The Inferno characters

Appears from the start

The living pilgrim and narrator, lost in a dark wood after straying from the right path. Frightened by three beasts when he tries to climb toward the light, he accepts Virgil's offer to guide him by another route.

Appears from the start

The ancient Roman poet whom Dante meets in the wilderness. Dante reveres him as the author of the Aeneid and as a master of poetic style. He offers to lead Dante through the realms of the dead as far as his own powers permit.

First appears in chapter 2

A blessed woman who comes from Heaven to ask Virgil to rescue Dante. She explains that the Virgin Mary and Saint Lucy share her concern for the pilgrim, and her commission gives Dante courage to begin the journey.

First appears in chapter 3

The grim ferryman who drives the newly dead across the Acheron. He initially refuses Dante because the pilgrim is alive, but Virgil tells him that the passage has been ordained by a higher power.

First appears in chapter 5

The infernal judge at the entrance to the circle of lust. He hears each soul's confession and coils his tail to indicate the circle to which it must descend. He challenges the travelers before Virgil invokes divine authority.

Also known as Francesca da Rimini

First appears in chapter 5

A noblewoman swept forever through the storm of the lustful beside Paolo. She speaks courteously with Dante and recounts how reading about another pair of lovers led her and Paolo to yield to their own desire.

First appears in chapter 6

A Florentine punished among the gluttonous in cold, filthy rain. He recognizes Dante, discusses the bitter political divisions of their city, and asks to be remembered among the living.

Also known as Farinata degli Uberti

First appears in chapter 10

A proud Florentine Ghibelline who rises from a burning tomb among the heretics. Political enmity still dominates his concerns: he questions Dante about his ancestry and speaks of the struggle between their parties.

Also known as Pier delle Vigne

First appears in chapter 13

Emperor Frederick II's former minister, now imprisoned in the form of a thorn tree among the suicides. When Dante breaks a twig, the wounded tree speaks and Pier defends the loyalty he maintained before disgrace drove him to take his life.

First appears in chapter 15

Dante's respected former teacher, encountered running beneath a rain of fire on burning sand. Their warm, dignified conversation preserves the affection between them even as Brunetto explains his punishment and predicts conflict in Dante's future.

First appears in chapter 17

A monster with an honest-looking human face, a reptilian body, hairy paws, and a scorpion-like tail. As the living image of fraud, he carries Dante and Virgil down into the eighth circle on his back.

First appears in chapter 21

The captain of the Malebranche, the demons who police the pitch where corrupt public officials are submerged. He assigns an armed escort to the travelers and gives them directions, mixing real information with a deceptive claim about the bridges ahead.

Also known as Odysseus

First appears in chapter 26

The Greek hero concealed with Diomedes inside a divided flame among the fraudulent counselors. At Virgil's request he tells of a final voyage beyond the limits set for human travel, driven by his desire to know the world, which ends when a storm overwhelms his ship.

Also known as Guido da Montefeltro

First appears in chapter 27

A former military strategist enclosed in flame among the fraudulent counselors. He says that Pope Boniface VIII drew him back into deception by promising absolution in advance for advising a treacherous plan.

Also known as Count Ugolino

First appears in chapter 33

A Pisan count frozen among traitors, gnawing the head of Archbishop Ruggieri. He tells Dante that Ruggieri imprisoned him with his sons and grandsons in a tower and left the family to starve, making his present hatred an extension of their political betrayal.

Also known as Dis, Satan

First appears in chapter 34

The gigantic ruler of Hell, fixed in the ice at its deepest point. His three faces weep as six wings freeze the lake, and his three mouths chew Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Virgil uses his body as the ladder by which he and Dante leave the pit.