In the Inferno Satan, or “The Emperor of the Universe of Pain,” is trapped in ice from the waist down. His head has three faces: one is “fiery red,” another is “between white and bile” and the third is black. He has bat’s wings that keep flapping as if to help him escape but all they can do is “freeze all of Cocytus” (Dante’s name for the ninth circle). He is weeping and in his mouths he gnaws on three sinners whom he keeps “in eternal pain at his eternal dinner.” They are Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. (The center of Dante’s hell holds those “treacherous to their masters.” Judas betrayed Christ; Brutus and Cassius betrayed Caesar. Virgil guides the character “Dante” through hell and these last two are for his benefit.)
Satan is gigantic as Dante describes him: “I am closer in size to the great mountain the Titans make around the central pit, than they to his arms.” Virgil and Dante leave the inferno by using the “Great Worm of Evil” as a stairway and “we walked out once more beneath the Stars.” (Interestingly Dante uses this word to end each of the three books of The Divine Comedy. For him “stars” are the symbol of hope and virtue in this epic poem of redemption.) And that is all that we have of Satan. He is trapped, weeping and eating for eternity.
It seems to me that he is too helpless to personify a cosmic force that produces injury. Of course in Dante’s literary universe the punishment fits the crime. Thus, he is portraying a defeated Satan.
So we have three vanquished characters: Iago arrested and standing mum; Milton’s fallen Lucifer; and Dante’s trapped Satan. Do any of them personify evil?
The theme of good versus evil has given us some great literature and memorable characters with good usually the victor. I’ve been wondering how modern writers would compare. The work that comes to mind (possibly because the final movie is coming out in a month) is the Harry Potter series. That would mean rereading all seven volumes. Perhaps a project for another day.
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