I'm probably on the 6th level

For those who don't know, here are the levels (or circles) of hell according to Dante:

First, you need to go through a dark forest. Here there are animals which can kill you. That's to make sure that living people don't get to hell. Here, you are also likely to find loved ones from heaven who want to make sure that you don't get stuck in hell. They will provide you with a poet, probably a humanist, who will be your guide to hell.

After the woods, you get to the vestibule. This is where you go if you believed in God but didn't take sides. You were neither good nor evil, an opportunist? Then you don't quite go to hell, but you go to the vestibule. Your afterlife in the vestibule is spent chasing an unreachable flag whilst being chased by insects.

Eventually, you reach Charon the boatdude. He takes you across some river where you enter the official first circle of hell. This isn't really hell as we know it, but is more often referred to as Purgatory. This is for unbaptized babies and pre-old testament folks who were pure at heart but weren't given the choice to repent for the sins of their ancestors. Nothing too bad happens here, it's just a basically boring place.

The next circle of hell is where all the lustful go: Romeo and Juliet, Zeus, Magic Johnson. Here, from what I understand, it's very windy. And there's no one to comfort you. So far hell is not that horrible.

In the third level you got your fatties. These are the gluttons who ate and drank of God's gifts and gave nothing but garbage in return. Here there's a lot of filth and garbage, with intermittent freezing rain. Sounds like a winter in New Jersey. However things can get pretty nasty in this circle as the three headed dog Cerberus might chew you to pieces if he gets a hold of you. Things are starting to get a bit more hell like.

Next, you'll get to meet some misers. In the fourth level is where you go if you are rich and collected a lot of wealth but did not give back to the community. These are the hoarders. But they aren't alone. Here you also find wasters. These are people who were given a lot but lost it all in foolish persuits. Some presidents of the US will find themselves here some day (it would seem). Their punishment is to be pushed down by great weights...

That brings us to the level of wrath. If you can't control your temper in life, you end up here, wading through the swampy mire of Styx, endlessly fighting with your neighbors. Every once in a while, you'll trod on a miserly hermit.

The sixth circle is reserved for those who were surrounded by the word of the lord but failed to accept it. These foolish beasts will be living in the capital of hell. Supposedly, this is the turning point too. From this level on things get really bad. Here you'll find Medusa and winged furies. The air is really smelly too, makes you dizzy. But the Heretics are stuck in tombs which are set ablaze. Since they denied God and did not believe in an afterlife, they will now be stuck for eternity in a flaming grave. However, the graves are open so the heretics can go out for a nice walk anytime they want. However, once the rapture is in progress, the lids will clamp down, trapping these heathens forever. If I were there, I'd get out of my firey hole and go find medusa. Spending eternity as a statue in a stinky capital is much better than spending it in a broiling grave.

The seventh circle is actually made up of three sub-circles. This is where the violent people go. If you were violent against others, started wars or beat up neighbors, you get to go under a boiling hot river of blood. If you try to peek out, people shot you with arrows and stab you with spears. If you were violent against yourself, that is you cut yourself or kill yourself, you are turned into a tree. It is upon this tree that harpies eat and I guess it hurts because you'll bleed and scream every time the harpies take a bite. You do this forever because you are growing quite fast, as fast as you are being eaten I presume. If you were violent against God, this includes sodomites, blasphemers, and art critics (I'm not making this up) then you get to spend eternity in a desert showered upon by fire rain.

Those last two levels were pretty bad, I guess. I think that a 21st century author could have come up with much worse punishments than those. Read Harlan Ellison for an example.

The second to last level is very tough to describe. That's basically because it's like 10 levels in one. I think Dante was a bit strapped here trying to include a bunch of other sinners without including another dozen levels. So he hodge podged 10 groups in this one circle.

Who gets to go here?
1) Thieves
2) Hypocrites
3) Panderers
4) People who exchange a high position in the church for money
5) Flatterers
6) Liars
7) Pessimists who are loud about it
8) Evil counselors
9) Fortune tellers
10) ?

The 10th are referred to as grafters, but I don't know what a grafter is. Best as I can tell, a grafter is a greedy person, but I thought those people are already spending time on the 5th level so I'm confused.

Anyway, all these people are given punishments that fit the crime, but they are all pretty dull. So I wasn't very surprised at the disappointment of the last, most evil level of hell.

The eight circle of hell is Antarctica in winter. But at the center of the earth.
If you killed a member of your own family, you get buried up to your neck in ice but can move your neck about. If you were disloyal to your country, you are also buried up to your neck in ice but you can't move your neck even. If you invited someone to your house and killed them, or if you were invited to someone's house and killed them, you get buried up to your nose in ice. If you kill your master, you are entirely entombed in ice.

Whoopdy doo. Stuck in ice for eternity. That's the last circle of hell.

Give me a break, Dante!