Change him to adamant—Medusa!' thus They all exclaim'd with eyes bent downward; 'so Shall we revenge the assault which Theseus made.'3 'Turn thee behind, and close thine eyes, for if The Gorgon once appear, and thou behold, For thee will be no journeying up to light.' So spake my Guide, nor rested there, but turn'd Me round himself, nor on my hands relied, But with his own mine eyelids held fast shut. O ye, that have discerning minds, behold And meditate the hidden sense involved Under the covering of the mystic verse. And now far echoing o'er the troubled waves Broke the loud crash of a terrific sound 55 60 65 That shook both margins of the lake, and seem'd As if occasion'd by a wind that, lashed Into strong fury by conflicting heat, Heedless of all restraint the forest cleaves, The boughs rends down, and strews them all abroad : 70 Wrapt in a cloud of dust it tears along ; The wild beasts and the shepherds fly dismay'd. Theseus aided Pirithous in his attempt to carry off Proserpine. Mine eyes he loosed, and Now,' said he, 'direct Their foe, fly frighted, shoaling thro' the waves, Till 'neath the sheltering mould they vanish all; More than a thousand ruin'd spirits there I saw thus flying before One, who pass'd Across the Stygian pool with feet unwet. 75 80 He brush'd the clammy dew from off his face, I could perceive that he was sent from heaven, 'Whence harbour ye this insolence within Your breasts? Ah! wherefore kick ye against that will Which never can be frustrate of its ends, And which has oft before your pains increased? F What boots it thus to wrestle with the fates ? And made no sign to us, but seem'd as one Than of the work whereon to us he came. And we our steps moved onward towards the land In peace after the hallow'd words. Within The gates we pass'd without annoy; and I, Who had a longing wish to know the state Within those walls inclosed, soon as I found Myself within, moved round mine eyes, and lo! On either hand I saw a spacious plain Tormented all with agonising woe. Ev'n as at Aries, where the Rhone stays its flow, Ev'n as at Pola, where Quarnaro bounds The Italian land, and laves its frontier, The sepulchres make all the strand to heave In mounds; so did they here on either hand, Save that the scene was far more dread: for here There were dispread between the sepulchres Careering fires, from which accrued such heat That iron for the founder's use requires None greater and from beneath their lids—which were Suspended—issued forth such doleful cries As witness'd the abode of tortured souls. 4 When I thus; 'Master, say, what spirits are these That buried thus within these vaults disclose And he thereto; 'Here are the Heresiarchs With their adherents of each sect, and far More than thou would'st believe the tombs contain. Like here with like lie sepulchred for ever: And different temperatures are found within.' He therewith moving towards the right, we pass'd Between the torments and the lofty walls. 125 130 The sepulchres referred to in this passage are probably old Roman tombs. The Rhone forms a lake at Aries. Quarnaro is the gulf of that name, which washes the confines of Italy and Croatia. 68 CANTO X. Ora sen va. ARGUMENT. The Poets traverse the City of Dis. Dante converses with Farinata degli Uberti, the Ghibelline chief; also with Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a Florentine of the Guelf party, whose son, Guido, was his friend. Thus while we paced along a narrow way Between the land's wall and the torturing fires, My Master first, and I close following him, 'Virtue supreme, who thro' the unhallow'd spheres Leadest me as thou wiliest,' I began ; 'Speak to me, and my longing wish fulfil. The spirits couch'd within the sepulchres— Can they be seen? For I perceive that all The lids are raised, and no one keepeth watch.' And he replied; 'They all will be fast shut 5 ΙΟ |