The Gluttonous

Level 3

Focus: Dante is traveling through those who sinned through food. Focus on how they are punished and if this contradicts or is the same as the life they lived on earth. Also see the monsters in this level, how are they a punishment?

In the third level are the excess eaters.
They are there to serve the beasts
Who are the people’s personal feeders.

If not fed in time, your own meat they feast
Since you ate so much when living
Now dead you eat the very least.

Forced into almost disappearing
Cook, clean and serve the masters
If you do not listen, your soul you will be giving

You live in mud and the filth
You create. The ground you walk on is full
Of the food you ate as a living soul.

Hidden beneath glass so you can not
Ever obtain it. There are 5 monsters here
They have no name, no real face or form

The monsters that stand before you
Take the form of what made you eat from the start
Horrifying pictures only they can see

Don’t forget not to flee
The spot you hold, because the farther you run,
The worse your curse may be.

If caught by the lady who strolls the land
Your doom is forever hers
The form of a wild spotted cat she holds

Fast on her feet, and lustful to those who watch her
She loves the taste of rotting souls
Beware of the she-leopard.

Beasts stand around waiting for their food
Waiting for each and every one of you
To take a chance and go feed those who

Guard your soul for keep. As you pass through
This circle, you may hear screams and cries
Because those who ate until their death,

Now starve until they die. Over and over
This happens to thee, so take none
For granted, for your soul is theirs to keep.


My canto takes place in upper hell where the gluttonous live in the layer of hot-blooded sins. In this circle of hell the punishment is opposite the crime. These people spent their whole life eating and turning into an enormous beast. As a punishment they see food, serve food, but can never touch food. Unfortunately if they don’t follow the rules and feed the beasts, they become dinner for the hungry monsters. As you read the canto, you can see that food is a big part of their lives, but not like it was when they were alive. They are forced to look at the things that made them sin in life, and serve those things with kindness.

Alyssa Cullere, Period 0