Dante's Canto X: Sixth Circle Of Hell

Canto X In Canto X, Dante enters the sixth circle of Hell that contains the Heretics in which he learns about his past, better understands his moral values, and learns lessons about life. The punishment for the Heretics is they are condemned to eternity in flaming tombs. Virgil tells Dante that the tombs these souls suffer in will be opened until Judgment Day. He explains that everyone here is a follower of Epicurus who claimed that the soul dies with the body. While Dante is traveling through this circle, he asks if he can see any one of the entombed sinners. Dante continues through his journey here and meets a few different souls from the tombs. When Dante is walking through this circle a voice recognizes him and arises from his tomb. “O Tuscan! Thou who through

You soon realize that Dante and Farinata are politics and are from different parties by the way they are talking. “And if,” continuing the first discourse, “They in this art,” he cried, “small skin have shown, that doth torment me more e’en than this bed.”(Verse 74-76, Canto X) In this verse, the way he speaks indicates to you that he is a politic. You can also tell that Dante has high moral values in his party and he supports his party completely. Dante believes that you should accept the consequences of your actions which can be morally performed. “The slaughter and great havoc,” I replied, “That colour’d Arbia’s flood with crimson stain- To these impute, that in our hallow’d dome such orisons ascend.” (Verse 84-87, Canto X) This verse is proof that Dante’s morals are that there will always be a consequence for whatever bad action you do such as have a slaughter of many people and cause a lot of chaos to a city. A personal value of Dante’s is that you should care and sympathize for the people in Hell but you should learn from their actions in such a manner that you will not wind up in Hell