"Recording" Mental Imagery pt. 3: Circle seven

         For this post I decided to make a collage depicting the three subcircles of the seventh circle (the circle of violence) of Inferno. One of the things I loved about the Cantos describing this circle is that the imagery is so vivid - the dark red of the river of blood in the first subcircle, the eerie vibe of the poisoned, dark forest in the second, and the burning red sand and flaming rain in the third.

          Below I have put the quotes that I found to be particularly powerful, or those that I think best represent the imagery that stuck with me the most after I finished reading. 

In the first subcircle are those who committed acts of violence against their neighbors and/or their neighbors’ possessions and/or property, e.g. murderers and thieves.

• “The place where we came to descend the bank was mountainous” (12.1-2)
• “The rocks lie so strewn that they would provide a path for one who was above” (12.8-10)
• “We are approaching the river of blood, in which are boiling those who harm others with violence” (12.46-48)
• “Centaurs were running in file, armed with arrows” (12.55-56)

In the second subcircle are those who committed acts of violence against themselves and/or their own possessions and/or property, e.g. suicides and squanderers.

• “We entered a wood that no path marked. Not green leaves, but dark in color, not smooth branches, but knotted and twisted, no fruit was there, but thorns with poison” (13.2-6)
• The Harpies: “Their wings are broad, their necks and faces human, their feet have claws, and their great bellies are feathered” (13.13-15)
• Other characters: the ‘degraded’ greyhounds, Pier della Vigna

In the third subcircle are those who committed acts of violence against God, Nature or industry.

• “The floor was coarse, dry sand (14.13)
• “Over all the sand there rained, with a slow falling, broad flakes of fire” (14.28-29)
• “So the eternal burning was coming down, and the sand caught fire” (14.37-38)
• Brunetto Latini: “What fortune or destiny leads you down here… Your fortune holds so much honor in store for you… (then Dante) I am ready for Fortune, whatever she will” (15.46-47, 70-71, 92-93)
• “I had a cord girding me… I held it out to [my leader]” (16.106,110)
• Geryon: “Its face was that of a just man, so kindly seemed its outer skin, and the rest of its torso was that of a serpent” (17.10-12)
• “Descending weary… with a hundred circlings… so Geryon placed us on the bottom” (17.130-131,133)
• “On a yellow purse, I saw blue that had the shape and bearing of a lion” (17.58-60)
• Other characters: Capaneus