Layka Coby

In canto 34 Dante reaches the final round of the last circle of Cocytus, which is the ninth and final circle of Hell named “Judecca”. Dante gives vivid descriptions of everything he saw as he walked through, he sees the sinners in this level completely incased in ice, in many strange and twisted positions. The group of sinners contained those who were horrible towards their masters, the were unable to speak. As Dante and Virgil pass the sinners the walk towards Satan it got colder due to the cold wind being created by Satan’s bat like wings flapping, the ice froze environment gets colder as the ice got firmer with the wind. Dante uses Virgil as a windbreaker, Dante then becomes stunned in shock by how hideous Satan is as he tries to give a description of what he sees. Dante describes Satan bound in ice , he has three faces, a yellow one, black one and a red one. In each one of his mouths he would chew on a sinner, Virgil explains to Dante that he is seeing Judas Iscariot, that betrayed Christ is the sinner in the middle who suffers the most as the other two seem to be Brutus and Cassius who betrayed Caesar.

After doing so Dante and Virgil work their way down Satan’s back waiting for the moment he opens his wing so they can have a safe landing. Dante becomes fearful that Virgil will return back through Hell but they both find themselves on the other side of the world standing on their feet. They have passed the mid-point of the Earth, where they are able to see Satan’s legs with his body still froze in the ice above. Dante and Virgil continue to on a long journey to the other side of the world through a opening under the stars.

Dante’s two fold theme of religion and politics are found in the very mouths of Satan. The ultimate sinners of this kind of malice spend eternity being chewed by Satan’s teeth.  he greatest sinner of the world is Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Both Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar the founder of Dante’s beloved Roman Empire. The image of Satan is a scary yet interesting one, beginning with its three faces, which symbolize the distortion of the Holy Trinity. Dante says that Satan is as ugly as he was once beautiful, recalling his former incarnation as an angel. Satan, as described by Dante seems less powerful than traditionally depicted; he is dumb and roaring, trapped in the ice, punished as the rest of the sinners, perhaps worse.