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| “ | He wept with all six eyes, and the tears fell over his three chins mingled with bloody foam. The teeth of each mouth held a sinner, kept as by a flax rake: thus he held three of them in agony. | „ |
| ~ Dante Alighieri's physical description of The Devil. |
Dis, alternately called Satan, The Devil, Lucifer and/or Beelzebub, is the main antagonist of the late Italian poet Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, though he does not make an appearance until the end of Inferno.
Biography[]
In The Inferno, Satan is trapped in Cocytus, the ninth and final circle of Hell; the circle reserved for the treacherous and traitorous. He was once Lucifer, the highest of all angels, until he became consumed with pride and, with the help of an army of likeminded angels, challenged God for control of the universe. God defeated him, however, and banished him and the other rebellious angels to Hell for all eternity.
Satan would later manipulate humans and other angels into going against God. He would trap his followers in the Inferno where the murderers drown in the fiery blood of their own victims, and others are forced to cannibalize their own children.
He is depicted with three heads, in a mockery of the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit), and each head is chewing on a dead soul. Within Satan's left and right mouths feet-first are Brutus and Cassius, the lead murderers of Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar. In the middle mouth head-first is Judas Iscariot, former Apostle and betrayer of Jesus Christ. He suffers the worst torment of all, having his head chewed and back raked by Satan's claws for all eternity.
Satan himself is trapped waist-deep in a sheet of ice. His wings beat in an eternal struggle to escape his frigid prison, yet the winds that his wings create only ensures that he is trapped further along with every other soul in Cocytus. Vergil and Dante escape Cocytus by climbing down Satan's fur through the center of the world, and reemerging at the mount of Purgatory.
Literary Symbolism[]
Location: The Frozen Lake (Cocytus)[]
Dante’s decision to place Satan at the lowest point of Hell, encased in ice rather than fire, is a brilliant subversion of earlier medieval and classical depictions of Hell as a fiery realm. Ice represents the coldness and rigidity of betrayal, the ultimate sin in Dante’s moral framework (as it betrays the fundamental bond of trust). This also reinforces the idea that sin is not a matter of passion or heat but a perversion of the rational soul—an absence of warmth, empathy, and divine light.
Three Faces: A Parody of the Trinity[]
Satan’s three faces symbolize a grotesque inversion of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This reflects the medieval belief that evil is not a creative force but a corruption of good. It’s a direct affront to God’s perfection and unity, highlighting Satan’s role as the ultimate perverter of divine order.
Trapped in Ice and Muteness[]
Satan’s immobility and muteness emphasize the paradox of sin in Dante’s worldview: the one who sought absolute power is rendered utterly powerless. His wings, which once lifted him toward divine glory, now churn a freezing wind that keeps him trapped—his own actions are the cause of his punishment. This reflects Dante’s moral philosophy: sin is self-defeating, a distortion of the will that imprisons rather than liberates.
Chewing on Traitors[]
Satan devours Judas, Brutus, and Cassius—betrayers of the greatest earthly and divine leaders (Jesus and Caesar). This highlights Dante’s emphasis on betrayal as the gravest of sins, an act that undermines the very fabric of human and divine community. By chewing them eternally, Satan himself is trapped in an endless cycle of hate and destruction—he cannot digest or be nourished by his prey, a metaphor for the futility of evil.
Distance from Divine Light[]
Dante’s Hell is structured as a descending funnel, with Satan at the farthest point from God’s light and love. His frozen prison represents the ultimate alienation from the divine, underscoring that separation from God is the worst fate of all. This reflects the medieval Christian notion that Hell is fundamentally a state of alienation and loss, rather than a realm of active, triumphant rebellion.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This version of the Devil inspired other versions created centuries later, such as Lucifer of Dante's Inferno's and Zennon, one of Devilman's major antagonists.
External Links[]
- The Devil on the Pure Evil Wiki.