Circumnavigating Dante's Hell Circles

While reading Dante’s Inferno I am constantly looking at the people who Dante describes in the separate sections of hell and working out if they truly belong there or not. As I mentioned in class, I am a bit befuddled by the organization and deciding factors as to which circle a person ends up in. After previously reading this text I held the understanding that a person’s worst sin would be the corresponding circle that they would be forced to spend all of eternity in. However, for the first time I realized that this is not necessarily true. I thought about Aeneas and Dido and how their story is not fitting with the location that they ended up in. I believe that Aeneas should not have been located in Limbo. In his story he was led by the will of the Greek gods to fall in love with Dido so that he couldn’t continue on his journey to carry on the Trojan legacy. I think that it is a sign of weakness, not greatness. However he ended up in the first circle of hell at the crest of the Dolorous Abyss. He was surrounded by such people as Plato, Aristotle, and Hector. There really was no punishment except for the knowledge that they will never have the hope of reaching heaven. This circle is reserved for those who were born before Jesus and therefore did not believe in him. They had the misfortune of being before He washed away all of the sins. I don’t think that was Aeneas’s only sin though. I think that he was also an adulterer and a betrayer. So why is he in the ranks of such men like the ones mentioned above? And why does Dido get a lesser punishment than she deserves? She is in the 2^nd circle of hell where those who gave into their appetite instead of reason; the lustful, are doomed. I understand that she did give into her lust when she and Aeneas were trapped in the storm. However, she also committed suicide which is in Circle 7. So why is she not there? If your place in hell is determined by the severity of your sin than why are these two people not in the rightful location? Or a better question is what right do I have to decide where these people end up in hell? Furthermore, what right does Dante have? This sins he is punishing people for are not equal. I think that if hell was set up the way he describes it; in circles based on the type of sin, than there would be some sort of system so that those people who were the worst would get the most fitting punishment. Another problem I have with this is that Ugolino is still damned to be a cannibal for the rest of his after-life. I can’t imagine that being a punishment that is equal to the man whose head he is continually gnawing on. To have to eat someone for the rest of your existence or to be eaten, that is the question. I understand that Dante is creating an underworld that is meant to strike fear in the sinner’s heart and to make them realize the consequences. That is why it is so graphic. However I think that he loses some of his reverence and authority in the subject because he is not always fair with the punishments.