Editing Inferno (Dante) (section)

====Centre of Hell====
[[File:Gustave Dore Inferno 34 caption.jpg|thumb|[[Dante's Satan|Satan in the ''Inferno'']] is trapped in the frozen central zone in the Ninth Circle of Hell, Canto XXXIV ([[Gustave Doré]])]]

{{See also|Dante's Satan}}

In the very centre of Hell, condemned for committing the ultimate sin (personal treachery against God), is the [[Devil in Christianity|Devil]], referred to by Virgil as [[Dīs Pater|Dis]] (the Roman god of the underworld; the name "Dis" was often used for [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]] in antiquity, such as in Virgil's ''Aeneid''). The arch-traitor, [[Lucifer]] was once held by God to be fairest of the angels before his pride led him to rebel against God, resulting in his expulsion from Heaven. Lucifer is a giant, terrifying beast trapped waist-deep in the ice, fixed and suffering. He has three faces, each a different color: one red (the middle), one a pale yellow (the right), and one black (the left):

<blockquote><poem>
... he had three faces: one in front bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
  the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
  and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
  the left in its appearance was like those
  who come from where the Nile, descending, flows.<ref>''Inferno'', Canto XXXIV, lines 39–45, Mandelbaum translation.</ref>
</poem></blockquote>

Dorothy L. Sayers notes that Satan's three faces are thought by some to suggest his control over the three [[Race (human categorization)|human races]]: red for the Europeans (from [[Japheth]]), yellow for the Asiatic (from [[Shem]]), and black for the African (the race of [[Ham (son of Noah)|Ham]]).<ref name="DLS34"/> All interpretations recognize that the three faces represent a fundamental perversion of the [[Trinity]]: Satan is impotent, ignorant, and full of hate, in contrast to the [[Omnipotence|all-powerful]], [[omniscience|all-knowing]], and [[omnibenevolence|all-loving]] nature of God.<ref name="DLS34"/> Lucifer retains his six wings (he originally belonged to the angelic order of [[Seraph]]im, described in ''[[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]]'' 6:2), but these are now dark, [[bat]]-like, and futile: the icy wind that emanates from the beating of Lucifer's wings only further ensures his own imprisonment in the frozen lake. He weeps from his six eyes, and his tears mix with bloody froth and pus as they pour down his three chins. Each face has a mouth that chews eternally on a prominent traitor. [[Brutus the Younger|Marcus Junius Brutus]] and [[Gaius Cassius Longinus]] dangle with their feet in the left and right mouths, respectively, for their involvement in the [[assassination of Julius Caesar]] (March 15, 44 BC) – an act which, to Dante, represented the destruction of a unified Italy and the killing of the man who was divinely appointed to govern the world.<ref name="DLS34">[[Dorothy L. Sayers]], ''Hell'', notes on Canto XXXIV.</ref> In the central, most vicious mouth is [[Judas Iscariot]], the [[Apostles|apostle]] who betrayed Christ. Judas is receiving the most horrifying torture of the three traitors: his head is gnawed inside Lucifer's mouth while his back is forever flayed and shredded by Lucifer's claws. According to Dorothy L. Sayers, "just as Judas figures treason against God, so Brutus and Cassius figure treason against Man-in-Society; or we may say that we have here the images of treason against the Divine and the Secular government of the world".<ref name="DLS34"/>

At about 6:00&nbsp;p.m. on Saturday evening, Virgil and Dante begin their escape from Hell by clambering down Satan's ragged fur, feet-first. When they reach Satan's genitalia, the poets pass through the [[Geocentric model|center of the universe]] and [[Center of mass#Center of gravity|of gravity]] from the Northern Hemisphere of land to the Southern Hemisphere of water. When Virgil changes direction and begins to climb "upward" towards the surface of the Earth at the [[antipodes]], Dante, in his confusion, initially believes they are returning to Hell. Virgil indicates that the time is halfway between the [[Liturgy of the Hours|canonical hours]] of [[Prime (liturgy)|Prime]] (6 a.m.) and [[Terce]] (9 a.m.) – that is, 7:30&nbsp;a.m. of the same Holy Saturday which was just about to end. Dante is confused as to how, after about an hour and a half of climbing, it is now apparently morning. Virgil explains that as a result of passing through the Earth's center into the Southern Hemisphere, which is twelve hours ahead of [[Jerusalem]], the central city of the Northern Hemisphere (where, therefore, it is currently 7:30&nbsp;p.m.).

Virgil goes on to explain how the Southern Hemisphere was once covered with dry land, but the land recoiled in horror to the north when Lucifer fell from Heaven and was replaced by the ocean. Meanwhile, the inner rock Lucifer displaced as he plunged into the center of the earth rushed upwards to the surface of the Southern Hemisphere to avoid contact with him, forming the [[Purgatorio|Mountain of Purgatory]]. This mountain – the only land mass in the waters of the Southern Hemisphere – rises above the surface at a point directly opposite Jerusalem. The poets then ascend a narrow chasm of rock through the "space contained between the floor formed by the [[wikt:convex|convex]] side of Cocytus and the underside of the earth above,"<ref>Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander, ''The Inferno'', notes on Canto XXXIV, p. 641.</ref> moving in opposition to [[Lethe]], the river of oblivion, which flows down from the summit of Mount Purgatory. The poets finally emerge a little before dawn on the morning of [[Easter|Easter Sunday]] (April 10, 1300 AD) beneath a sky studded with stars.