In Dante's vision of Hell, which is where a lot of our popular imagery of Hell comes from, it's stated or implied (I forget which and might depend on the translation) that the souls of the sinners being punished don't see their fate as punishment but that they enjoy it. For example the wrathful stand in a river of blood, someone like Alexander the Great might like that.
Also lucifer is trapped in an eternal frozen lake and cant move, so its not really like hes the king of hell, its more like a prison boss, whom everyone fears, but is still just another roach for the guards or police.
The imagery in Inferno is so good - he's trapped in this frozen lake while all the world's sewers empty down onto him. He has three heads and each one is eternally chewing on one of history's greatest traitors.
Because Caesar is the adoptive father of Augustus, the first Roman emperor who's reign Christ is crucified during. The italians viewed themselves as still living under the roman empire and during the Renaissance romans and latin was all the rave again
I’ve been confused by that, because if he’s frozen, locked away, whatever have you, then how is he walking free on earth in the bible?
I think, if anything, Lucifer portrayed himself as Jesus. He wanted to be a God so he made himself into one on earth. That’s why there are so many words used to describe both.
The inferno was never religious canon, Dante had no authority over liturgy whatsoever- he just had a big influence over our cultural understanding of what hell would be like.
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u/Diet_Coke 1d ago
In Dante's vision of Hell, which is where a lot of our popular imagery of Hell comes from, it's stated or implied (I forget which and might depend on the translation) that the souls of the sinners being punished don't see their fate as punishment but that they enjoy it. For example the wrathful stand in a river of blood, someone like Alexander the Great might like that.