Dante's "Inferno" was one of the works of fiction that we studied in Spanish literature in high school, even though actually in Spanish translation, not the original Italian. I vaguely remember how I think it was Simonetta Paggi who was insisting that this book was Catholic doctrine. They believe it is like the Bible, including the place of purgatory and the importance of Beatrice.
I being a Protestant must conscientiously point out to "Simo," who I noticed now lives in Miami, that Dante's book is far from included in the Biblical canon of 300+ A.D., the one that gave us the Bible as we know it in as far as we Protestant Christians are concerned. Even the Catholic Biblical canon, although it includes a few other books, such as the Apocrypha, does not include Dante's interesting work of fiction. I think I read somewhere that the Catholic church has given the Dante's book a unique place of authority even though it is a fictional product of Dante's vision.
It is an interesting attempt by Dante to conciliate elements of Greek and Roman mythologies with Christian theology. Greece's Olympic superheroes and demigods are located mostly in the deep caverns of hell as I recall. Personally, myself not having been there, I really would not be able to say what hell actually would look like so really would not be able to validate or invalidate Dante's vision. I really don't know. Such a preoccupation with hell seems morbid and obsessive to me but I do not doubt there is something there. However, I would rather focus on where I would rather go, heaven, the place described as a harmony of fixed stars, rather than obsess on the reverse. I do not doubt that the sulphorous fumes and smoke of hell are manifest somewhere.
Someone is assiduously trying to send me to the City of "Dis" and doing a clever job of it, but I think that God knows better than I the original authorship of these lengthy diatribes and in due time will properly attribute these sentiments to their original owners.
