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This blog is intended to serve as a online journal for the Step-Ahead class of World Literature.
15 comments:
In Dante's Inferno, Satan, or Lucifer, receives a grim punishment befitting of his sins. He rebelled against God and unlike Nimrod, he had everything to lose. He was an archangel, his name meaning bearing of light, and among God's chief angels. He is now portrayed as the chief sinner, residing in the deepest and darkest depth of hell, as a repugnant, foul, and hairy beast of darkness and stupidity. The only thing keeping him frozen in this icy prison is his flapping of his wings, for if he were to stop, the winds would stop and the ice would melt. It can be inferred that in this depiction, Dante had written it this way for God to put in a clever failsafe, for it is Satan's defiance and disobedience to God that keeps him determined to flap his wings eternally, thus forever keeping the ice frozen. His physical description is a punishment within itself, for he used to be among the most handsome of the angels, and is now a disgusting and hairy beast with three heads and bat-like wings. His three heads are an unholy parallel of the trinity, all in different colors to perhaps represent different beings within the trinity. He forever chews the sinners like an animal because his chief sin was rebellion and treason against God, using his charming words and misusing his knowledge to turn others against God as well. He mouth is now deprived of that function, fulfilling the biblical narrative as hell being a place of the gnashing of teeth, he is now nothing more than a stupid, drooling animal, chewing on sinners like a cow chews cud. His stupidity is a punishment for his misuse of knowledge and charm to turn others towards "the dark side". Dante portrayed Satan this way, obviously, to parallel his original sins and, in a twisted way, parallel the holy trinity in an unholy fashion.
In the beginning, satan was considered one of God’s best angels. It is even thought that he might have been the best. But satan was not pleased with his high position because it was not enough for him. Satan was prideful and wanted to be God, he did not want to be less than God. As punishment for satan’s sinful behavior, God casted satan out of heaven and sent him into hell. Dante picks up the story there, describing satan’s place in hell. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante wrote that satan resides in the 4th division of the 9th circle of hell, so he resides in the farthest, deepest and coldest part of hell. The 9th circle of hell is completely frozen over, and there is no light at all. Dante feels a breeze, but does not realize what it is until he reaches the end of hell later. Satan is described by Dante as a giant, bigger than any other, with three different faces all of different colors, and massive wings that Dante describes as being bigger then any sails on ships. Dante is repulsed by Satan’s hairy and grotesque appearance. Satan is frozen in the lake from waist up. Satan continuously flaps his wings, and when Dante sees this, he realizes that satan’s wings creating the breeze that keeps the lake frozen. So because of his sin, satan has been punished to the deepest part of hell where he is trapped by his own actions. If he were to stop flapping his wings, then the lake would melt and he could be free. Dante portrays satan’s punishment as this way because it shows God’s intelligence. I think that because satan brought his own dismissal upon himself, God punished him this way. He can free himself from his punishment, but because of his pride and anger, he does not. He does not even acknowledge that he has the power that could save himself. I think that it is satan’s own ignorance and his pride that makes his punishment suiting. He is punished by the very things that got him in trouble in the first place, which is very fitting. Not only is he frozen, but the only thing he can do is eat other sinners. Satan is the chief sinner that turned away from God, but he is considered the chief punishment for all of the other sinners. Dante describes both of these punishments making the irony blatant. Through out Dante’s description of hell, the punishments fit the crimes perfectly. The sinners are punished by their own sins, which is also how satan was punished.
In the beginning before everything was created, God and his angles were in heaven. Satan was at God’s best man. He was a powerful and beautiful angel. God thought very highly of him and held him to high regard. Soon, all of this power and beauty got to Satan’s mind. He began to believe that he was better than God. Satan thought he was better fit for the job of ruling the universe and everything in it rather than God. With this mindset, Satan then betrayed God. Thus, resulting in his banishment from heaven and into hell. Dante portrays Satan’s punishment in this fashion by banishing him to the ninth circle of hell. Satan stands amongst the rest of the people who were sent to hell for betrayal. The ninth circle is the coldest of all the circles because it is the furthest from God and from heaven. The lake is frozen over and the people are stuck in the same spot for eternity. Therefore, Satan, the large and hairy demon is stuck also. He keeps flapping his huge wings, which creates gigantic, never ending winds. Because of this endless motion, the ninth circle is so cold. Satan is too stupid to realize that if he would just stop flapping his wings he would be set free from the ice and so would the rest of the people placed there with him. Dante paints this picture for us because he wants us to realize how stupid of a creature Satan actually is. This idea of causing your own fall from heaven out of sheer ignorance to a place of never ending ice caused by you yourself is something we find hard to take in. We think, “If he would have just followed God, he would still be in paradise and never have to worry about suffering.” Or “If he would just open his eyes and realize that he can save him self from the frozen lake and the frigid temperature by just stopping flapping his wings, he would not have to put up with this anymore.” To live with the rest of the betrayers is a punishment in and of itself. To know that Satan betrayed the Lord and there is nothing he can do to go back and change that is something he has to live with for the rest of eternity. Because of his actions of believing he is more important then God, he was eternally separated from God in the furthest circle of hell from Heaven.
