Zack’s Reviews > Inferno > Status Update

In the end Dante meets a thieve who blasphemes God by flipping him off because of his eternal torment. Serpents attack him mercilessly and Dante sees two Flourentines transform into serpents. Dante finally finished his journey soon after.

Dante enters the 7th gulf of malebolge and here he sees thieves who are eternally tormented by serpents. Now the way it is done is pretty interesting, its like that one tag game you used to play in gym. A thieve would become a serpent if attacked by one and the only way for the thieve to return to normal was to attack another thieve and turn them into a serpent.

In the next malebolge or crevice, They come upon those who are basically fortune tellers. They are damned here because only God can tell the future and what they do is considered a sin. Their punishment is to have their faces inverted or reversed and to walk backwards forever. The journeymen also come upon two astrologers who are the founders of Virgil's hometown.

(continued from previous update)- Other popes who may inhabit this place soon for their desire of power through bribery (simonist). Virgil is then pleased with Dante's questions without requiring explanation from Virgil. He decides to carry Dante the rest of the way, which I think is sort of a strange reward.

The travelers enter the 3rd canyon or bulge, where they descend down to it. They observe the people, who are impaled into the ground, with only calves up sticking out. Dante comes upon pope Nicholas III, who apparently was a simonist for allowing his family into church office. He tells them about the

Geryon takes them across to the other side, reaching the 8th circle of hell. The two dismount Geryon and begin traveling along. Dante describes the landscape to be barren and full of small canyons. In the first canyon they look into they see the seducers, whom which are completely naked, where they are beaten by demons with metal clubs.

Dante and Virgil summon an airborne monster known as Geryon, who will help fly them to the other side. They mount the beast from the front and he carefully takes them across.

Dante continues walking and along the way he repetitively talks to the others that he passes by and learns of their endeavors in past lives. The two of them pass through the sandy land and come across an obstacle they cannot continue through without assistance, a large abyss.

Travelling down further into the abyss, Dante walks through the rain of fire, where he meets one of his poetic idols, Brunetto Latini. Brunetto has defied God in his works and so he sits among those who did not obey the word of God.

Dante and Virgil reach the final layer of the 7th circle of hell. Here are the ones who had committed acts of violence towards God, others, or themselves. Virgil describes the rivers of blood to Dante which are from the eyes of a crying statue that lead to a waterfall.