Inferno is oneof the three parts of 
Dante’spoem Divine Comedy. It depicts the Hell as nine circles with different sins and punishment. The nine sins are: Limbo, Lust,Gluttony,Avarice and Prodigality, Wrath and Sullenness, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, Treachery.
http://youtu.be/dSD1EW-FQBQ
Catholic church is a Christian church established by Jesus Christ. It is led by Bishop of Rome, also known as Pope. Catholic Church believes truth lies in Bible, and advocates Baptism, a ritual which gets rid of human’s original sin. One of the doctrines of Catholic Church is judgement after death: the soul of human after death will be judged by god, who decides to send souls into either heaven or purgatory. Divine Comedy’s depiction of suffering in hell is based on the faith of Catholic Church.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is an American poet and educator, and the first American to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer is a great English poet of middle age and considered as Father of English literature. His major work The House of Fame, is under great influence of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
John Milton is a English poet. His major work is Paradise Lost, which depicts original sin of human and Satan’s hell. Paradise Lost, Divine Comedy, and Iliad&Odyssey are considered to be three great English poems.
Jorge Luis Borges, is Argentina writer, poet and translator. In his lecture-turned-essay Seven Nights, Borges talks about his obsession with Divine Comedy. Borges thought Divine Comedy is the best book mankind have ever written.
Claudio Monteverdi is an italian composer and singer. His opera L’ Orfeo tells the story of Orpehus’ descent into Hades trying to bring back his dead bride. In 17th century, intermedio, a traditional music type, is evolving into new genre “opera”. L’ Orfeo expedites the process of evolution and provides the first fully developed work piece of this new genre. L’ Orfeo is to the history of Italian opera what Divine Comedy is to the history of Italian literature.
http://youtu.be/tbODsrBb5ZQ
Franz Liszt is a 19th century Hungarian composer, who composes Dante Symphony based on Dante’s Divine Comedy.
http://youtu.be/k8huOjLi2YE
Giacomo Puccini is an Italian composer with reputation of greatest Italian composer. His work Gianni Schicchi is based on an incident in Divine Comedy.Dante visits the Circle of Impersonators and sees a man savagely attacking another. Dante is told that the attacker is Schicchi, condemned to Hell for impersonating Buoso Donati and making his will highly favorable to Schicchi.
In Dante’s Inferno, malebolge is the eighth circle, which is divided into ten small circles of ditches, called bolgia. In the center of Malebolge is the ninth circle of Inferno.
Rodin three shades from gates of hell
Three Shades from Gates of Hell is a sculpture work by French artist Rodin that depicts the sin from Inferno.
Edited by Shang Jiang
shangj@middlebury.edu