5th Circle – Mars – 480 Laws - (364)

The Wrathful & Sullen (Melancholic)

In the fourth circle Virgil and Dante come across a black, bubbly spring that has formed what is called the marsh of Styx. The marsh of Styx is the fifth circle which is the last region of upper hell.

Styx is a Greek word meaning hatred and sadness.

In the black slimy marsh Dante and Virgil see souls fighting, attacking and ripping at one another. These are the souls who were overcome with anger.

Below the marsh is another region similar to a sub-region of the fifth circle. There reside the souls of the sullen or the melancholic, who were not happy in life under the sun but instead were sad and sullen when they should have been happy. They say “Sad were we in the air made sweet by the sun, in the glory of his shining our hearts poured a bitter smoke. Sullen were we begun, sullen we lie forever in this ditch.”

Anger, arrogance and sadness are the characteristics of this circle.

Dante and Virgil encounter Phlegyas the boatman of Styx. Virgil commands Phlegyas to take him and Dante across the marsh. Phlegyas does it and leaves them at the gates of the city of Dis. 

They are barred entrance into the city of Dis, and it is only by the help of an Angel that the gates of the city are opened to them. The entrance into the city of Dis represents the entrance into the lower and deeper regions of hell. The rebellious angels guard the city of Dis.

Notes:

Dis is the name for Pluto the King of the underworld. The first five circles are the upper regions of hell and the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th circles of hell are within the walls of the city of Dis.

Phlegyas was the mythological king of Boetia and son of Ares. He had a human mother, and angry at Apollo who had seduced his daughter, he set fire to Apollo’s temple at Delphi.

Summary

Dante shows us here that the states of anger are very heavy and can take us rather deep into our own abyss and the abyss of nature. Dante passes on a revelation here to us that when we should have been happy and we were sad and melancholic we even though we were not angry we incur some sort of punishment or karma for that and it is actually in its depth a type of anger that is really quite heavy and negative, even more negative that being visibly angry it seems according to Dante.

End (364).