L'Inferno

The poet Virgil guides our hero Dante to the inner core of Hell and shows him the visage of the Devil.
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Some prone are lying, others stand erect,
This with the head, and that one with the soles;
Another, bow-like, face to feet inverts.
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When in advance so far we had proceeded,
That it my Master pleased to show to me
The creature who once had the beauteous semblance,
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He from before me moved and made me stop,
Saying: "Behold Dis, and behold the place
Where thou with fortitude must arm thyself."
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How frozen I became and powerless then,
Ask it not, Reader, for I write it not,
Because all language would be insufficient.
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I did not die, and I alive remained not;
Think for thyself now, hast thou aught of wit,
What I became, being of both deprived.
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The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous
From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice;
And better with a giant I compare
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Than do the giants with those arms of his;
Consider now how great must be that whole,
Which unto such a part conforms itself.
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Were he as fair once, as he now is foul,
And lifted up his brow against his Maker,
Well may proceed from him all tribulation.
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O, what a marvel it appeared to me,
When I beheld three faces on his head!
The one in front, and that vermilion was;
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Two were the others, that were joined with this
Above the middle part of either shoulder,
And they were joined together at the crest;
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And the right-hand one seemed 'twixt white and yellow;
The left was such to look upon as those
Who come from where the Nile falls valley-ward.
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Underneath each came forth two mighty wings,
Such as befitting were so great a bird;
Sails of the sea I never saw so large.
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No feathers had they, but as of a bat
Their fashion was; and he was waving them,
So that three winds proceeded forth therefrom.
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Thereby Cocytus wholly was congealed.
With six eyes did he weep, and down three chins
Trickled the tear-drops and the bloody drivel.
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At every mouth he with his teeth was crunching
A sinner, in the manner of a brake,
So that he three of them tormented thus.
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To him in front the biting was as naught
Unto the clawing, for sometimes the spine
Utterly stripped of all the skin remained.
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"That soul up there which has the greatest pain,"
The Master said, "is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.
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Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.
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And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and 'tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole."
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~~ from Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy", Canto XXXIV (early 14th century)


These videos are from the 1911 silent film "L'Inferno"... believed to be the first feature-length Italian motion picture. In these clips, Dante and Virgil cross the Archeron, then meet Satan himself.