Dante’s Inferno Canto IV

 

Dante Allighieri, Inferno, Gustave Dore, 1892

Dante, the pilgrim, had fainted in the boat crossing the River Acheron and wakes on the other side at the sound of “a heavy clap of thunder”. They are at the lip of a descent into the first circle of Hell called Limbo. Looking over into the chasm, he can see nothing.

Peering to find where I was – in truth, the lip
Above the chasm of pain, which holds the din
Of infinite grief: a gulf so dark and deep

And murky that though I gazed intently down
Into the canyon, I could see nothing below.

Even Virgil turns pale as he tells Dante, “It is the pain people suffer that paints my face this color of pity, which you mistake for fear.”

Virgil leads Dante down into Limbo. They hear sighs.

Here we encountered
No laments that we could hear – except for sighs
That trembled the timeless air: they emanated

From the shadowy sadnesses, not agonies,
Of multitudes of children and women and men.

Virgil explains that these people are trapped in Limbo for eternity. They were “virtuous” but unsaved and unbaptized.

Virtue from the Latin virtus = virility, strength, courage, natural disposition to escape evil and do good.

“Some lived before the Christian faith, so that
They did not worship God aright – and I
Am one of these. Through this, no other fault,

We are lost, afflicted only this one way:
That having no hope, we live in longing.”

All those who depended on their own goodness, before and after Christ, have trusted in their own human endeavors to reach Heaven. Only to find that nothing we do can save us. We cannot be good enough. No riches, fame, education, or good deeds will get us into Heaven. There are many people who think their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds and thus God will let them in Heaven. But God is a holy, righteous, pure God and cannot be in the presence of sin, any sin. We are born in sin and we sin therefore we cannot be in the presence of God. We were etern. ally separated from God due to sin. There was no way for us to be saved. But God had a plan of salvation! Jesus Christ came to earth as God Man. He was 100% human from Mary’s side, but also 100% divine on God’s side. He was born sinless and He chose to live sinless so he was the only perfect man since Adam and Eve before the Fall. He gave Himself up to be sacrificed on the cross in order to offer us His righteousness so that we may be saved. He rose again to give us eternal life. Thank God for the Good News, the Gospel, of salvation!

Dante asks if there is no hope for these good people to be saved and Virgil explains that the only time they had a chance was when the victorious “Mighty One”, Jesus Christ, came after His crucifixion and before His resurrection. He came to claim all those had a heart for the true God but had died before Jesus. He goes on to list the Old Testament patriarchs and ends with, “and many others”.

“…, and many others – and His
Coming here made them blessed, and rescued them.

Know this: no human soul was saved, till these.”

The dead went to a place called Hades in Greek and Sheol in Hebrew meaning the Place of the Dead. It’s possible that it was in the “bowels of the earth” as it is described in the Bible. While the bodies die and lie in the grave here on earth, the souls went to Sheol/Hades either to the righteous side or the ungodly side.

This place was divided into 3 sections: Abraham’s Bosom (better called Paradise) where those, who believe in the true God, went. There was also a place of suffering punishment where those who rejected God went. And, finally, Tartarus where the fallen angels dwell. The divide between the Paradise and where the ungodly are suffering punishment is a huge and uncrossable chasm. Sheol, or Hades, is a “temporary” place off the dead. Luke 16:19-31; 2 Peter 2:4

After Christ’s death and resurrection, Paradise (or Abraham’s Bosom) was moved to Heaven. After Jesus Christ rose from the dead He ascended to the Father, taking the saints who were in Abraham’s Bosom to heaven with Him. Thus, He took “captivity captive”.

Ephesians 4:4-10 (Modern King James Version – MKJV) There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, (5) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6) one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. (7) But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (8) Therefore He says, “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.” (9) (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? (10) He who descended is the same also as He who ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.)

There we await Christ’s return and the final judgment. Believers now wait in Jesus’ presence in Paradise until the time of their resurrection to enter His Kingdom. The ungodly and unrighteous, those who rejected God, are in the part of Hades/Sheol where they experience suffering. At the final judgment, they will be sent to Gehenna, the Lake of Fire for eternal torment with Satan and his fallen angels (demons).

Where was Jesus and what He was doing after He died on the cross and before He rose from the dead? Jesus Christ was fully God but He was also fully man. He came to experience what we experience except that He did not sin. When He died, He may have gone to Hades/Sheol, the place of the dead, just as all men did. He was sinless yet had taken on the sins of the world for all time. So He experienced death. That was the human part of Him. But He did not stay dead! He rose from the dead and that is the divine part of Him! Acts 2:22-36

The scriptures indicate that He went to Sheol, to the righteous dead.

Ephesians 4:8-10 (MKJV) Therefore He says, “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.” (9) (Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? (10) He who descended is the same also as He who ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.)

