Symbols

The Forest and the Three Beasts Halfway through the journey of life, Dante finds himself in a dark forest, because the straight way has been lost, and he cannot say how he entered: he was so full of sleep at that point that he abandoned the true road. The forest is wild, harsh and strong,... The Gate and the Inscription Over the gate of Hell, high up, there is an inscription in dark-colored words, speaking in the first person: through it one goes to the dolent city, to eternal pain, to the lost people. Dante reads it in Canto III of Inferno and says its meaning is hard for... The Storm of the Lovers In the second circle, Dante enters a place mute of all light, which roars like the sea in a tempest when contrary winds battle it. It is the infernal windstorm, which never rests: it carries the spirits in its rapine, turning them and beating them, and before... Medusa Before the tower of Dis, in Canto IX of Inferno, three Furies suddenly rise up, with women's limbs and very green serpents in place of hair. They are the Erinyes, the servants of the queen of eternal lament, and they tear their breasts with their nails, beat... The Wood of the Suicides In the second round of the seventh circle, Dante and Virgil enter a wood without a path, of dark leaves, knotted and twisted branches, in which, instead of fruit, there are thorns of poison, and where the Harpies make their nests, the ones who drove the... The Cord and Geryon Near the waterfall that descends to the next circle, Dante recalls an object he wears girded about his body: a cord, with which he once thought to catch the spotted-coated leopard of the first canto. Virgil orders it removed, Dante unties it coiled as the... The Ice of Cocytus Cocytus is the lake of ice at the bottom of Hell, the last river of the infernal hydrography. In it the shadows are held fast up to the point where shame appears, livid, chattering their teeth like storks, each with its face turned downward; the mouth bears...