-Abigail
Dante, in his "Dante's Inferno" choose to characterize Satan in a rather interesting way. To begin with, Dante places Satan in the ninth circle. This is not all that strange as the punishments get worse the deeper one is sent into hell, and we all think of Satan being extremely evil. However, the actual means of Satan's punishment are quite bizarre.
To begin with, Dante writes the ninth circle as being extremely cold. This is strange and not something many people associate with the place in which Satan resides. In fact, the coldness seems to be deliberately written to portray Satan as an idiot. You see, Satan is like the other traitors in the ninth circle; he is stuck in a frozen lake of ice. Yet, he is different from the other traitors in that he can actually free himself and all the other sinners for that matter. The only reason the ice is still frozen is because Satan himself cools it over and over again as he eternally beats his wings. In this sense, Satan has not only betrayed his original benefactor, God, he is also betraying himself in further trapping himself in ice eternally.
The question then comes, "Why on earth would Dante make Satan like this?" One of the answers comes when looking at the ideas of the catholic church during the middle ages when Dante wrote this piece. In the middle ages, it was conceived to make Satan a laughable being. This is because people thought if you could make fun of Satan you would inevitably have power over him. In writing Satan's punishment in a way that makes him look foolish, Dante simply reinforced this notion that Satan can simply be laughed at.
Another reason Dante wrote Satan this way is that he was no after theological issues in his divine comedy. Rather, Dante wrote his "Inferno" to achieve political goals. This helps explain why Dante takes tons of time to make past leaders and political figures extremely uncomfortable in hell. In fact, Dante goes into extreme detail on many occasions depicting the punishments of various political figures. However, when it comes to Satan, not much time is devoted to exploring the horrors of his punishment. Yes Satan looks foolish in that he can escape his punishment but never will, but Dante does not seem to write him as miserable like he does with so many other political figures. Through this characterization and choice of punishment Dante gives further evidence he is not exploring the horrors of hell or of Satan, but rather the various political figures he hates or loves.
In conclusion, Dante writes Satan into a very ironic punishment that reinforces various doctrines of the middle ages, and further proves Dante's piece as political much more than theological.
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante portrays Satan, or Lucifer, in a unique way compared to the tradition outlook on Satan. Traditionally Satan was seen as an angel by Christians who had studied the bible. While others saw Satan as a red devil with horns and a pitch fork. Dante writes Satan as a hairy beast with three heads and bat wings located underneath his chin. Satan is speechless and is constantly chewing and gnawing on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius while embedded in ice to the chest in the middle of the 9th circle of hell. While stuck in the ice, a wind circulates through the 9th circle caused by Satan’s bat wings. There are many reasons of why Dante’s version of hell and Satan is unique. One of the reasons is the depiction of coldness in hell rather than heat. The classic vision of hell is the one of a lake of fire. Dante implements a cold hell because hell is supposed to be dark and evil. In the real world, heat is near light not darkness, so he sees the darkness of hell cold and not “deathly hot”. Dante seems to make fun of Satan in this piece. Instead of being the archangel of beauty and full of intelligence, Satan is a mindless beast that is not pleasant to the eye. In the 9th circle, Satan is in isolation in the middle of the frozen lake, this is another punishment given out by the banishment from heaven. While Satan was still an angel, all he wanted was praise and attention other angels and God. This makes the alienation and isolation of Satan ironic in hell. Satan is also described to have three heads gnawing on three of the worst sinners in history. This attribute of Satan greatly parallels the trinity of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). I also see the giving of the bat wings as a punishment that is often not recognized. Often when people think of angels they think of white eagle like wings that glow and are elegant in sight. Bat wings are seen as the complete opposite of pure white eagle wings. A common example of this theology is the concept of the vampire transforming into a bat. This concept is where the evil is seen in the depiction of the bat wings. Dante decided to write Satan and discredit him because the common concept of the time was that if you were to make fun of Satan and laugh at him then he would flee and leave you alone.
