The Divine Comedy · Chapter
Canto IX explained
Dante and Virgil approach the city of Dis, where they are confronted by the Furies and threatened with Medusa.
What happens
Dante and Virgil approach the city of Dis, where they are confronted by the Furies and threatened with Medusa. An angel sent from Heaven arrives, opens the gate of the city, and rebukes the fallen angels. They enter the Sixth Circle, where heretics and heresiarchs are punished in flaming tombs.
Themes in this chapter
Divine Justice
The angel's rebuke of the fallen angels and the punishment of heretics in flaming tombs illustrate the inescapable justice of God.
Suffering and Compassion
Dante's fear and the laments of the heretics evoke the theme of suffering, while Virgil's protective actions show compassion.
Characters to notice
- Dante Alighieri
The protagonist, fearful but guided by Virgil, witnesses the Furies and the angel's intervention.
- Virgil
Dante's guide, who reassures him, shields his eyes from Medusa, and explains the nature of the Sixth Circle.
- Beatrice
Implied as the one who sent Virgil to aid Dante, though not directly present in this canto.
Key passages
“That hue which cowardice brought out on me, Beholding my Conductor backward turn, Sooner repressed within him his new color.”
The pallor of fear on my face, seeing my guide turn back, quickly made him hide his own change of color.
Dante observes Virgil's momentary hesitation and his own fearful reaction.
“Medusa come, so we to stone will change him!”
Let Medusa come, so that we may turn him to stone!
The Furies threaten Dante with petrification by the Gorgon Medusa.
“O banished out of Heaven, people despised! ... Wherefore recalcitrate against that will, From which the end can never be cut off?”
O you who are cast out of Heaven, despised beings! Why do you resist that will whose purpose can never be thwarted?
The angel rebukes the fallen angels guarding the gate of Dis.