Dante’s Inferno Gluttony

Gluttony Gluttony--like lust--is one of the seven capital sins according to medieval Christian theology and church practice. Dante, at least in circles 2-5 of hell, uses these sins as part--but only part--of his organizational strategy. While lust and gluttony were generally considered the least serious of the seven sins (and pride almost always the worst), the order of these two was not consistent: some writers thought lust was worse than gluttony and others thought gluttony worse than lust. Dante appears to view gluttony as more complex than the usual understanding of the sin as excessive eating and drinking.

Cerebus A three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the classical underworld. In the Aeneid Virgil describes Cerberus as loud, huge, and terrifying to get by Cerberus, the Sybil (Aeneas' guide) feeds him a spiked honey-cake that makes him immediately fall asleep. Look at Dante's related but very different version of Cerberus in Inferno 6.13-33. How has Dante transformed him to fit the role of guardian in the circle of gluttony? How does Cerberus himself shed light on Dante's conception of the sin?

Ciacco the hog The name "Ciacco"--apparently a nickname for the poet's gluttonous friend--could be a shortened form of "Giacomo" or perhaps a derogatory reference to "hog" or "pig" in the Florentine dialect of Dante's day. Dante, who certainly accepts the common medieval belief in the essential relationship between names and the things (or people) they represent, at times chooses characters for particular locations in the afterlife based at least in part on their names. "Ciacco" may be the first case of this sort in the poem.

Last judgment When Virgil tells Dante that Ciacco will not rise again until the "sound of the angelic trumpet" and the arrival of the "hostile judge" (Inf. 6.94-6), he is alluding to the Last Judgment. Also called the Apocalypse and the Second Coming of Christ, the Last Judgment in the medieval Christian imagination marks the end of time when God comes--as Christ--to judge all human souls and separate the saved from the damned, the former ascending to eternal glory in heaven and the latter cast into hell for eternal punishment. The young Dante would have had ample opportunity to reflect on the Last Judgment from his observation of its terrifying representation on the ceiling of the Florentine baptistery. According to the accepted theology of Dante's day, souls would be judged immediately after death and would then proceed either to hell (if damned) or purgatory (if saved); this judgment would be confirmed at the end of time, and all souls would then spend eternity either in hell or in heaven (as purgatory would cease to exist). We also learn with Dante-character that souls of the dead will be reunited with their bodies at the end of time. The suffering of the damned (and joy of the blessed) will then increase because the individual is complete and therefore more perfect.