Inferno - Part 1

Inferno is probably Dante’s most well-known work from his Divine Comedy. There, he describes his descent, guided by Virgil, into Hell and each of its concentric rings in which the various levels of sins are punished. In each ring, someone tells their woeful tale of their past transgressions, becoming warnings to Dante of the pits and traps of life to avoid in the years to come.

One interesting passage is in the third canto, when Virgil and Dante reach the gate of Hell. Engraved on the archway into Hell are the following words:

I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE, / I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL PAIN, / I AM THE WAY TO GO AMONG THE LOST. / JUSTICE CAUSED MY HIGH ARCHITECT TO MOVE: / DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME, / THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE. / BEFORE ME THERE WERE NO CREATED THINGS / BUT THOSE THAT LAST FOREVER – AS DO I. / ABANDON ALL HOPE YOU WHO ENTER HERE. (3.1-9)

What interested me is the way in which these statements were worded. The first three lines begin with the words “I AM,” the same words used by Jesus in John 14:6 when he states, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and the various other "I Am" statements. Seems almost as if a connection is be made between Christ as the doorway to Heaven and the arch as the doorway to Hell. Also, the second and third to last lines confused me at first as it seemed that Hell had existed before men, which did not make sense to me. But then, it could possibly be that it was created after men because it says that “before me there were no created things / but those that last forever” and men will last forever. Perhaps these are all misinterpretations of what Dante wrote and meant but they were the best of my theories.