In Dante’s Inferno, Satan is contained in the fourth ring of the ninth circle in Hell. This is the very end and the worst part of Hell. Satan is with the sinners who are being punished for treachery against their masters. The reason why Satan is in this part of Hell might be because he committed treachery against God, his master; he then got thrown out of Heaven because of that. In the comedy, Virgil explains to Dante that when Satan was thrown out of Heaven, he landed headfirst into the planet and his body got stuck. Since sin entered the world because of Satan, he is the biggest sinner, and the reader is shown which sin Dante views as the worst sin. This sin is the sin of betrayal, and Dante categorizes these sinners into four groups. As Dante goes through Hell, he realizes that he is getting further and further away from the light, which is God. When Dante journeys through Hell, the sins and punishments keep getting worse. The first sin of betrayal that Dante mentions is the betrayal of family. This part of Hell is named after Cain, who committed the first sin against family. The second sin of betrayal is against a person’s homeland. Dante obviously holds loyalty to one’s country in high regard because betrayal of country is worse than betrayal of family in his Hell. The third sin of betrayal is against guests, and the worst betrayal is against one’s master. This is where Satan and the people that Dante despises the most reside. Dante portrays Satan as a large and hairy monster with three mouths, and he chews a sinner in each of his mouths. He is stuck with half his body in the ice of the frozen lake, and he constantly flaps his wings to create a cold wind. I believe that Dante portrays Satan’s punishment in this fashion because he wants to emphasize the three greatest sinners in human history and the stupidity of Satan. These three sinners are the three worst sinners in the history of mankind according to Dante. The sinners are Judas, who betrayed Jesus, and Brutus and Cassius, who murdered Julius Caesar. The reason why he puts Brutus and Cassius with Judas as the the worst sinners might be a result of his respect for Virgil and Caesar. Virgil wrote for Augustus and the Roman Empire and is also Dante’s guide. Dante must have also appreciated Caesar and viewed his killers as two of the three worst sinners to ever live. Dante also believed that Satan was stupid because he portrayed him as stupid in Hell. Dante questions why Satan keeps flapping his wings in Hell. If he quit flapping his wings, the cold wind would go away. Then he would be able to escape because the ice trapping his body would melt.
In Dante’s inferno, Dante writes about the journey him and his mentor, Virgil, take through the 9 circles of hell. Given that they are in hell, they are eventually going to encounter Lucifer (Satan). As they arrive in the last circle of hell, they discover that this is where Satan resides. As we know from the bible, Lucifer was originally one of God’s best angels, and with this many people imagine angels to be beautiful and angelic creatures. However, when Satan disobeyed God and fell to hell many people know expect him to now have a very different, more disgusting and evil looking appearance. While many people have preconceived notions of what the typical devil would look like, the way Dante describes Satan, and even hell itself, is much different than many would expect. Like the other sinners in circle 9, Satan’s body is frozen in the lake, however Satan Is placed in the middle and only half of his body is contained in the lake. He is extremely large and size and has three heads, one is dark, the middle is red and the other side is yellow. Additionally, each of the mouths of the heads are chewing on some of the worst sinners- Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is in the middle, and Brutus and Cassias, who betrayed Caesar, reside on each side of the middle head. Satan also has two large wings that he is constantly flapping. This part is ironic because if Satan were to just stop flapping his wings, he would be able to free himself and the other sinners from the frozen lake, because it is due to the huge gusts of winds that the wings produces that Is keeping the lake frozen. Because of this fact it seems that Dante portrays Satan in a rater foolish manner, making him seem dumb. This may have something to do with the old catholic belief that if people could make fun of the devil, the people would essentially have more power than Satan and Satan would not be able to overcome them. While Satan’s punishment may seem peculiar, it fits with his sin like the other sinners. The sinners in circle 9 are all people who were betrayers that were all split into 4 smaller groups- those who betrayed their family, those who betrayed their country, those who betrayed guests and those who betrayed lords. Satan is considered someone who betrayed a lord because he betrayed the ultimate Lord, God himself. The details that Dante uses too describe Satan and hell allow the reader to imagine vivid images of the type of suffering that could occur in hell.
