Gustave Doré - Caron Rowing/Dante’s Inferno Magnet

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work in Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. In this scene, Charon comes to ferry souls across the river Acheron to the Christian Hell. Engraving by Gustave Doré