Engraving by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) illustrating Canto XVI of Divine Comedy, Inferno, by Da
Engraving by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) illustrating Canto XVI of Divine Comedy, Inferno, by Dante Alighieri.-As Dante and Virgil prepare to leave Circle Seven, they are met by the fearsome figure of Geryon, Monster of Fraud. Virgil arranges for Geryon to fly them down to Circle Eight. He climbs onto the monster’s back and instructs Dante to do the same.Then he called out: “Now, Geryon, we are ready:bear well in mind that his is living weightand make your circles wide and your flight steady.”As a small ship slides from a beaching or its pier,backward, backward — so that monster slippedback from the rim. And when he had drawn clearhe swung about, and stretching out his tailhe worked it like an eel, and with his pawshe gathered in the air, while I turned pale. -- source link
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