Confronting Ultimate Evil — Divine Comedy

The only way out of Hell's floor is through what you fear most: Dis himself, waist-deep in ice. Virgil warns that Hell's monarch is coming; the shape in the distance looks like a windmill in storm. Souls lie transparent beneath the glassy frozen surface, some on their backs, some on their heads, some bowed like archers. At the centre Virgil steps aside: here is Dis, and Dante must arm his heart. Words fail him; he is neither dead nor living. Satan rises from mid-breast in the ice, vast enough that Dante beside him looks giant-sized. Three faces: vermilion in front, wan-yellow and Nile-dark on the shoulders; under each, bat-like wings beat out three winds that freeze Cocytus. He weeps from six eyes; bloody foam runs down three chins. Each mouth chews a traitor. Judas, head in and feet out, suffers worst. Brutus and Cassius hang from the other jaws, writhing without speech. Virgil has Dante cling to his neck; when the wings open enough, he catches the shaggy sides and they descend pile to pile between ice and fell. At the thigh where the haunch turns, Virgil must turn his own head where his feet were and climb as if back into Hell. Dante believes Lucifer will still be ahead; when he looks up, the legs point skyward. They have passed the centre of the earth. Dante asks where the ice went and how morning came so fast. Virgil explains: the heavy world drags down from every side to one point; during the descent Dante was on one side of the centre, and the turn placed him under the hemisphere where Christ walked. Lucifer still stands fixed as he fell. They follow a hidden brook through the hollow of the rock, climbing without rest until daylight circles through the mouth of the cave. The Inferno ends on one line: thus issuing, they beheld the stars again.