Dante arrives in a horrible forest. He tries to leave towards the light but a lion blocks his path. Turning back around, he meets Virgil who offers to guide him another way through the forest and through hell, after which he will end up passing through heaven with an angelic guide.
The people who are neither evil nor believers are trapped in a sort of limbo. They cannot die but are forgotten and forsaken from the earth and left to be tortured by wasps and worms.
So this is the real limbo. Good Christian people who were never baptized still live in hell. seems pretty harsh. There are people here that are fictional. It's not just a warning for real people then.
I'm a bit confused by the lovers bit. Were they there simply because they fornicated? Or cheated on others? Or are they grouped as lovers but are damned as non-christians? May need to re-read this carefully but i dont get it right now.
Cerberus the guardian eats dirt. River Styx = hatred. people consumed by anger, ripping each other apart, some lie under the water, drowning, sighing
Furies are large, bloody women covered in various kinds of snakes.
Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002)
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