Early in Canto XXIV, Dante clarifies the geographical structure of Malebolge (the Eighth Circle): it slopes continuously downward, so that, after the Tenth Pouch, it runs right into Hell’s central pit. Virgil and Dante have thus not been simply progressing around the underworld’s circumference but descending deeper and deeper into the Earth’s core. [Source]
In Dante's Inferno, Hell is described as having 9 different levels, or circles, each lower than the last. As one descends into the depths of hell, he comes closer to the 9th circle where Satan himself resides. Each level of hell is reserved for different types of sinners, and different punishments are inflicted on the damned depending on the nature and severity of their sin. The greater their sin, the lower the level to which they are condemned to spend eternity.[Source]The Eighth circle:
Panderers and seducers, flatterers, sorcerers and false prophets, liars, thieves, and Ulysses and Diomedes. [Source]More on the Eighth Circle:
In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of the Divine Comedy, Malebolge is the eighth circle of Hell.
[...]
As the eighth of nine circles, Malebolge is one of the worst places in hell to be. In it, sinners guilty of "simple" fraud are punished (that is, fraud that is committed without particularly malicious intent, whereas Malicious or "compound" fraud — fraud that goes against bond of love, blood, honor, or the bond of hospitality — would be punished in the ninth circle). Sinners of this category include counterfeiters, hypocrites, grafters, seducers, sorcerers and simonists. [Source]
William BlakeAbout the print:
British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
The Circle of the Thieves
Buoso Donati Attacked by the Serpent , from Dante's Inferno, Canto XXV
Date: ca. 1825–27
Medium: Engraving
Dimensions: plate: 9 5/16 x 13 1/4 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
This print illustrates lines from Canto 25 of Dante’s Inferno. It shows a thief named Cavalcanti in the guise of a serpent ‘all on fire’. He is preparing to attack another thief, Buoso de’ Donati. The serpent and Donati eye each other while ‘One from the wound, the other from the mouth Breath’d a thick smoke, whose vap'ry columns join’d’.
In the next scene, which Blake also illustrated, Donati is transformed into a serpent and Cavalcanti into a man. Their punishment is to suffer this transformation from man to snake and back again for eternity. [Source]
William Blake
British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Donati Transformed into a Serpent; Francesco de'Cavalcanti Retransformed into a Man (from Dante's "Divine Comedy"), 1824-1827
Alternate Title: Buoso Donati Transformed into a Serpent; Francesco de' Cavalcanti Retrans...
Series/Book Title: Dante, "The Divine Comedy"
Drawing
British, 19th century
Watercolor, black ink, graphite, and black chalk on off-white antique laid paper
37 x 52.3 cm (14 9/16 x 20 9/16 in.)
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop, 1943.434
Department of Drawings, Division of European and American Art
Cambridge, MA
Surveillance video of Ferguson Market and Liquor,
which was recorded on August 9, 2014
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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