The Third Circle

To be placed in Canto VI
The Third Circle; the Gluttonous;

We waded into the stench of roasted flesh
Whose bodies secrete such a smell I asked
These are the gluttonous he pointed
Their bodies laid out on the grill like dogs (1)
We approached a familiar face
His body bound by his own pubic hair
A blackened apple lodged in his throat
Plucked momentarily so he could speak
I’m Voltaire he spewed who consumed my status (2)
Obsessed with the food and drinks of a finer life
I let them feed my soul as now I am devoured
Enough! Shouted the demon, I am hungry
The beast shoved the rusted rod down
Scrapping his insides and spilling them out his ass
Plucked the berries from both heads to create a glaze (3)
Tore off his penis to fashion a goblet
Gagged by the blackened apple once again
Coated in the hell hound's saliva (4)
Hoisted up and rotated slowly
Skin scorched by flames until crispy and burnt
Peeled away to feed the eternal feast

1. All the people who are guilty of the sin of gluttony are laid out on a giant grill like hot dogs.
2. My friend's alternative name that he likes to use. often more concerned with money and what it can get you in life.
3. The eyes and the testicles are used for a glaze.
4. Cerberus watches over them and drools.


My Question-
I had always heard that Dante's Inferno was so good and was important for all English majors to read. So I was just kind of curious why this work was so important and what we were suppose to take away from reading it?
I tried a quick google search to find an answer but wikipedia has a nice description of it and some parts as to why it's important, "it is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian Literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the Christian After Life is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect in which it is written as the Italian standard." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy