Virgil then leads Dante through the open gate onto a plain, its ground made uneven by many tombs set within its surface. Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Inferno Canto 9 verses 87-89 (c 1857), engraving, dimensions and location not known. William Blake (1757–1827), The Angel at the Gate of Dis (Dante’s Inferno) (1824-27) pen and watercolour over pencil and black chalk, dimensions not known, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. The angel chides those inside Dis for their resistance and immediately returns the way that he came. Virgil gets Dante to bow in deference to the angel as he passes them by and opens the gate of Dis for them with his rod.

Image by Sailko, via Wikimedia Commons.Ī strong wind then blows across the marsh of the Styx towards them, as a mass of ghosts there part to make way for an angel who walks across the water towards the walls of Dis.

Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839), Medusa (1825-28), fresco, dimensions not known, Casa Massimo, Rome, Italy. Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839), Dante and Virgil with the Head of Medusa (1825-28), fresco, dimensions not known, Casa Massimo, Rome, Italy. The Furies call on Medusa to turn Dante to stone, with the sight of her face, and Virgil makes Dante turn to look away from them, and close his eyes tightly. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Orestes Pursued by the Furies (1922-25), oil on canvas, 348 × 317.5 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA. Drawn from rich classical mythology, they are another crossover into Dante’s Christian Hell. Megaera represents evil deeds, Tisiphone evil words, and Alecto evil thought. Virgil names them to Dante: Megaera on the left, Alecto to the right, and Tisiphone between. Image by Karl Hahn, via Wikimedia Commons. Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Megaera, Tisiphone, and Alecto (c 1857), engraving, dimensions and location not known.

John Flaxman (1755–1826), The Furies (Divine Comedy) (1793), engraving by Tommaso Piroli from original drawing, media and dimensions not known, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.

Virgil reassures Dante that he has been here once before, but Dante’s eyes are fixed at the top of the gate, where the three Furies appear, wreathed in snakes. Dante and Virgil are ferried across the River Styx to land at the gate to the city of Dis, the lower depths of Hell (circles six to nine), but the gate is slammed shut on Virgil when he goes forward to secure their admission.

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