Contrapasso

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Contrapasso is the process by which souls serve penance in Dante's Inferno according to the nature of their sins in life. A literal translation would be "counter-suffering". It is the ironic cosmological law ensuring that "the punishment fits the crime".

An example of this would be in Canto XXX, where the fortune tellers and diviners walk backwards for eternity, with their heads turned around to face behind them, and their eyes blinded with tears. Another example of Contrapasso is Canto XXXII where the three-headed Lucifer is placed in the center of Earth. The three heads are a distorted reflection of The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.

Lucifer, or Dis, is punished by being embedded in the ice of the frozen lake at the bottom of the funnel of Hell. His crime was rebellion against God, a rebellion brought on by his pride, the most severe of the "deadly sins." That same pride compels Dis to flap his giant wings in an attempt to free himself from Hell. The very flapping of the wings generates the cold air of Hell which freezes the lake of Cocytus in which Dis stands frozen. Only by stopping his flapping could Dis free himself, but that would involve humbling himself, and his very pride won't allow it. So he remains imprisoned due to his own doing. This, too, is how Dante's contrapasso works. Sinners not only become their sin (or re-enact their sin, as Dis does continually), they create for themselves and maintain themselves in their punishments.

Another example is that of Francesca and Paolo, the hapless illicit lovers of Canto 5, who are punished by being blown about, out of control by a giant whirlwind. That very whirlwind is caused by the clashing of the cold air of Hell and the heat of their passion. They are out of control in Hell as they were on Earth in their illicit affair.

Other examples include the Hypocrites of Canto XXIII. These shades wear gilded cloaks of Gold but are bent by the weight of Lead that lines the inside of the cloaks. This personifies their attempts to raise themselves above others with their lofty claims (the gilded exterior) while they are weighed down, forcing them to follow these claims (Lead lined interior)^[1]