The Divine Comedy · Chapter
Canto VI: The Third Circle – Cerberus and the Gluttonous explained
Dante awakens in the Third Circle of Hell, where the gluttonous are punished under a ceaseless, foul rain of hail, snow, and dark water.
What happens
Dante awakens in the Third Circle of Hell, where the gluttonous are punished under a ceaseless, foul rain of hail, snow, and dark water. The three-headed monster Cerberus guards and torments the souls, rending them with his claws. Virgil pacifies Cerberus by throwing handfuls of earth into his mouths. Among the prostrate shades, one soul rises—Ciacco, a Florentine glutton—who speaks with Dante about his former life and the future of their divided city, foretelling political strife and corruption. Ciacco also reveals the fates of other notable Florentines, then collapses back into the mud. Virgil explains that after the Last Judgment, the damned will be reunited with their bodies and experience even greater pain or pleasure.
Themes in this chapter
Divine Justice
The punishment of the gluttonous under the eternal, filthy rain reflects the contrapasso principle: those who indulged in excess are now submerged in a degrading, unending storm.
Political Corruption and Civic Strife
Ciacco's prophecy about Florence's internal discord, envy, arrogance, and avarice highlights the theme of political corruption leading to suffering.
Suffering and Compassion
Dante's pity for Ciacco and his weeping at the glutton's plight demonstrate the tension between empathy and the recognition of divine justice.
Characters to notice
- Dante Alighieri
The protagonist who regains consciousness in the Third Circle and converses with Ciacco, seeking knowledge of Florence's future and the fate of other citizens.
- Virgil
Dante's guide who subdues Cerberus by throwing earth into his mouths and explains the nature of the damned's suffering after the Last Judgment.
- Ciacco
A Florentine glutton who sits up from the mud to speak with Dante, foretelling the political turmoil of Florence and naming other condemned souls.
- Farinata degli Uberti
Mentioned by Ciacco as one of the 'blacker souls' punished deeper in Hell for a different sin.
- Jacopo Rusticucci
Named by Dante among the worthy Florentines whose fate he inquires about; Ciacco confirms he is among the more severely damned.
Key passages
“He wakes no more / This side the sound of the angelic trumpet; / When shall approach the hostile Potentate, / Each one shall find again his dismal tomb, / Shall reassume his flesh and his own figure, / Shall hear what through eternity reechoes.”
Virgil explains that Ciacco will not awaken until the Last Judgment, when the souls will be reunited with their bodies and experience eternal reward or punishment.
Virgil's discourse on the resurrection of the body and the intensification of suffering after judgment.
“Thy city, which is full / Of envy so that now the sack runs over, / Held me within it in the life serene.”
Ciacco describes Florence as overflowing with envy, and says he lived there peacefully before his death.
Ciacco's lament about the moral corruption of Florence.
“The just are two, and are not understood there; / Envy and Arrogance and Avarice / Are the three sparks that have all hearts enkindled.”
Ciacco claims that only two just men exist in Florence, and that envy, pride, and greed are the root causes of the city's strife.
Ciacco's prophecy about the few righteous and the three vices destroying Florence.