Placing Dante behind him to shield him a little from the cruel blast, Virgil leads him past countless culprits, declaring they have reached Judecca, a place where it behooves him to arm his heart with strength.

So stiff with cold that he is hovering between life and death, Dante now beholds Dis or Satan,--Emperor of the Infernal Regions,--sunk in ice down to his waist, and discovers that the wind is caused by the constant flutter of his bat-like wings.

He also perceives that Satan is as much larger than the giants just seen, as they surpass mankind, and states that, were the father of evil as fair as he is foul, one might understand his daring to defy God.
"If he were beautiful As he is hideous now, and yet did dare To scowl upon his Maker, well from him May all our misery flow." Then Dante describes Satan's three heads, one red, one yellow and white, and one green, declaring that the arch-fiend munches in each mouth the sinners Judas, Cassius, and Brutus.

After allowing Dante to gaze a while at this appalling sight, Virgil informs his charge that, having seen all, it behooves them to depart.

With a brief order to Dante to cling tightly around his neck, Virgil, seizing a moment when Satan's wings are raised, darts beneath them, and clutching the demon's shaggy sides painfully descends toward the centre of the earth.