Toynbee "Limbo"

D. gives this name to Circle I of Hell, [Inf. iv. 45]; limbo de lo 'nferno, [Purg. xxii. 14]; alluded to as il primo cerchio che l'abisso cigne, [Inf. iv. 24]; il cerchio superno, [Inf. xii. 39]; luogo là giù, [Purg. vii. 28]; l'ampia gola d'inferno, [Purg. xxi. 31-32]; il primo cinghio del carcere cieco, [Purg. xxii. 103], l'uscio de' morti, [Purg. xxx. 139]; là giù, [Par. xxxii. 84]. Virgil explains to D. that here are placed the spirits of those who having lived before Christianity, did not worship God aright, and of those who, living after Christ, died unbaptized, he himself being among the former, [Inf. iv. 33-39]; he adds that the only pain they suffer is that they live with the longing, but without the hope, of seeing God ([Inf. iv. 40-42]). He describes Limbo as 'a place, not sad with torments, but with gloom only', [Purg. vii. 28-29]; the sighs of the spirits cause the everlasting air to tremble, but there is no audible lamentation among them, [Inf. iv. 25-27]; [Purg. vii. 29-30]. After D. and V. have entered Limbo, and the latter has explained the nature of the place and of the spirits confined there ([Inf. iv. 23-42]), D. inquires if any souls had ever been released from there ([Inf. iv. 43-50]), V. replies that, soon after his own arrival there, a Mighty One (i.e. Christ) came and delivered many thence (cf. [Inf. iv. 38-39]), among whom he mentions Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Jacob and his twelve sons, and Rachel ([Inf. iv. 51-63]). As they proceed D. sees a fire (supposed to symbolize the moral virtues), in the light of which he descries certain 'honourable folk' ([Inf. iv. 67-72]), he asks V. why they are distinguished from the other spirits by being allowed to be in the light, and is informed that their honoured reputation in the world gains them that distinction ([Inf. iv. 73-78]); a voice is then heard hailing the return of 'the most lofty poet' (i.e. V.), after which four 'mighty shades with mien neither sad nor joyous' approach them ([Inf. iv. 79-84]); V. explains to D. that these are Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan ([Inf. iv. 85-90]). In company with the five poets D. comes to a noble castle (possibly symbolizing philosophy), encircled with seven walls (perhaps the four cardinal virtues, justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance, together with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding), and a rivulet (i.e. eloquence), over which they pass and enter through seven gates (perhaps representing the seven liberal arts, viz., grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) onto a green meadow (i.e, fame, according to some) ([Inf. iv. 100-111]); here D. sees various great personages of antiquity connected with Troy and Rome, viz. Electra (the mother of Dardanus, who founded Troy), Hector (the defender of Troy), Aeneas (the founder of the Roman Empire), and Julius Caesar (the first emperor, according to D.'s theory); then Camilla (who died in defence of Latium), Penthesilea (who died in defence of Troy), and Latinus (king of Latium) with his daughter Lavinia (the wife of Aeneas) ([Inf. iv. 112-126]); then Lucius Junius Brutus, who delivered Rome from the Tarquins, with Lucretia, Julia, Marcia, and Cornelia, as representatives of the virtues to which Rome owed her greatness ([Inf. iv. 127-128]); then sitting apart from the rest, as being of a different faith and race and having no connexion with the Roman Empire, Saladin ([Inf. iv. 129]); in another group D. sees great philosophers and men of science, viz. Aristotle, with Socrates and Plato close to him, surrounded by Democritus, Diogenes, Anaxagoras, and Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno; and Dioscorides, Orpheus, Tully, Linus, and Seneca the moralist; Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen, and Averroes ([Inf. iv. 130-144]). V. and D. then leave the other four poets and pass on into the darkness to the next circle ([Inf. iv. 148-151]).

Besides the great spirits named by D. here we learn from Virgil's conversation with Statius later on ([Purg. xxii. 10-114]) that with himself and Homer in Limbo were Juvenal ([Purg. xxii. 14]), Terence, Caecilius, Plautus, and Varro (or Varius) ([Purg. xxii. 97-98]), and Persius ([Purg. xxii. 100]); together with Euripides, Antiphon, Simonides, Agathon and other Greek poets ([Purg. xxii. 106-108]); and Antigone, Deiphyle, Argia, Ismene, and Hypsipyle; the daughter of Tiresias (supposed to be Manto), Thetis, and Deidamia with her sisters ([Purg. xxii. 109-114]).