In the deepest depths of Dante's Inferno, the worst sinners are being punished. To Dante, the worst sin is the betrayal of a friend. Most are simply frozen in ice. However, the chief of these sinners are punished together. Judas, Brutus, and Cassius are all punished together because of the importance of whom they betrayed. Judas betrayed Christ, essentially God while he was here in flesh; Brutus and Cassius brutally betrayed their emperor Julius Caesar. For their sins, they are perpetually chewed in one of Satan’s three mouths. However, there is a fourth entity punished in the deepest part of hell, Satan himself. Satan, also called Lucifer, betrayed his creator, God. Much like Brutus and Cassius, ambition and pride motivated his betrayal. The once beautiful angel is now a disgusting, monstrous shadow of his former self. His stupidity to betray the most powerful being in the universe, the unmoved mover and the uncaused causer, is made apparent in his punishment. He is his own warden. The flapping of his wings keeps the lake frozen which in turn keeps him imprisoned. Dante decided to depict the prince of darkness this way to show how ultimately pointless it is to refuse God’s will. All you are doing is inhibiting yourself, not showing Him up. Dante does not give an explanation for how the once clever, conniving snake in the garden became a harmless vegetable, but we can only assume it was the wrath of God that rendered him this way.
Lucifer was one of God’s angels, and he was considered one of the best. He thought he was better than God, and decided to betray God. In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is taken to the Ninth circle of Hell. In the Ninth Circle, people who betrayed their masters belong there. Satan also resides there because he committed treacherous acts toward God. That was his punishment. He was banished from God from all eternity into the deepest pit of Hell. He was also frozen in ice from the neck to his waist. The ice stayed frozen because he would never understand how it would melt. If he would just stop flapping his wings, he could be free. The image Dante creates for the reader changes the reader’s perspective of what they think Satan looks like. Most people think Satan is a little red man with a tail and horns. This gives the audience a different illustration that could be more realistic. For Satan truly is banished for eternity, and is suffering in pain forever and ever. Which is the greatest punishment of them all. Being known as one of God’s best, and then Him not wanting to know you at all.
In the ninth Circle of Dante’s Inferno / Hell Dante places the people that betrayed their Benefactors. Dante refers to the devil by three different names Dis, Lucifer, and Satan saying that no one name does the evil nature of this being justice. He describes Satan as being the largest most grotesque creature that thy have yet to encounter and rightfully so as he is the chief evil in the world. He is described as having arms that are bigger than all of the giants in the 8th circle combined, he stands waist deep in a frozen icy lake. He also has three heads one that faces Dante and Virgil and the other two look over each of Satan’s shoulders. Below each of his heads is a set of wings that continuously are moving trying to release him from the prison, when in fact they are creating the icy cold wind that keeps the lake frozen that holds Satan in. In each mouth Satan is depicted as chewing on the sinners that Dante believes are the three chief sinners in all mankind, who all were traitors to a benefactor in their earthly lives. The center mouth holds Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ to the Roman authorities that took him to be crucified. In the mouths to the left and right are Cassius and Brutus; two of Julius Cesar’s closest confidants that betrayed him and murdered him in the Roman Senate. Brutus and Cassius are written as to be hanging out of Satan’s mouths head first, but Judas Iscariot is written as being lodged in Satan’s center mouth head first only his legs hanging out of Satan’s mouth. Their punishment is that Satan is forced to chew them to pieces, but ending just short of ever killing them for all eternity. When Dante first sees Satan behind the foggy dark mist that first hides him from view he says that he feels as if he isn’t sure if he is alive or dead. The common theme of all the punishment s that Dante seems to categorize them by the magnitude of how much they go against God and his love. He judges the wickedness of a sin by how much it opposes the gift of God’s love. He portrays Satan the way he does because he is striving to create a picture of the most horrendous being that he can imagine because that is what Satan embodies, the absolute, most wicked and evil being in all the earth. The way that Dante portrays Satan with his three heads and grotesque features is a perversion of the trinity.
