Phlegyas captains the boat and leads them across the River Styx. Virgil says they are heresiarchs who were leaders of heretical sects. Similarly, the path to the blessed afterlife awaits anyone who seeks to find it. Virgil helps hoist Dante up as they climb up the rocks. Surrounding him, ''sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled on the starless air. I am the way to a forsaken people.
Finally, these cantos include two notable references to beings from classical mythology; in typical fashion, Dante seamlessly incorporates these beings into a Christian Hell. Virgil says he will guide Dante on his journey. They also ''blasphemed God, their parents, their time on earth, the race of Adam, and the day and the hour and the place and the seed and the womb that gave them birth. He tells Dante he killed himself. Farinata and Dante continue their conversations. He is able to travel beyond the limits of the earthly world while still living. Further, by incorporating these two heroes into hell he asserts the preeminence of God's moral order over the morality of the ancient Greeks.
Virgil condones this growing contempt, and Dante the poet seems to advocate it. Dante sees Minos, Judge of the Underworld in Greek mythology. Dante asks Virgil what will happen to the souls in hell after the Last Judgment, and Virgil answers that since the Last Judgment will bring perfection to all of creation, the punishments of those in Hell will be perfected as well. They now pay for their deceit here. Ulysses says that when he returned home from his long voyage from Troy, after being detained by the witch Circe, he still had an urge to travel and explore. When Virgil assures Dante that his love, Beatrice, is looking out for him, Dante feels uplifted and ready to start his journey.
Dante sees a ''banner'' that is endlessly ''circling and circling'' around in the air. He is Vanni Fucci, he refuses to tell Dante why he is there. He throws the sinner into the pitch. Charon isn't expecting to see someone still alive among his passengers, and he angrily tells Dante he won't take him in his boat. It is believed that he saved a child who had fallen in.
The three headed dog Cerberus eats souls here. Mostly, the Cantos align with where the characters are in their journey through Hell. Lesson Summary In Canto 3 of The Inferno, Dante and Virgil officially enter the gate of hell, above which is a rather intimidating stone sign that reads, ''Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Dante has no sympathy for Nicholas and chastises him for his sins. These are the Hypocrites.
He is met by the poet Virgil, who offers to be his guide. Virgil has to step in and tell Charon it's out of his hands: ''this has been willed where what is willed must be, and is not yours to ask what they mean. Virgil tells him to look out and pulls him to his side. He reluctantly returns to the dark forest, where he sees some kind of figure. Dante is distressed to see Virgil upset, but when they get to the rocks by which they can climb up to the next bridge Virgil has his familiar, confident smile back. Up to This Point What would get you to agree to a journey that included going through hell? Virgil leaves angry and Dante follows.
They call for Medusa to turn the poets to stone, so Dante and Virgil cover their eyes. Virgil: Ancient Roman poet who appears to Dante and becomes his guide Summary Midway on his journey through life, Dante falls asleep and loses his way. He points out that God didn't require a fee to grant St. Dante sees a flame split in two and asks who is under that flame. Virgil guides Dante to the hole and encourages him to speak into it to find out more. An enormous noise from behind scatters the Furies. Traveling onwards, the pair encounter the souls of the blasphemers, the sodomites, and the usurers those who were violent against God, those who were violent against nature, and those who were violent against art, respectively.
Dante speaks with the soul of Pope Nicholas III, who first mistakes Dante for the soul of Pope Boniface VIII. Lucifer's upper body sticks out of the ice and Dante says Lucifer is larger than any giant he has seen. They come across a giant castle with a green meadow. The other demons turn to listen to their coworker, and the soul races back to the pitch and dives in, not intending to return. Virgil realizes that the devils earlier lied when they said they couldn't take the bridge. They shriek and laugh when they notice Dante, and call for Medusa to come and turn him into stone.