1 Peter 4:3-6 (CEV) You have already lived long enough like people who don’t know God. You were immoral and followed your evil desires. You went around drinking and partying and carrying on. In fact, you even worshiped disgusting idols. (4) Now your former friends wonder why you have stopped running around with them, and they curse you for it. (5) But they will have to answer to God, who judges the living and the dead. (6) The good news has even been preached to the dead, so that after they have been judged for what they have done in this life, their spirits will live with God.

Jesus died and He went to Sheol to preach the gospel of His victory in His death and resurrection. To those in Paradise, it was the word of life, but, to those in the ungodly place, they were words of condemnation.

Colossians 2:15 (MKJV) Having stripped rulers and authorities, [Jesus] made a show of them publicly, triumphing over them in it.

Revelation 1:17-18 (MKJV) When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person. But he put his right hand on me and said: Don’t be afraid! I am the first, the last, (18) and the living one. I died, but now I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to death and the world of the dead.

So Jesus triumphed over sin and death and He rose in victory!

1 Corinthians 15:55 (MKJV) “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?”

Satan thought he had taken the Son of God out when Jesus was crucified. But Jesus went to the place of the dead and preached the good news and then He stripped satan of his power and took the keys away from him. Then Jesus arose in victory and triumph over sin and death!

Dante Allighieri, Inferno, Canto IV, Limbo

They continue on their walk through the sighing souls…

But kept on passing through the woods – not trees,

But a wood of thronging spirits; nor did we make
Much distance from the place where I had slept,
When I saw a fire that overcame a bleak

Hemisphere of darkness.

Here they meet some ghosts of classical authors and poets: Homer, Horace, Lucan, Ovid. These greet Virgil as one of their clique and Virgil explains to Dante that they are separate from the other sighing souls because they were so honored and famous on earth. Virgil introduces Dante to the group and they accept him. Dante sees himself as one of their brilliance. The group go on to a castle with 7 walls and 7 gates and surrounded by a “handsome stream” or moat which keeps out the other common sighers.

The 7 walls represent the seven liberal arts; or the four moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) combined with the three intellectual virtues (intelligence, science and wisdom). It is a castle of human wisdom without the light of God. From the heights of this castle, Virgil and Dante overlook a meadow with a group of people and Virgil identifies the faces to Dante. I list here all the names listed in Canto IV and a short summary about each. They are Roman, Greek, Muslim, and mythological. Talk about name-dropping…

