Dante's Divine Comedy

The eight bolgia appears almost majestic until Dante understands how its souls are trapped in flames.

They see even more terrible metamorphoses in the seventh bolgia and realise the serpents are human souls too.

Virgil helps Dante climb from the sixth bolgia. They come to the seventh, a melee of serpents chasing souls.

Affection balances fear. Thought counters foolhardiness. They escape to fresh despair in the sixth bolgia.

Virgil and Dante are escorted by 10 Malebranche demons. Something has gone very wrong.

They meet the demons of Malebranche. Virgil reckons he can outplay them. Dante does not.

Dante is perturbed when they encounter the diviners, an art he practices too.

Dante perceives the bleak bankruptcy of exchanging spiritual gifts for temporal goods.

They are in the eighth circle, the place called Malebolge, as the descent deepens further.

Approaching the cliffs into the deeper reaches of hell, they confront the monster Geryon and souls disfigured by usury.