In Dante's Inferno, Dante recounts his descent and observation of hell through the various circles and pockets. A part of this portrayal is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different sinners received. The various punishments that Dante imagines sinners receiving are divided into two types. The first type borrows from various gruesome and cruel forms of torture and the second type, though often less physically agonizing, is Dante's creative and imaginative punishment for sins. Borrowed torturous forms of punishment create physical pain for the shadows, while creative punishments are used to inflict mental and psychological suffering. However, it is possible for creative punishments to inflict both mental and physical pain on the sinner. Many punishments that Dante imagines for various sinners are borrowed from forms of torture. The first physical punishment Dante borrows from is the punishment of heretics. The penalty in medieval times for heresy was often public humiliation or death at the stake. For Dante, being a heretic meant following his own opinion and not the beliefs of the Christian Church. Dante's punishment for the "arch heretics and those who followed them" was to be "buried" and to have some tombs "heated more, others less". Since the archheretics believed that everything dies with the body and that the soul does not exist, Dante not only punishes them with the hot and crowded tombs, but punishes them with their beliefs and makes them feel what it means to die. This punishment of Dante is one where he focused more on inflicting physical rather than mental pain. Although it uses various tor...... middle of paper ......hi two types of punishments Dante used it, it clearly illustrated how horrible Hell really is. His physical tortures are terrifying in their disgusting extremes, and his creative tortures are psychologically cruel. The various punishments are all designed to adequately penalize each sin through its law of counterpenalty. In this, there are two main differences in these punishments. First, there are differences in the origin of the idea of ​​punishment. Second, there is a difference in the intention of punishment: to punish with psychological or physical anguish. Finally, the differences in punishments can be seen as a metaphor for Hell as a whole. Not only is Hell a combination of borrowed visions of hell and original ideas, but Hell is also a journey with elements of both physical and mental, or spiritual, nature.