• Electra – Electra’s parents were King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. Her sisters were Iphigeneia and Chrysothemis, and her brother was Orestes. Electra was absent from Mycenae when her father returned from the Trojan War. When he came back, he brought with him his war prize, the Trojan princess Cassandra, who had already borne him twin sons. Upon their arrival, Agamemnon and Cassandra were murdered, by either Clytemnestra herself, her lover Aegisthus or both. Clytemnestra had held a grudge against her husband for agreeing to sacrifice their eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Artemis so he could send his ships to fight in the Trojan war. Eight years later, Electra returned home from Athens at the same time as her brother, Orestes. Orestes was saved either by his old nurse or by Electra, and was taken to Phanote on Mount Parnassus, where King Strophius took charge of him. When Orestes was twenty, the Oracle of Delphi ordered him to return home and avenge his father’s death. Orestes saw Electra’s face before the tomb of Agamemnon, where both had gone to perform rites to the dead. Orestes and his friend Pylades, son of King Strophius of Phocis and Anaxibia, killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (in some accounts with Electra helping). Before her death, Clytemnestra cursed Orestes. The Erinyes or Furies, whose duty it is to punish any violation of the ties of family piety, fulfill this curse with their torment. They pursue Orestes, urging him to end his life. Electra then married Pylades. – Wikipedia, Electra
• Aeneas – The son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam’s children (such as Hector and Paris). He is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad. Aphrodite has caused Zeus to fall in love with mortal women. In retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten. She adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, but Aphrodite identifies herself as a Phrygian princess. After they make love she confesses. She warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess. When Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises. Aeneas is a minor character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny, but is an honorable warrior in his own right. Aeneas’s mother Aphrodite frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield, and he is a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills him, and carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Even Poseidon, who normally favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas’s rescue after he falls under the assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people. The history of Aeneas was continued by Roman authors. Virgil wrote the Aeneid. The Aeneid explains that Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed or enslaved when Troy fell. A marriage of sorts was arranged between Dido and Aeneas at the instigation of Juno, who was told that her favorite city would eventually be defeated by the Trojans’ descendants. Aeneas’s mother Venus (the Roman adaptation of Aphrodite) realized that her son and his company needed a temporary respite to reinforce themselves for the journey to come. However, the messenger god Mercury was sent by Jupiter and Venus to remind Aeneas of his journey and his purpose, compelling him to leave secretly. When Dido learned of this, she uttered a curse that would forever pit Carthage against Rome, an enmity that would culminate in the Punic Wars. She then committed suicide by stabbing herself with the same sword she gave Aeneas when they first met. According to Livy, Aeneas was victorious but Latinus died in the war. Aeneas founded the city of Lavinium, named after his wife. He later welcomed Dido’s sister, Anna Perenna, who then committed suicide after learning of Lavinia’s jealousy. After Aeneas’s death, Venus asked Jupiter to make her son immortal. Jupiter agreed. The river god Numicus cleansed Aeneas of all his mortal parts and Venus anointed him with ambrosia and nectar, making him a god. Aeneas was recognized as the god Jupiter Indiges. – Wikipedia
• Hector – In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Hector, was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. He acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defence of Troy, “killing 31,000 Greek fighters.” He was ultimately killed by Achilles. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Hector did not approve of war between the Greeks and the Trojans. For ten years, the Achaeans besieged Troy and their allies in the east. Hector commanded the Trojan army. Hector was the best warrior the Trojans and their allies could field, and his fighting prowess was admired by Greeks and his own people alike. The battle rages inside the camp. Hector goes down, hit by a stone thrown by Ajax, but Apollo arrives from Olympus and infuses strength into “the shepherd of the people”, who orders a chariot attack, with Apollo clearing the way. Hector lays hold of Protesilaus’ ship and calls for fire. The Trojans cannot bring it to him, as Ajax kills everyone who tries. Eventually, Hector breaks Ajax’ spear with his sword, forcing him to give ground, and he sets the ship afire. Hector strips the armor of Achilles off the fallen Patroclus and gives it to his men to take back to the city. Glaucus accuses Hector of cowardice for not challenging Ajax. Stung, Hector calls for the armor, puts it on, and uses it to rally the Trojans. Zeus regards the donning of a hero’s armor as an act of insolence by a fool about to die, but it makes Hector strong. The next day, the enraged Achilles renounces the wrath that kept him out of action and routs the Trojans, forcing them back to the city. Hector chooses to remain outside the gates of Troy to face Achilles. Achilles kills Hector. – Wikipedia
• Julius Caesar – Gaius Julius Caesar (12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. – Wikipedia
• Camilla – In Virgil’s Aeneid, Camilla of the Volsci is the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus is chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci, his infant daughter in his hands. The river Amasenus blocked his path, and, fearing for the child’s welfare, Metabus bound her to a spear. He promised Diana that Camilla would be her servant, a warrior virgin. He then safely threw her to the other side, and swam across to retrieve her. She was raised in her childhood to be a huntress and kept the companionship of her father and the shepherds in the hills and woods. She helped her ally, King Turnus of the Rutuli, fight Aeneas and the Trojans in the war sparked by the courting of Princess Lavinia. Arruns, a Trojan ally, stalked Camilla on the battlefield, and, when she was opportunely distracted by her pursuit of Chloreus, killed her.
• Penthesilea – She was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She assisted Troy in the Trojan War, during which she was killed by Achilles. After a day of distinguishing herself on the battlefield, Penthesilea confronts Achilles. Achilles kills her, but after taking off her helmet, he falls in love with her. – Wikipedia
• King Latinus – Latinus was a figure in both Greek and Roman mythology. He is often associated with the heroes of the Trojan War, namely Odysseus and Aeneas. Latinus was the son of Odysseus and Circe. In Roman mythology, he is sometimes described as the son of Faunus and Marica, and father of Lavinia with his wife, Amata. He hosted Aeneas’s army of exiled Trojans and offered them the chance to reorganize their life in Latium. His wife Amata wished his daughter Lavinia to be betrothed to Turnus, king of the Rutuli, but Faunus and the gods insisted that he give her instead to Aeneas. Turnus declared war on Aeneas and was killed two weeks into the conflict. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, later founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings leading to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. – Wikipedia
• Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus
• Brutus – He was a Roman senator and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. Brutus was close to General Julius Caesar, the leader of the Populares faction. However, Caesar’s attempts to assume greater power for himself put him at greater odds with the Roman elite and members of the Senate. Brutus eventually came to oppose Caesar and fought on the side of the Optimates faction, led by Pompey, against Caesar’s forces in the Civil War (49–45 BC). Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, after which Brutus surrendered to Caesar, who granted him amnesty. Due to Caesar’s increasingly monarchical behavior, several senators, calling themselves “Liberators”, plotted to assassinate him. They recruited Brutus, who took a leading role in the assassination. Mark Antony, granted amnesty to the assassins. However, a popular uprising forced Brutus and his brother-in-law, fellow assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus, to leave the City of Rome. In 43 BC Octavian, Caesar’s adoptive son, became consul and immediately after taking office passed a resolution declaring Brutus and the other conspirators murderers. This led to a second civil war, in which Antony and Octavian fought the Liberatores led by Brutus and Cassius. The former decisively defeated the outnumbered armies of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi in October 42 BC. After the battle, Brutus committed suicide. – Wikipedia
• Lucretia – She was a noblewoman in ancient Rome whose rape by Sextus Tarquinius (Tarquin), an Etruscan king’s son, was the cause of a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic. Lucretia is the daughter of Spurius Lucretius and wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Prior to the rape, while her husband was a man of excellent social standing, he had no political power or standing in Rome. Lucretia as being the role model for Roman girls because of her devotion to her husband. At night, Tarquin entered her bedroom by stealth, quietly going around the slaves who were sleeping at her door. She awakened. He identified himself and offered her two choices: she could submit to his sexual advances and become his wife and future queen, or he would kill her and one of her slaves and place the bodies together, then claim he had caught her having adulterous sex. he following day Lucretia dressed in black and went to her father’s house in Rome and cast herself down in the supplicant’s position (embracing the knees), weeping in front of her father and husband. She asked to explain herself and insisted on summoning witnesses before she told them about her rape. After disclosing the rape, she asked them for vengeance, a plea that could not be ignored because she was speaking to the chief magistrate of Rome. While the men debated the proper course of action, Lucretia drew a concealed dagger and stabbed herself in the heart. She died in her father’s arms. – Wikipedia
• Julia – The daughter of Julius Caesar and Cornelia, and fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue. Pompey was supposedly infatuated with his bride. The personal charms of Julia were remarkable: she was a kind woman of beauty and virtue; and although policy prompted her union, and she was thirty years younger than her husband, she possessed in Pompey a devoted husband, to whom she was, in return, reportedly attached. Julia died before a breach between her husband and father had become inevitable.
• Marcia – Marcia is believed to have been born about 80 BC to Lucius Marcius Philippus and his first wife. He later married Atia. After Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (Cato the Younger) divorced his first wife Atilia because of rumors about her infidelity, in 63 BC, he married Marcia whom Plutarch described as “a woman of excellent reputation, about whom there was the most abundant talk”. Marcia and Cato had two or three children. He was not only a successful warrior, but a conservative Roman senator, a orator and follower of Stoic philosophy. The renowned orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, who was Cato’s admirer and friend, desired a connection to Cato’s family and asked for the hand of Porcia, Cato’s eldest daughter. Porcia was already married to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, who was unwilling to let her go; and Hortensius, being nearly 60 years old, was almost 30 years Porcia’s senior. Denied the hand of Porcia, Hortensius then suggested that he marry Cato’s wife Marcia, on the grounds that she had already given Cato heirs. On the condition that Marcia’s father consented to the match, Cato agreed to divorce Marcia, who then married Hortensius. Between Hortensius’ death in 50 BC and Cato’s leaving Italy with Pompey in 49 BC, Cato took Marcia and her children into his household again. Ancient sources differ on whether they were remarried. Cato did not participate in the battle and, unwilling to live in a world led by Caesar and refusing even implicitly to grant Caesar the power to pardon him, he committed suicide in April 46 BC. According to Plutarch, Cato attempted to kill himself by stabbing himself with his own sword, but failed to do so due to an injured hand. He had merely ripped open his abdomen letting his bowels spill out but they were not pierced. Staring in horror at his own situation, his servants and physician found him and the physician thought he could save Cato but Cato waved him away and plucked out his own bowels, tearing them and immediately died. – Wikipedia, Marcia, Cato
• Cornelia – Cornelia Salonina, wife of the emperor Gallienus, was an Augusta of the Roman Empire, mother of the three princes Valerian II, Saloninus, and Marinianus. She was married to Gallienus about ten years before his accession to the throne. When her husband became joint-emperor with his father Valerian in 253, Cornelia Salonina was named Augusta. Her fate, after the murder of Gallienus, during the siege of Mediolanum in 268, is unknown. – Wikipedia
• Saladin of Arabia – An-Nasir Salah ad-Din was the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. Saladin led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in Palestine. During his reign, Saladin has been described as the de facto Caliph of Islam. Saladin died of a fever on 4 March 1193, at Damascus, not long after King Richard’s departure. – Wikipedia
• Plato – Plato’s true name was Aristocles but he called himself Plato. He was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Plato belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. His father was Ariston and his mother was Perictione. Ariston died early in his childhood and his mother remarried Pyrilampes, her uncle. He was very well educated for his times. He died in his 80’s. – Wikipedia
