Inferno: Layout and Journey

Dante's Hell is cone-shaped and points to the center of the earth. Dante divided his Hellish cone into a hierarchy, an orderly structure that he split into two major divisions, upper and lower Hell. Three rivers circle around three levels of the cone. As they circle, the rivers Acheron, Phlegethon, and Styx flow down to the pit at the bottom of Hell. There they become part of Cocytus, the ice lake which imprisons Lucifer.

Through this region (Hell) Dante sent his alter ego, the Pilgrim, and Virgil, the Pilgrim's guide. Virgil was one of the greatest classical Latin poets. He wrote the Aeneid, which starts after the Trojan War and tells the story of Aeneas, the Trojan hero who founded Rome—at least according to Virgil. In general, Virgil represents Reason, a quality the Pilgrim needs to get him through the first two...