Just then an earthquake shakes the whole region, and Dante swoons in terror.
_Canto IV._ When he recovers his senses, Dante finds himself no longer in Charon's bark, but on the brink of a huge circular pit, whence arise, like emanations, moans and wails, but wherein, owing to the dense gloom, he can descry nothing.

Warning him they are about to descend into the "blind world," and that his sorrowful expression--which Dante ascribes to fear--is caused by pity, Virgil conducts his disciple into the first circle of hell.

Instead of lamentations, only sighs are heard, while Virgil explains that this semi-dark limbo is reserved for unbaptized children, and for those who, having lived before Christ, must "live desiring without hope." Full of compassion for these sufferers, Dante inquires whether no one from above ever visited them, and is told that One, bearing trophies of victory, once arrived there to ransom the patriarchs Adam, Abel, Noah, and others, but that until then none had ever been saved.
Talking busily, the two wend their way through a forest of sighing spirits, until they approach a fire, around which dignified shades have gathered.

Informing Dante these are men of honored reputations, Virgil points out among them four mighty figures coming to meet them, and whispers they are Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan.

After conversing for a while with Virgil, these bards graciously welcome Dante as sixth in their poetic galaxy.