• Socrates – Socrates was born in Alopeke, and belonged to the tribe Antiochis. His father was Sophroniscus, a sculptor, or stonemason. His mother was a midwife named Phaenarete. He was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, he made no writings, and is known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers writing after his lifetime, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. Claiming loyalty to his city, Socrates clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society. He praised Sparta, archrival to Athens, directly and indirectly in various dialogues. In 399 BC, Socrates went on trial and was subsequently found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety. He was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock. – Wikipedia
• Democritus – Democritus was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC. His father was from a noble family and so wealthy that he received Xerxes on his march through Abdera. Democritus spent the inheritance which his father left him on travels into distant countries, to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. He traveled to Asia, and was even said to have reached India and Ethiopia. After returning to his native land he occupied himself with natural philosophy. He traveled throughout Greece to acquire a better knowledge of its cultures. He mentions many Greek philosophers in his writings, and his wealth enabled him to purchase their writings. He was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. Many consider Democritus to be the “father of modern science”. None of his writings have survived; only fragments are known from his vast body of work. Democritus lived to a very old age. He was highly esteemed and popularly known as the Laughing Philosopher. – Wikipedia
• Zeno – Zeno of Elea was born c. 495 BC. Little is known for certain about Zeno’s life. He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of Magna Graecia and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Zeno conspired to overthrow Nearchus, a tyrant of the ancient Greek city of Elea. He was arrested and tortured to reveal the name of his colleagues in conspiracy, Zeno refused to reveal their names, although he said that he did have a secret that would be advantageous for Nearchus to hear. When Nearchus leaned in to listen to the secret, Zeno bit his ear. He “did not let go until he lost his life and the tyrant lost that part of his body”. – Wikipedia
• Empedocles – He was born in Akragas in Sicily to a rich and noble family. His father was Meton and his grandfather was Empedokles who won a victory in the horse-race at Olympia in [the 71st Olympiad]. Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher. Empedocles’ philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the four classical elements. He is said to have been magnanimous in his support of the poor; severe in persecuting the overbearing conduct of the oligarchs; and he even declined the sovereignty of the city when it was offered to him. He claimed to be a god, and to receive the homage of his fellow-citizens in that capacity. His brilliant oratory, his penetrating knowledge of nature, and the reputation of his marvellous powers, including the curing of diseases, and averting epidemics, produced many myths and stories surrounding his name. It is unsure when he died and how although legend has it he threw himself into the crater of Etna so he would be remembered as a god. – Wikipedia
• Anaxagoras – Born in Clazomenae, Ionia Anaxagoras is believed to have enjoyed some wealth and political influence in his native town of Clazomenae. However, he supposedly surrendered this out of a fear that they would hinder his search for knowledge. Anaxagoras was a Greek citizen of the Persian Empire and had served in the Persian army; he may have been a member of the Persian regiments that entered mainland Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars. Anaxagoras is said to have remained in Athens for thirty years. He brought philosophy and the spirit of scientific inquiry from Ionia to Athens. His observations of the celestial bodies and the fall of meteorites led him to form new theories of the universal order, and to prediction of the impact of meteorites. According to Pliny he was credited with predicting the fall of the meteorite in 467. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the Sun, which he described as a mass of blazing metal, larger than the Peloponnese; his theories about eclipses, the Sun and Moon may well have been based on observations of the eclipse of 463 BCE, which was visible in Greece. He thought the Earth was flat and floated supported by ‘strong’ air under it and disturbances in this air sometimes caused earthquakes. Anaxagoras wrote a book of philosophy, but only fragments of the first part of this have survived. These speculations made him vulnerable in Athens to a charge of impiety. Pericles spoke in defense of Anaxagoras at his trial, c. 450. Even so, Anaxagoras was forced to retire from Athens to Lampsacus in Troad (c. 434 – 433). He died there in around the year 428. – Wikipedia
• Thales – Thales of Miletus was born in the city of Miletus around the mid-620s BC. Thales died at the age of 78 during the 58th Olympiad (548–545 BC) and attributes his death to heat stroke while watching the games. was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic philosopher. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition, and he is otherwise historically recognized as the first individual in Western civilization known to have entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy. In mathematics, Thales used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales’ theorem. – Wikipedia
• Heraclitus – Heraclitus of Ephesus, “The Obscure”, was son of Bloson, was a pre-Socratic Ionian Greek philosopher, and a native of the city of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey and then part of the Persian Empire. He was born to an aristocratic family c. 535 BC. He died after 478 BC from a hydropsy. He treated himself with a liniment of cow manure. He was of distinguished parentage but eschewed his privileged life for a lonely one as a philosopher. Little else is known about his early life and education. He regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. He was considered a misanthrope given to depression. – Wikipedia
• Diogenes – His father was Hicesias, was a banker. Hicesias and Diogenes became involved in a scandal involving the adulteration or debasement of the currency, and Diogenes was exiled from the city and lost his citizenship and all his material possessions. He traveled to Athens and made it his life’s goal to challenge established customs and values. Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, eventually settling in Corinth. He considered his avoidance of earthly pleasures a contrast to and commentary on contemporary Athenian behaviors. This attitude was grounded in a disdain for what he regarded as the folly, pretence, vanity, self-deception, and artificiality of human conduct. He was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. He used his simple lifestyle and behaviour to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society. He had a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a highly non-traditional fashion, and took to toughening himself against nature. Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in a large ceramic jar, or pithos, in the marketplace. – Wikipedia
• Dioscorides – Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De materia medica a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. He was employed as a physician in the Roman army. – Wikipedia
• Orpheus – Orpheus was one of the handful of Greek heroes to visit the Underworld, in an attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld. His music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. He was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion. One early morning he went to the oracle of Dionysus at Mount Pangaion to salute his god at dawn, but was ripped to shreds by Thracian Maenads for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus) and buried in Pieria. – Wikipedia
• Cicero – Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town, to and Helvia. His father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life and studied extensively to compensate. Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, poets and historians. According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law. In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, Asia Minor and Rhodes. Cicero married Terentia probably at the age of 27. Terentia’s family was wealthy, probably the plebeian noble house of Terenti Varrones, thus meeting the needs of Cicero’s political ambitions in both economic and social terms. In the 50s BC, Cicero’s letters to Terentia became shorter and colder. He complained to his friends that Terentia had betrayed him. The divorce appears to have taken place in 51 BC or shortly before. In 46 or 45 BC, Cicero married a young girl, Publilia, who had been his ward. It is thought that Cicero needed her money, particularly after having to repay the dowry of Terentia, who came from a wealthy family. This marriage did not last long. Although his marriage to Terentia was one of convenience, it is commonly known that Cicero held great love for his daughter Tullia. When she suddenly became ill in February 45 BC and died after having seemingly recovered from giving birth to a son in January, Cicero was stunned. Cicero hoped that his son Marcus would become a philosopher like him, but Marcus himself wished for a military career. After Clodius passed a law to deny to Cicero fire and water (i.e. shelter) within four hundred miles of Rome, Cicero went into exile. He arrived at Thessalonica, on 23 May 58 BC. Cicero’s exile caused him to fall into depression. He was a Roman statesman, lawyer and Academic Skeptic philosopher who played an important role in the politics of the late Republic and vainly tried to uphold republican principles during the crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists. – Wikipedia
• Linus – Could be: Linus, the great musician son of Apollo; Linus, son of Apollo and Psamathe; Linus, a soldier in the army of the Seven Against Thebes. He was killed by Hypseus at Thebes. – Wikipedia
• Seneca the moralist – Seneca was pre-eminently a moralist. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca the Younger, was born in Corduba in the Roman province of Baetica in Hispania between 8 and 1BC. His father was Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, a Spanish-born Roman knight who had gained fame as a writer and teacher of rhetoric in Rome. Seneca’s mother, Helvia, was from a prominent Baetician family. Seneca tells us that he was taken to Rome in the “arms” of his aunt (his mother’s stepsister) at a young age, probably when he was about five years old. Seneca was taught the usual subjects of literature, grammar, and rhetoric, as part of the standard education of high-born Romans. He was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became his advisor. Seneca’s influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was likely to have been innocent. Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death, and his wife Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate. Nero ordered Seneca’s wife saved. Her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself. As for Seneca himself, his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood and extended pain rather than a quick death. He also took poison, which was however not fatal. After dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which he expected would speed blood flow and ease his pain. Seneca’s lasting contribution to philosophy has been to the school of Stoicism. – Wikipedia
• Euclid the geometer – Euclid of Alexandria was likely born c. 325 BC. Euclid’s arrival in Alexandria came about ten years after its founding by Alexander the Great, which means he arrived c. 322 BC. Euclid died c. 270 BC, presumably in Alexandria. He was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the “founder of geometry”. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323–283 BC). His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. Euclid deduced the theorems of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory, and mathematical rigour. In addition to the Elements, at least five works of Euclid have survived to the present day. – Wikipedia
• Ptolemy – Ptolemy I Soter was born in 367 BC. Lagus, a Macedonian nobleman from Eordaea, but many ancient sources claim that he was actually an illegitimate son of Philip II of Macedon which would have made Ptolemy the half-brother of Alexander. Ptolemy’s mother was Arsinoe. According to Satyrus the Peripatetic, Arsinoe was a descendant of Alexander I of Macedon and thus a member of the Argead dynasty, claiming ultimate descent from Heracles. Ptolemy served with Alexander from his first campaigns, and was among the seven somatophylakes (bodyguards) of Alexander. He played a principal part in the later campaigns in Afghanistan and India. When Alexander died in 323 BC, Ptolemy is said to have instigated the settlement of the empire made at Babylon. Through the Partition of Babylon, he was appointed satrap of Egypt. Ptolemy took great pains in acquiring the body of Alexander the Great. On his deathbed, Alexander the Great wished to be buried at the Temple of Zeus Ammon in the Siwa Oasis of ancient Libya instead of the royal tombs of Aigai in Macedon. However, his successors including Perdiccas attempted to bury his body in Macedon instead. In late 322 or early 321 BC, the body of Alexander the Great was in Syria, on its way to Macedon, when it was captured by Ptolemy I Soter. He brought Alexander’s remains back to Egypt, interring them at Memphis, but they were later moved to Alexandria where a tomb of Alexander the Great was constructed for them. Shortly after this event, Ptolemy openly joined the coalition against Perdiccas. Ptolemy’s decision to defend the Nile against Perdiccas ended in fiasco for Perdiccas, with the loss of 2,000 men. This failure was a fatal blow to Perdiccas’ reputation, and he was murdered in his tent by two of his subordinates. Ptolemy immediately crossed the Nile, to provide supplies to what had the day before been an enemy army. Ptolemy was offered the regency in place of Perdiccas; but he declined. In the long wars that followed between the different Diadochi, Ptolemy’s first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica and Cyprus, as well as Syria, including the province of Judea. While Alexander was alive, Ptolemy had three children with his mistress Thaïs, who may also have been his wife: Lagus; Leontiscus; and Eirene, who was given in marriage to Eunostos of Soloi in Cyprus. During the Susa weddings, Ptolemy married Persian noblewoman Artakama, as ordered by Alexander the Great. Around 322 BC, he married Eurydice, daughter of Antipater, regent of Macedonia. They had five children before she was repudiated. Ptolemy married once more to Berenice, Eurydice’s cousin, who had come to Egypt as Eurydice’s lady-in-waiting with the children from her first marriage to Philip. Ptolemy I died in January 282 aged 84 or 85. The Ptolemaic dynasty which he founded ruled Egypt for nearly three hundred years. It was a Hellenistic kingdom known for its capital Alexandria, which became a centre of Greek culture. Ptolemaic rule ended with the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. – Wikipedia
