Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell

Hell is the first of three books of Dante’s Commedia, known as the Divine Comedy, an epic poem in which Dante explores the mythos of the three major divisions of the afterlife through vivid descriptions and allegory. Hell, or Inferno in the Italian, finds Dante and his guide, the long-dead poet Virgil, traversing the 9 circles of Hell, interacting with mythological and historical figures from Dante’s life in a sometimes-satirical manner. Widely regarded as the greatest single work in the Italian language, and a classic through all of literature, The Divine Comedy was written late in Dante’s life while in exile from his native Florence.