- Gracie Cahalan
In Dante’s “Inferno,” Dante describes Satan’s intense punishment in a vey detailed way. Satan resides in the ninth circle, the final and deepest circle, where the worst sinners are punished. Satan, who is also referred to as Lucifer but has no name that truly does his evil justice, is massive. Dante describes his arm as exceeding the size of all the giants of the eighth circle combined. Lucifer stands in the icy lake, frozen into it; Dante is at first not sure if he is even alive or not. His torso rises above the surface of the ice, and he has three faces. One gazes forward and the other two face back over each of his shoulders. Beneath each head, is a set of wings which continuously flap, creating the wind which keeps the lake frozen. Lucifer himself creates the ice which he is trapped in. This is representative of him being trapped in his sin. He does not realizes that if he stopped flapping his wings, the ice could thaw and he could escape. He, just as many of us, are blind in our sins as well as it’s consequences. Additionally, each mouth of his three heads holds, and chews on a sinner. These three are the three worst sinners of all time. Brutus, Cassius, and Judas, are these sinners who betrayed their benefactors. The only sinner who is in a mouth head first is Judas, who betrayed Jesus. This is interesting, because the one who is chewing him also betrayed God, by trying to rise above him and he all powerful. As Dante and Virgil leave, they climb over and onto Lucifer, as Virgil explains that when the fallen angel fell from heaven, he plunged head first into the earth. It is always describes that Satan fell, but in Dante’s writing, he describes this action as literal, as he fell head first into this ninth circle. Another interesting component, is how Satan himself is punished and is unable to move or escape. It is often said that Satan rules over all of Hell; however, in Dante’s version, the demons and other creatures tend to have more rule since Satan is bound in his sin residing the deepest circle. Perhaps he could have more ruling power if he was to escape the frozen lake, but as said he is blind in his sin, not knowing that he is the one keeping himself captive.
- Karli
In “Dante’s Inferno”, Dante describes Satan’s punishment in a unusual manner. Satan can be found in the ninth circle. This is a place that is the farthest from God in all of hell. It is the darkest and the coldest of all other circles. Satan can be found in the deepest part of this circle. He is stuck in the ice, frozen and immobile. The ironic thing is that his wings are the very thing that creates the cold winds and ultimately the ice. His ignorance is his very downfall, even in hell. From start to finish, ignorance was the Satan’s downfall. He thought he was better or more powerful than God. He thought he did not need God, again, showing ignorance. Dante’s description of Satan’s appearance also has significance within his punishment. He is described as dark and hairy, with three heads and huge wings. These wings are the very thing that fuel his punishment. The irony found with in Satan’s punishment is found in almost every circle of hell as well. Dante uses particular sins to form the punishments within hell. Every punishment relates to the sin of the circle. In the same way, Satan’s punishment coincides with his sin. His arrogance and ignorance in believing he could be more powerful than God, got him a place in hell. It is only fitting that the only thing that keeps him stuck in hell is also his arrogance and ignorance. If he stopped flapping his wings the ice would melt, and he would be able to move. The inspiration likely came from the ideas of Satan that were conceived during the middle ages. At that time, it was popular to draw Satan in a comical manner as an insult of sorts. It was believed that because of his enormous pride he would flee whenever he was portrayed in this manner. Unlike the traditional views of Satan Dante makes him a very large hairy figure. There are several reasons as to why Dante would make Satan out to be this way. One reason is a testament to what he represents. Satan is the embodiment of evil. Evil is a very large being within the world. Thus, Satan is very large. Evil is also very dark, messy and gross. It can be concluded that this is why Dante gave Satan these features in his piece. Upon first glance the appearance Dante gives Satan seems odd. However, the physical and behavioral characteristics are very purposeful within “Dante’s Inferno”.
-Sterling
In “Dante’s Inferno,” the author, Dante describes the devil, Lucifer in a very unique way, which is not commonly thought of amongst most. The author begins his description by informing the reader of Satan’s location; Satan resides in the final ring of 9th and last circle of hell. This is very fitting considering that the deeper into hell one went, the worse the sin was as well the worse the punishment was. Since Satan was in the very last part of hell, it is apparent he committed the worst punishment of all sinners. Lucifer’s sin was the sin of betrayal. At this point Dante’s description seems to part from popular opinion on the devil’s appearance. Dante describes Satan’s physical appearance when he states that Satan is a massive, hideous, and harry monster that is permanently stuck with half of his body encased in the frozen ice lake that housed the three worst sinners. The author also indicates the stupidity of Lucifer; the trapped beast could easily free himself if he would simply stop the continuous flapping of his wings, which provide a cool wind that keeps the lake frozen. Without this wind the lake would melt and in the process free Satan. This is the height of irony and stupidity for the devil. Another important aspect of Lucifer’s terrifying appearance is his three heads, each head trapping the three worst sinners. Inside the first head the sinner Judas, who betrayed the Lord is endlessly tortured and eaten inside of Satan’s mouth. The second head involves the sinner Brutus who killed Julius Caesar, and in the third and final head, was Cassius who also assisted in the murder of the emperor Julius Caesar. These sinners are in fact very closely relates to the devil, this is primarily due to the fact they all the sinners and Lucifer are betrayers, while the human souls betrayed people, Satan directly betrayed God himself. Overall the Devil is portrayed to be a massive and dark figure in the comedy, Dante illustrates Satan the way he is because Dante is attempting to compare Satan’s appearance to the nastiness of sin. Just as the Devil is large, stupid, ugly, and scary, sin is as well, in Dante’s time as well as our society today.