• Hippocrates – Hippocrates of Kos was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos to Heraclides, a physician, and Praxitela, daughter of Tizane. Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather (Hippocrates I), and studied other subjects with Democritus and Gorgias. Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, and the Sea of Marmara. Several different accounts of his death exist. He died, probably in Larissa, at the age of 83, 85 or 90, though some say he lived to be well over 100. He is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He was the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized Ancient Greek medicine, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields and making it a profession. Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician and credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath. – Wikipedia
• Galen – Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus was born in September AD 129. His father, Aelius Nicon, was a wealthy patrician, an architect and builder, with eclectic interests including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. At that time Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey) was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library, second only to that in Alexandria, and attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time, including Aristotelian and Epicurean. No expense was spared, and, following his earlier liberal education, at 16 he began studies at the prestigious local sanctuary or Asclepieum dedicated to Asclepius, god of medicine, for four years. Galen’s father died in 148, leaving Galen independently wealthy at the age of 19. He then followed the advice he found in Hippocrates’ teaching and travelled and studied widely. In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia, one of the most influential and wealthy men in Asia. Galen claims that the High Priest chose him over other physicians after he eviscerated an ape and challenged other physicians to repair the damage. When they refused, Galen performed the surgery himself and in so doing won the favor of the High Priest of Asia. Over his four years there, he learned the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and the treatment of fractures and severe trauma, referring to their wounds as “windows into the body”. Only five deaths among the gladiators occurred while he held the post. Galen went to Rome in 162 and made his mark as a practicing physician. His impatience brought him into conflict with other doctors and he felt menaced by them. He feared he might be exiled or poisoned, so he left the city. During the autumn of 169 when Roman troops were returning to Aquileia, a great plague broke out that was probably smallpox, and the emperor summoned Galen back to Rome. He was ordered to accompany Marcus and Verus to Germany as the court physician. He was left behind to act as physician to the imperial heir Commodus. It was here in court that Galen wrote extensively on medical subjects. Ironically, Lucius Verus died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius himself died in 180, both victims of the plague. Galen was the physician to Commodus for much of the emperor’s life. Galen became physician to Septimius Severus during his reign in Rome. He died of old age. He was a physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. He is considered one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic. – Wikipedia
• Avicenna – Ibn Sina also known as Abu Ali Sina, Pur Sina and Avicenna was born c. 980 in Afshana, a village near Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan), the capital of the Samanids, a Persian dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan. His mother, named Sitāra, was from Bukhara. His father, Abdullāh, was a respected scholar from Balkh who might have converted from Sunnis to Ismailism. His father worked in the government of Samanid in the village Kharmasain, a Sunni regional power. Avicenna had memorised the entire Quran by the age of 10. He learned Indian arithmetic from an Indian greengrocer, Mahmoud Massahi and he began to learn more from a wandering scholar who gained a livelihood by curing the sick and teaching the young. He also studied Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) under the Sunni Hanafi scholar Ismail al-Zahid. Avicenna’s first appointment was that of physician to the emir, Nuh II, who owed him his recovery from a dangerous illness (997). Ibn Sina’s chief reward for this service was access to the royal library of the Samanids, well-known patrons of scholarship and scholars. The remaining ten or twelve years of Ibn Sīnā’s life were spent in the service of the Kakuyid ruler Muhammad ibn Rustam Dushmanziyar (also known as Ala al-Dawla), whom he accompanied as physician and general literary and scientific adviser. A severe colic, which seized him on the march of the army against Hamadan, was checked by remedies so violent that Ibn Sina could scarcely stand. Weakened he gave up the regimen. On his deathbed remorse seized him; he bestowed his goods on the poor, restored unjust gains, freed his slaves, and read through the Quran every three days until his death. He died in June 1037, in his fifty-six year, in the month of Ramadan and was buried in Hamadan, Iran. was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, and the father of early modern medicine. Avicenna is also called “the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era”. He was a Peripatetic philosopher influenced by Aristotelian philosophy. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine. – Wikipedia
• Averroes – Ibn Rushd was born on 14 April 1126 to Abu al-Qasim Ahmad, a chief judge. His family was well known in the city for their public service, especially in the legal and religious fields. His grandfather Abu al-Walid Muhammad was the chief judge of Córdoba and the imam of the Great Mosque of Córdoba under the Almoravids. Averroes’ education was “excellent”, beginning with studies in hadith (traditions of Prophet Muhammad), fiqh (jurisprudence), medicine and theology. He studied medicine under Abu Jafar Jarim al-Tajail, who probably taught him philosophy too. He joined a regular meeting of philosophers, physicians and poets in Seville. By 1153 Averroes was in Marrakesh (Morocco), the capital of the Almohad Caliphate, to perform astronomical observations and to support the Almohad project of building new colleges. In 1169 Ibn Tufayl introduced Averroes to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf. Averroes remained in Abu Yaqub’s favor until the caliph’s death in 1184. In the same year, Averroes was appointed qadi (judge) in Seville. In 1171 he became qadi in his hometown of Córdoba. As qadi he would decide cases and give fatwas (legal opinions) based on the Islamic law (sharia). After Caliph Abu Yaqub died Averroes remained in royal favor but in 1195 his fortune reversed. Various charges were made against him and he was tried by a tribunal in Córdoba. The tribunal condemned his teachings, ordered the burning of his works and banished Averroes to nearby Lucena. After a few years, Averroes returned to court in Marrakesh and was again in the caliph’s favor. He died shortly afterwards, on 11 December 1198. He was a Muslim Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psychology, mathematics, Islamic jurisprudence and law, and linguistics. The author of more than 100 books and treatises. – Wikipedia

