The Vestibule of Hell - (359)

The Gate to Hell

Before entering the Vestibule of hell Dante and Virgil must pass through the gate of hell, and inscribed in stone above the gate is the following:

“I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.

“I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.

I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.

SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.

I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,

PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.

ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR

WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.”

After passing through the gate Dante asks Virgil about the inscription above the gate: “Master what is the meaning of this harsh inscription?” And then as initiate to novice: “Here you must put by all division of spirit and gather your soul against all cowardice. This is the place I told you to expect. Here you shall pass among the fallen people, souls who have lost the good of intellect.”

The Opportunists

In the vestibule of Hell, Dante encounters the opportunists, “those souls who in life were neither for good nor evil but only for themselves. Mixed with them are those outcasts who took no sides in the rebellion of the Angels. They are neither in Hell nor out of it. Eternally unclassified, they race round and round pursuing a wavering banner that runs forever before them through the dirty air; and as they run they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets, who sting them and produce a constant flow of blood and putrid matter which trickles down the bodies of the sinners and is feasted upon by loathsome worms and maggots who coat the ground.”

“They took no sides, therefore they are given no place. As they pursued the ever-shifting illusion of their own advantage, changing their courses with every changing wind, so thy pursue eternally an elusive, ever-shifting banner. As their sin was a darkness, so they move in darkness. As their own guilty conscience pursued them, so they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets. And as their actions were a moral filth, so they run eternally through the filth of worms and maggots which they themselves feed.”

Summary

In the vestibule of hell is the river Acheron and the ferryman Charon, who ferries the souls of the deceased into hell. ‘Acheron’ comes from the Greek meaning the river of pain. Once the river Acheron is crossed, begins the first circle of hell.

End (359).