Dante’s Inferno

“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”. This famous phrase is written above the gate of Hell in a 14th century poem by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. The poem is called the Divine Comedy and Hell is known as Dante’s Inferno.

The warning is well made, for beyond it is a panoply of horror – severed heads, talking trees, demons, monsters and punishments both cruel and unusual.

But the Inferno is more than just a journey into the macabre – it is a map of medieval spirituality, a treasure-house of classical learning and an acute study of human psychology. It is also one of the greatest poems ever written.

Well worth a listen for a medieval perspective on hell.