Dante, He Hath Seen Hell
Curtis: “Lyla copied the bank data because she suspected the ARGUS has something to hide. That data led us to Byrd. If there is a deeper connection that Argus doesn’t want anyone to find, i figure we should know first. Worth the risk, right?” Dig: “Did you find anything?! - check it out. it’s a painting?! it took you all night to decrypt a single image?”
Curtis: “Do you realize how many decryption algorithms i had to run just to get the drive to boot up? This thing’s security had security.” Dig: “Alright, looks like someone doesn’t want us to see this. what’s the origin?” Curtis: “this painting is from the 19th century by a French artist named Jean-Leon Gerome. the title is DANTE, HE HATH SEEN HELL.” “D: Hidden meaning? C: It’s art. there’s always a hidden meaning. we just need to find out what it is.”
“Dante, Hell, Inferno. Virgil, Nine circles” these all have been mentioned in Dante’s (Italian Poet) greatest work “The Divine Comedy”. in that book Dante had a travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise with someone called Virgil.
Now, Who is “DANTE” in DC comics?
In Green Arrow Rebirth comics written by Benjamin Percy, there’s a criminal organization called “Ninth Circle” and the leader of this group is someone called “Dante”.
What’s Ninth Circle?
“If someone robs a casino if someone hacks into a bank and empties its accounts, where do you think they stash their money? Under the mattress? If a criminal organization wants to build an arsenal... experiment with bio-warfare... take control of a city... where do you think they seek out loans? Evil is expensive. Let me put this as crassly as possible. The bad guys make trouble, but the really bad guys make trouble possible. Probably this comes as no surprise to hear... the really bad guys? They're bankers. The Ninth Circle is a bank.” (Virgil, one of the members of 9th Circle explains this in issue #3)
The Inferno. Ninth Circle’s headquarter.
What is their history?
Ninth Circle is an international criminal organization and bank. The board of directors is corrupt executives from varying, multinational corporations, who wear masks to conceal their identity. The lower members are forced to join: they're either kidnapped by the organization itself, or they enlist the Underground Men. The captives are then given a "rebirth" in lava, burning their skin and somehow brainwashing them into mindless servants. To symbolize their membership, coins of nine circles are inserted in their eyes.
Now it becomes more interesting if you see who are the members of this criminal organization.
Cyrus Broderick (CFO of Queen Inc in the Rebirth comics, BUT this character appeared in Arrow S6 as a member of The Quadrant. the only member who at the end joined Diaz. in 7x02 when Dig said Diaz has new friends, Felicity said her algorithm also tracks Diaz’s known associates like Cyrus Broderick and Longbow Hunters.)
Dante
Moira Queen
Robert Queen
Shado
Emiko Queen (besides being the Red Arrow, she was also with them because of her mother but she changed sides and helped Oliver after they sent Shado to kill Oliver)
Based on the spoilers we got early (SMH) we mostly know who is under the Green Arrow mask and we saw in episode one that (s)he has a list and apparently, a list of criminals. So my question/theory is what if the Ninth Circle is going to be the main villain of this season or even the Flashforward? If Glades became this powerful to build a wall around their area and use SCPD so they need to be lead by a powerful group who has money and everything and Ninth Circle fit that. Hint: last season after introducing The Quadrant many comic fans found the similarities between this and Ninth Circle and thought maybe this is Arrow’s version of Ninth Circle and will be the main villain of next season. @oliverdant what do you think?















