turns to me and says
'You shall not pass o yee not dead' 68
My guide then Virgil turns to him
And silenced him with sentence grim
Saying 'Charon, don't torment your mind
His passage has been willed you'll find 72
And one should do what one is told
So ferry us cross water cold'
Then silence fell on woolly cheeks
As round him spirits gnashed their teeth 76
And cursed their very lives they did
Then Charon to their fate he bid
I could not grasp this fearful scale
Of evil passed through mortal vale 80
And then the ground began to shake
The red air burned now set ablaze
The burning earth beneath my soles
Was rocking like the Beatles roll 84
And sudden I was in a sweat
As whirlwinds from the pit past swept
My mind recoiled from this fould taint
And keeled I down in sudden faint 88

This is a fairly straight adaption of the real Canto from the Comedy. I like the imagary in it, they'res a lot of very obscure but logical ideas knocking around in the verse. (his not mine)
Dante and Virgil, his guide, enter under the gate into the underworld. Virgil tells Dante that the people he sees in torment are the cowards who failed to pick a side in life and angels that refused to fight for God or for Satan at the great rebellion. Beyond them lies the river Acheron and the boatman Charon, culled from classic legend.

When Charon sees Dante he tells him that he will not ferry the living. Virgil intervenes telling Charon that his passing has been blessed from above, ref. Dante Inferno Canto III Line 95

A huge spasm rocks the the plain and foul vapors and blasts of light knock Dante into a sudden faint. Beyond this place lies the first circle of hell proper, this place being reserved for those that both heaven and hell refused to house because of their lack of choice.

1 Line one refers to the inscription on the gate which seperates the dark wood from the underworld. It follows by saying 'My Master was divinity.' A reference to God.

4 The traditional incantion that people remember of the gates incription. The reference is actually much longer. It goes (depending on translation) something like this.

THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO ETERNAL PAIN
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGHEST ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY
THE HIGHEST WISDOM AND THE PRIMAL LOVE
BEFORE ME THERE WAS NAUGHT BUT ETERNAL THINGS MADE
AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE

10 Once before the gate Virgil turns to Dante and warns him about what he must face.

12 fearsome way Hell

24 Lines 24 and onwards point to the existence of this first circle. Virgil first describes them as 'those who lived without disgrace and without praise.' and 'coward angels' ref Milton Paradise Lost.

43 'A banner moved across the plain' actually refered to by Dante as 'saw a banner that, as it wheeled about, raced on - so quick that respite seemed unsuited to it.' In Dante's deeply ironic vision of the afterlife the fallen souls are often punished with tortures that directly answer their particular sin. Between the gate and the river Acheron which lies ahead the plain is crowded with a multitude and through this a banner flies all about. Behind this the cowards are forced to chase, a metaphor for the choices they refused to make when still alive. What a wheeze.

Your very best friend

Brother Grim

PS My Colleague (Brother Grimy) has promised to provide some sketches (at last) of the work beyond Canto I. I shall post them post haste.

PPS Please consider yourselves warned (yet again.)