One depiction of Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell: NAJ screen shot

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The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just for the fun of it on Sunday morning, rather than watching or listening to some stupid political podcast, I spent some time researching Greek and Roman mythology beginning with the story of Perseus crossing the River Styx into Hades.

Using a search engine, I followed the links and ended up doing a quick study of Dante’s nine circles of hell. After doing some reading on the web, including Wikipedia, I decided to ask ChatGPT to summarize the story. Than I thought it might be interesting and fun to put Donald Trump in the story, and see what circle of hell he belongs in.

After generating a summary file, included below, the bot asked me:

“If you’d like, I can create a Dante-style ‘profile’ of any modern figure — Trump included — as if he were a character in the Inferno, written in the poetic style of Dante. Would you like that?”

Of course I said “yes.”

This is the hilarious result.

🔥 Donaldus, The Golden-Tongued Tower
(A Canto Fragment in the Style of Dante Alighieri)

Midway upon the path of worldly fame,
I came upon a soul, adorned in gold,
Whose towered hair did flicker like a flame,
And eyes, though veiled, still shimmered proud and bold.

He stood upon the edge of Fraud’s domain,
Among the flatterers and the sly of tongue,
Where gilded speech is steeped in self-gain,
And oaths once sworn like market songs are sung.

“Who art thou,” said I, “who builds thy name
On towers tall, yet sinks beneath thy word?”
He answered, “All is mine — the praise, the blame —
For I have bent the masses with a word.”

His hands were ever shaping walls of air,
Promising refuge, profit, wrath, and might;
Yet all who climbed them found but empty stair,
Where truth lay masked beneath the TV light.

“I made a kingdom great,” he proudly said,
“Though laws and oaths I bent like pliant steel.”
And Virgil sighed, and shook his noble head:
“Here dwell those who turned power to their meal.”

So down he sank into the boiling pitch,
Where Barrators swim, cloaked in bribes and schemes;
And still he boasted, ever bold and rich,
Even as his empire cracked in dreams.

Another artistic rendering of Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell: NAJ screen shot

The ChatGPT summary of Dante’s Deadly Sins

Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”, particularly in the “Purgatorio” (the second canticle of the poem), presents the Seven Deadly Sins as a structured moral framework for human behavior and spiritual purification. Unlike modern pop-culture versions, Dante treats the sins with deep theological and psychological insight, aligning them with love distorted in different ways.

🌟 Dante’s Seven Deadly Sins (in Purgatorio):

Pride

Description: Excessive love of self over others and God.

Punishment: The proud carry heavy stones on their backs, forcing them to bow — a symbolic reversal of their arrogance.

Virtue to Learn: Humility

Envy

Description: Jealousy of others’ happiness or success.

Punishment: Eyes sewn shut with wire, since they looked at others with malice.

Virtue to Learn: Kindness or Generosity

Wrath (Anger)

Description: Uncontrolled feelings of hatred and rage.

Punishment: Souls walk through thick smoke that blinds them — symbolizing the blinding effect of rage.

Virtue to Learn: Meekness or Patience

Sloth (Acedia)

Description: Spiritual laziness; failure to love God with enthusiasm.

Punishment: Constant running without rest — countering their former sluggishness.

Virtue to Learn: Zeal or Diligence

Avarice (Greed)

Description: Excessive desire for material wealth.

Punishment: Souls lie face down on the ground, weeping — focused on earthly things.

Virtue to Learn: Generosity

Gluttony

Description: Overindulgence, particularly in food and drink.

Punishment: Emaciated souls are tormented by the sight and smell of food they cannot eat.

Virtue to Learn: Temperance

Lust

Description: Disordered or excessive love of others (usually sexually).

Punishment: Souls walk through flames to burn away their excessive passions.

Virtue to Learn: Chastity

🔄 Dante’s Moral Logic:

Dante sees sin as a distortion of love:

Misguided Love (Pride, Envy, Wrath)

Deficient Love (Sloth)

Excessive Love for Temporal Goods (Avarice, Gluttony, Lust)

Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell — Summary

Circle Sin Who Is Punished Punishment (Brief)

1. Limbo

Virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized souls Great thinkers, poets, and virtuous pagans No torment, but eternal separation from God

2. Lust

Excessive sexual desire Those overcome by passion Blown violently by endless winds

3. Gluttony

Overindulgence in food and drink The gluttonous Lie in filthy, freezing rain and muck

4. Greed

Hoarding and squandering wealth Misers and spendthrifts Push heavy weights against each other

5. Wrath

Anger and sullenness The wrathful and sullen Wrathful fight on surface of the Styx; sullen gurgle beneath

6. Heresy

Denial of the soul’s immortality Heretics Trapped in flaming tombs

7. Violence

Violence against others, self, or God Murderers, suicides, blasphemers Various: boiling blood, thorny trees, desert of fire

8. Fraud

Deception and trickery Pimps, thieves, false counselors, and more Ten bolgias (ditches) with specific punishments

9. Treachery

Betrayal of special relationships Traitors to family, country, guests, benefactors Frozen in a lake of ice

Final Question

What circle of hell do you think Donald Trump belongs in? Feel free to weigh in in the comments.

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