Dante Book 1 Canto III Scene 1

 

Canto III

The Gates of Hell

Scene 1

 

“Who are they?” Dante first words to his lips once he had taken the descent into the abyss. He saw the steps that were there, well it looked like steps but on scrutiny, there were shoulders but without the head, and from the accumulation of dirt or the trampling, it appeared flat and sturdy to step on. He cringed on the steps he was to take and his hands kept away from the walls, for he was unsure what may have it been. Every step he took, he heard the scream of pain.

Virgil was hovering on the descent but kept paced with Dante and heard the question raised by the other.

“They are the uncommitted souls; the ones that held no beliefs in themselves and disregard all. They are not welcomed by the afterlife. Why should they when they have not accepted its inception?”

“I am one of them, or still have thoughts like them. Why am I not banished here?” Dante asked.

“You are not dead. You are still a living entity with the flesh and blood, with an open mind. That made you different.” Virgil told Dante.

“And they don’t? Their mind told them they are no Afterlife?” Dante protested.

“Which was why they are headless here; mindless, swarmed in the numbers, and melded into the surfaces including the walls. They are made to suffer here.” Virgil replied and it was then Dante saw the surfaces held bloated leeches that were worming into the flesh with blood seeping out. “Their blood leeched and secreted into other bodies.”

Dante turned his face to throw up the contents of his stomach that were that reached his throat. He spat out the acidic taste from his mouth before he wiped with his tunic sleeve.

“I will suggest not to do but since you have done it, ignore my remark.” Virgil hovered away after remarking. It was then Dante noticed the smears on the sleeve and retched out more of his inside contents.

“Take me out, Virgil. I can’t do it.” Dante leaned forward on the steps and his right hand reached to the wall for balance. He pulled his arm back when he felt the squishing feeling with his hand pulled in.

“Oh God, wherein Heaven could this place exists?” Dante called out.

“Neither, Dante. We are not in Heaven. Nor are we in Hell…well, not yet. We are at Ante-Hell if you want to name the place. Look up.” Virgil told Dante to look up. It was the sight above the abyss. “Do you see those perched like bats up there?”

“Those are wretched entities we knew as Angels, but they are the defeated Angels who had sworn not to believe in God and rejected the call by Satan to revolt. They are banished here in neither realm for their disbelief. They lost their right to be with God.”

“What are they doing there?” Dante asked.

“Clawing their way out but they won’t make it at all. To add misery to their plight, there are the swarms of wasps that sting them. Here they come now.”

Dante saw the dark swarm of whatever it may be hit the so named Angels. And some fell off their perched but regain their momentum to fly back to cling onto the wall. The fallen Angels looked as if they were shred of their flesh but no blood was seen on those wounds.

“They will grow back their flesh soon enough for the next attack. It’s their punishment to do so for eternity like Prometheus to be bound to the rock and have his liver eaten every day and yet the liver grows back after it was eaten. It's just punishment that only a God can do.” Virgil told Dante. “Hence All hope abandon ye who enter here.? These souls have lost their hope to go to …. Hell, or even Heaven.”

“How did you know so much, Virgil?”

“I was here. I have seen the torments of the few who here. I am without a mind, for I am a creation of one’s thoughts and held no mind that may generate thoughts. What I may say or perform is the logic that was programmed inside me to respond when the conditions are met.” Virgil explained. “I may be able to interact with you on the discussion, but my replies are driven by the stored responses.”

“I am without a mind. I am still a mechanical entity.” Virgil's red light dimmed. It then lit up again. “Do you still want to leave?”

Dante stood undecided with his sight onto the surrounding that covered the walls, to the top of the abyss, and then into the dark abyss below.

“It's not far below. The gateway ends there.” Virgil voiced out.

“We move on.” Dante resigned to the task he was to perform. His thoughts were on the souls there; was it unjust or it was another perception that he had to undergo to learn the journey of life.

“Then come along, we are to reach Hell.” Virgil hovered on below. Dante had wanted to know more of the fallen souls but the orb was far ahead. He took on the descent with careful steps, and finally, he heard the roar of water.

“River Styx?” Dante whispered the name of the infamous river named after the Greek Goddess from the era of the Titans, was not for its length or width but the river was the stream that divides the realm of living and death.

Styx was the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Other accounts make her the daughter of Erebus, god of darkness & Nyx, goddess of night. She was the Titan of the Underworld river named after her and was the embodiment of hatred and detestation.

Styx represented and controlled hatred, and was the guardian of the Underworld. During the last battle of the Titan War, she chose to side with Zeus and the Olympians, giving her four children, Bia (goddess of force), Cratus (god of Power), Zelus (god of Zeal), and Nike (goddess of Victory) in her service. She was greatly rewarded for her allegiance. On the command of Zeus, the deities of the Greek pantheon swore all their oaths upon the river Styx. The river Styx was claimed to have miraculous powers which could make someone who bathed in the waters invulnerable. The Greek Hero, Achilles; his mother dipped him in the river during his childhood, and he thus acquired invulnerability, except for the heel by which his mother held him. Achilles was struck and killed during the Trojan War by an arrow shot into his heel by Paris.

Where the River Styx was mentioned, another character was to be in it. It was the ferryman Charon; the entity that will transport the souls of the newly dead across this river into the underworld. It was fabled that the further Charon’s journey, the more severe would be their punishment. For those who were to take the ride, the payment of the single coin was required as a token.

“What madness prevailed in this place?” Dante called out when he rounded the bend and appeared before what was the scene of the beach that before the roaring waters of the River Styx. It was filled with the souls that await their turn to board the ferry to take them to Hell.