In Canto III of Inferno, Virgil shows Dante the tortures awaiting "neutral" souls who served neither God nor Satan, and are thus claimed by neither Heaven nor Hell. They are accompanied by the angels who, according to Church tradition, did not choose a side when Lucifer rebelled against God.
Whose lives earned neither honor nor bad fame. And they are mingled with angels of that base sort
Who, neither rebellious to God nor faithful to Him,Chose neither side, but kept themselves apart
Now Heaven expels them, not to mar its splendor,
And Hell rejects them, lest the wicked of heart
Take glory over them.
Hell's punishments are designed to fit the crime. Since these people wavered during their lives—never choosing a side in the great spiritual war—their punishment is that they must perpetually chase a meaningless banner, all the while being stung and bitten by wasps and flies. They were unwilling to suffer for something that mattered while they were a live, so now they must suffer for something pointless. Moreover, their fate is so meaningless that they envy even the souls who suffer in Hell.
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