The Punishment of the Gluttonous (Circle 3)

After Dante recovers from his fainting spell, the poet finds himself in a truly foul smelling place. A place where snow and freezing rain create a fetid slush underfoot. It is here that the gluttons will spend eternity. The gluttons are those who have misused God's gift of food and drink to overindulge themselves. These people will suffer for the rest of their days half buried in the filth that covers the ground, while the three headed canine Cerberus mauls and ravages those who attempt escape from their fate, only to be replaced right where they were before. They can not leave this place. This is where they will remain forever.

The gluttons are forever cold in this place of punishment, unable to enjoy the sense of warmth and comfort that these souls once knew, "I am in the Third Circle of the torments. Here to all time with neither pause nor change the frozen rain of Hell descends in torrents. Huge hailstones, dirty water, and black snow pour from the dismal air to putrefy the putrid slush that waits for them below." The constant weather conditions of this place contradict their desire for the warmth that food gives when consumed. Not only are they to just deal with these conditions, they must endure the freezing slush that they are stuck in for all of eternity.

Those that do attempt an escape from their icy prison will be torn apart by Cerberus, a mythical three headed dog. Cerberus constantly mauls and destroys those who try to free themselves, "And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, turning and turning from it as if they thought one naked side could keep the other warm." Dante is listening to the screams of those being eaten by a beast with three throats, similar to the way these sinners would have eaten. Cerberus also tears through his food in a gluttonous way, comparable to how they ravaged food with total disregard for manners.

The gluttons also wallow in garbage along with the freezing slush. This is the justice that they receive for tearing through food and drink, worrying only about themselves and their craving for more, and not cleanliness. They have abused God's gift to mankind. It is in this horrid place that they shall forever pay for their sins.