Some of the names in the list did more than one thing. They were polymaths meaning they were educated, proficient and practised in a lot of subjects.

• 4 virtuous Roman noblewomen
• 5 Greek mythological
• 5 Roman mythological
• 1 Greek statesman (rulers, politics, jurists)
• 3 Roman statesmen
• 2 Muslim statesman
• 9 Greek philosophers
• 2 Roman philosophers
• 2 Muslim philosophers
• 1 Greek astronomer
• 2 Muslim astronomers
• 2 Greek physicians
• 1 Roman physician
• 2 Muslim physicians
• 2 Greek mathematicians
• 1 Muslim mathematician

Why did Dante, the poet, name all these names? Was he boasting somewhat that he could be counted among these famous classical and historical figures? Maybe. But we must remember where these ancient scholars, statesmen and noble people are… in Limbo, the first circle of Hell.

This makes me think that Virgil is making a point to Dante, the pilgrim. No matter how smart you are, how educated you are, how rich you are, how well connected you are, what noble bloodline you come from, how good you are, how hard you work… none of this is what gets you to Heaven. We only get to Heaven through Jesus Christ.

Mark 10:17-31 17 As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”
21 Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
22 But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 And the disciples were amazed at His words.
But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28 Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

So how can we be saved?

Romans 3:10-12 10 As the Scriptures say,
“No one is righteous—
not even one.
11 No one is truly wise;
no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”

Romans 3:20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Romans 3:23-26  23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Romans 8:1-4 1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Romans 9:31-32 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

Romans 10:1-4 1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God… 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

A final thought. There was another time when human beings thought they could get to Heaven without God. Here is the story.

Genesis 1:27-28 (NLT) 27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Genesis 9:1-3 (NLT) 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. 2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. 3 I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.

Genesis 11:1-9 (NLT) 1 At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. 2 As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. 3 They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) 4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” 5 But the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6 “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” 8 In that way, the LORD scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the LORD confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.

God had commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it”. After The Flood, God commanded Noah to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth.” But the people had “settled” in a plain in Babylon. Together. They weren’t scattering and filling the earth. They were staying put, together, in rebellion against God. Then they decided, as a group, to build a city and a tower up to Heaven using the new technology of bricks. God comes down to meet with man because man cannot go up to meet with God. They were trying to be God and get to Heaven on their own without Him. So God scattered the people by giving them different languages. 

I have to wonder if the castle with the 7 walls and gates in Dante’s 1st circle of Hell was a reference to the city and tower of Babel (later to be named the city of Babylon in the country of Babylon)?

Construction of the Tower of Babel is a painting by Abel Grimmer