HELL. Данте Алигьери

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      6: Cerberus. Doom of Gluttons

      1 Returning to my senses once again

      from sorrow that confused them utterly,

      I saw a different multitude in pain,

      4 not reeling, writhing, spirits spinning round,

      but corpulences stuck in muddy ground

      under a freezing hard unending rain

      7 of filthy water, hailstones, blasts of snow

      descending through a murkiness of fog

      to make the earth below a stinking bog

      10 from which the sunken souls halfway protrude.

      Across this mire prowls a rude vicious beast

      three-headed, each head howling like a dog.

      13 His name is Cerberus, his eyes blood-red,

      black hair and beards befouled by greasy phlegm,

      his belly gross, each paw with knife-like claws

      16 that stab and rip sinners they prance upon,

      who also howl like dogs. They cannot stop

      squirming to turn their downside up again

      19 to shield their upside from the dreadful rain.

      Cerberus, glaring on us, snarled and showed

      three pairs of open jaws with dragon fangs,

      his body twitching, bristled to attack. 22

      My guide stooped swiftly, scooped up blood-rich mud,

      then accurately flung a handful down

      each throat. Howling and snarling stopped at once. 25

      Like hungry hound gorging on juicy bone

      he left the damned alone as we moved on

      across the swamp where footsteps often sank 28

      down through a groaning ghost to mud below.

      Then one, twisting half up beside our way

      cried out, “O Dante, surely you know me? 31