Dante is lost in the Dark Forest.
Dante's Inferno Timeline
12 Important Events in Inferno
Event #1 - Dante Meets Virgil & Descent into Hell
"Before mine eyes did one present himself, Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse" (Canto I, pg 5).
Dante sees Virgil for the first time.
Dante is lost in a dark forest alone - except for the she-wolf that's about to eat him. Suddenly, Virgil appears out of nowhere like a guardian angel (HINT: ARCHETYPE!). Dante recognizes Virgil as his favorite celeb poet and the two begin their descent into Hell.
Event #2 - First Circle (Limbo)
Dante joins Virgil and his "popular poet posse".
"...That they sinned not; and if they merit had, 'T is not enough, because they had not baptism" (Canto IV, pg 19).
Virgil describes the reason why the sinners are stuck in Limbo.
After entering Hell, our dynamic duo is here in Virgil's version of "home sweet home" (except it isn't sweet - at all). Dante learns that like Virgil, the people here were not followers of Christ and God, thus, they didn't suffer but still felt the ache of God's absence. Virgil and the rest of his popular poet posse invites Dante to join them, at which Dante "fangirls" internally.
Event #3 - Second Circle (The Lustful)
The souls of the lustful whirling around in the hurricane.
"'Thine agonies, Francesca, Sad and compassionate to weeping make me'" (Canto V, pg 26).
Dante tells Francesca of his sympathy towards her pain.
Upon entering the second circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil see Minos, the minotaur whose tail determines which circle each sinner goes to. After receiving a nebulous warning from the Minotaur, Dante meets Francesca da Rimini, a woman guilty of adultery. Upon meeting Francesca and her lover, Dante breaks out in a fit of grief, ultimately ending with Dante passing out.
Event #4 - Third Circle (The Gluttonous)
The Gluttons dodging the relentless dirty rain.
"'Ciacco, thy wretchedness Weighs on me so that it to weep invites me'" (Canto VI, pg 30).
Dante shows Ciacco his sympathy.
After Dante wakes up, he realizes he has entered the fourth circle, where he is surrounded by the cries of the gluttonous, desperately trying to avoid the acid showers falling from the sky. Dante soon meets Ciacco, a fellow Florentine who prophesied the political conflict that was to take place in Florence between the "Blacks" and the "Whites". Ciacco, convicted of gluttony and condemned to the fourth circle of Hell, also receives a heartfelt message of sympathy from Dante. Dante and Virgil move on.
Event #5 - The Fourth and Fifth Circles (The Greedy, Wrathful and Sullen)
The sinners of the Fourth Circle (the Greedy and the Reckless) are force to heave boulders while shouting curses at each other.
"'This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, For with unbroken words they cannot say it'" (Canto VII, pg 36).
Virgil describes the punishment inflicted on the Sullen.
In the Fourth Circle, Dante sees the Greedy and the Reckless pushing boulders and hurling insults at each other. Dante also notices certain unidentified members of the clergy covered in dirt, symbolizing their listless lives. In the Fifth Circle, Dante sees the Wrathful rolling around in mud and ripping out each other's throats. Beneath the mud resides the Sullen - punished for their silence by forcing them to recite hymns in the mud.