Jack Brunton
In the writing “Dante’s Inferno”, Dante writes of what he believes hell will be like. One of the most interesting, and odd pieces that Dante writes of is what he believes Satan will be like. Satan, or Lucifer is found at the bottom of the 9th circle of hell. His punishment is that he is submerged in ice while he chews on Judas, Brutus and Cassius, one in each of his mouths. All these men are place in hell because of their betrayal of their leaders. Cassius and Brutus betrayed Julius Caesar by killing their leader, while Judas betrayed Jesus. The punishment of being left in ice is the ultimate punishment for the sinners that are found in the bottom of hell. As he is submerged in ice he flaps his wings causing a cold wind to keep the ice frozen. Lucifer did not realize if he would stop moving his wings that the ice would melt. For Dante to portray Lucifer in this way makes him seems stupid by the fact that if he would stop flapping his wings then he could unfreeze himself.
Dante’s way of describing Satan as a hairy beast rather than a red devil with horns is also very unique way that Dante pictures hell. This is odd because when people typically think of hell they invasion it as a red-hot burning place and in contrast Dante writes hell as a frozen lake at the very bottom and worst part of hell. It is also unique because Lucifer was a elegant angel but in contrast he is presented as a hairy beast. The way that Dante describes Satan in his vision of hell differs from what many people believe hell to be like. The contrast of fire and water and a hairy beast and an elegant angel are two reasons that support that Dante’s envision of hell is different from popular belief. I believe that most interesting concept that Dante includes is the stupidity of Lucifer that Dante present.
-Golda
In Dante’s divine comedy Inferno, Satan’s eternal punishment is to be held in ice and to punish the sinners, three in particular. Dante portrays Satan as being a large, hairy, and stupid beast. He is stupid because the flap of his massive wings creates the wind that keeps the ninth circle of hell cold enough for the ice to remain unmelted. If he only stopped flapping his wings, then he would be freed from his icy jail. However, his inherent desire to disobey God prevents him from doing such a thing. Part of his punishment is that he is his own self-imprisonment. He is the chief sinner, resigned to “ruling” hell for all eternity. In reality, his only power is over the three sinners which he punishes. He is in the ninth circle, in the ring “Judecca” where the betrayers of masters reside. This is fitting because Lucifer betrayed the ultimate master of creation: God. He was once an angel created by God to follow his will, but became filled with jealousy and pride; wanted to be God. So in a cruel twist of fate, God gave Lucifer his own place to rule over, however, he is still under God, as He ultimately chooses how the sinners are punished for their crimes against Him. Dante portrays Satan and his punishment the way he does in order to make the reader understand that Satan, even as an angel, was ultimately quite stupid, a beast ruled by his internal desires rather than reason. Lastly, his only authority is ultimately over the only other sinners in the circle: Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius. He chews them and mauls their bodies for eternity, never giving them peace. Judas is punished more harshly than the others because of his betrayal of Jesus Christ, Son of God, whereas the other two only betrayed Caesar, an earthly ruler. The last part of his punishment resides in his location itself. He is in the last circle of hell, the furthest one can be from God. It is also the darkest and the coldest, which is also a key part of Dante’s description of him, whether he was aware of it or not. Scientifically we know that there is no such thing as “cold,” rather there is only the absence of heat. Just as well, darkness is only the absence of light. Therefore, Dante puts Satan in a scene in which he is not surrounded or even close to anything we associate with God: the bright lights of Heaven, God’s warmth and also God himself, never to be forgiven; the ultimate punishment and example of God’s wrath.
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