While physical life is fleeting, the notion of the immortality of the soul is central to Christianity. Before Dante wrote the Divine Comedy, the residence of the soul after death was speculative and enigmatic. Dante filled this void by creating a detailed and gruesome depiction of Hell where sinners are punished for the crimes they commit against the Christian God. Dante shapes his perception of Hell from Aeneas' journey to Dis in Book VI of Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid. Although Dante draws his account from Virgil's writings on the Underworld, this is only a base from which he adapts and expands. Both poems are populated by characters from ancient Greek and Roman mythology and share a similar structure and imagery for the exploration of the Underworld by living protagonists. The poems differ in their intention, with The Inferno focusing on Dante's journey of self-discovery and the search for a Christian concept of the Underworld, while the intention of The Aeneid was to glorify and celebrate the story of Rome and the importance of destiny. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Although there are countless parallels in Dante and Aeneas' journeys to the Underworld, they follow divergent trajectories that set the tone for the Hells created. Aeneas learns in a dream that he must go to the Underworld and visit his father before he can establish a homeland for his people in Italy. Venus, his mother goddess, and the Sibyl, prophetess of Apollo, guide Aeneas on his journey. In Book VI of The Aeneid, Virgil uses the Underworld to trace the history of Rome back to the heroes of the Trojan War. Unlike Aeneas, Dante embarks on the path to Hell in the middle of his life, lost in a personal crisis and unsure of the spiritual path to follow. At the beginning of Canto I, Virgil is sent by God to escort him through the corridors of the Underworld, so that he can find his way back. “For I had lost the way that does not go astray. Ah, it is difficult to speak of what it was, of this wild forest, dense and difficult, which even in memory renews my fear” (Inferno I, 4-6). Dante sets the stage for a more arduous journey to the Underworld that his character must endure. Dante liberally borrows the imagery, structure, and architecture of the Underworld from Virgil. The Aeneid served as the model for Dante's masterpiece, and Dante recognizes this by choosing Virgil as his guide through the underworld. Both Dante and Aeneas must cross the River Styx to enter Hell and are transported by Charon. Virgil, in The Aeneid, writes: “Charon is the sordid ferryman… his white hair is thick, disheveled on his chin; his eyes are staring fires, a dirty coat hangs by a knot on his shoulder. (Aeneid VI, 396-398). Dante's description of Charon is similar: “And here, coming towards us, in a boat, an old man with white hair with years cried: Woe to you, corrupt souls! (Hell III, 82-84). Virgil created a more gruesome lower level of the Underworld known as Dis, guarded by one of the mythological Furies. Parallels can be seen in Dante's Inferno where the fallen angels, the three Furies and Medusa guard his city of Dis. These are the darkest regions of Hell and encompass circles six through nine. Virgil had also referred to an underworld of nine circles, but unlike Dante he does not develop the concept into a rigid system where sinners are separated into nine circles based on the severity of their sin, with the wicked being sent into deeper circles with more severe punishments. In both epics there is asignificant distinction in the desire for nuances to communicate with the living. When Aeneas passes the Mourning Fields and recognizes Dido, he calls out to her, crying in sympathy, and she responds by retreating into the depths of the forest. Conversely, in Inferno, Dante develops the concept that nuances become less interested in communicating as he ventures into the deeper circles. In Canto XXXII, Dante accidentally hits the shadow's head with his foot and after an exchange of verbal retorts, the shadow refuses to reveal its identity. The shadow's refusal to reveal his identity exposes his shame at residing in the first ring of the ninth circle of hell, home to the traitors of his loved ones. In Inferno, Dante's modification of Virgil's ideas about how the living interact with shadows significantly affects the experience of Dante the Pilgrim and the readers. The structural difference in their protagonists' encounters with shadows is the result of Dante's confrontational approach. In Inferno, Dante equips himself with the power to touch shadows, while at one point in Virgil's story, Aeneas is shown to be unable to kiss his father's shadow. “Three times he tried to throw his arms around Anchises’ neck; and three times the shadow escaped from this vain clasp. (Aeneid VI, 924-926). By adding a physical aspect to encounters, Dante creates a more realistic and personal underworld. The realism reinforces the impression that Dante the pilgrim is in real danger. In a later scene in Canto XXXII, Boca refuses to reveal his identity and Dante responds by inflicting pain on him. “At that moment, I grabbed him by the scruff and said: you will have to give me your name, otherwise you will not even have a single hair here.” (Hell XXXII, 97-99). Dante's ability to physically interact with shadows makes the Underworld tangible. Dante, a mere mortal, inflicts additional suffering on a soul, which is already punished in one of the deepest circles of Hell. The differences in the concepts of Limbo of the two Hells reflect a fundamental difference in religious philosophy between the paganism of Virgil's Rome and the medieval Christianity of Dante. The first stop for all souls in Virgil's Underworld is Limbo. There, souls wait to cross the River Styx and those whose bodies are not buried must wander for a hundred years before Charon, the ferryman, takes their souls to "begin the path to the waters of Tartar Acheron." (Aeneid VI 390-391). Nothing is more cruel and more damning for a Trojan warrior than to die without an honorable burial. In Dante's Inferno, the first stop is not Limbo, but Ante-Inferno and Neutral. Ante-Inferno is where souls who have not made a conscious moral decision are housed because they do not constitute acceptance into either heaven or hell, and Neutral is where angels reside who neither sided with God nor with Satin. Dante wrote: “The heavens, lest their beauty be diminished, have cast them out, and deep hell will not receive them – not even the wicked can boast of them.” » (Inferno III 40-42) The limbo of Dante's Underworld is the first ring of Hell after a soul crosses the River Styx. Residing in Limbo are all the unbaptized, including the virtuous and moral pagans born before the First Coming. These souls did not sin, but Dante's view was Christian, and according to Christian theology, those who were not baptized were condemned to hell and were not allowed to enter heaven. Virgil, along with other great Greek and Roman philosophers, poets, and heroes, resided in this region. For these sinners, Dante had sympathy and created a.