Circle One: Limbo

1st circle: Limbo. Reserved for the souls of the just people who never knew Christ, and those (especially infants) who died without baptism and never committed a sin. Here Dante encounters the ancient philosophers and poets. Another group that fell between the ecclesiastical cracks are those who died before Christ made the scene. Never having experienced God's word in the form of door-to-door missionaries, they just kind of hang around and sigh about the fact that while not being tortured for all time is nice and all, it's not as nice as heaven. The poets in Limbo include the Classical Poets Homer, Ovid, Lucan, and Horace.