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| Toynbee "Malebolge, summarized entry" |
'Evil-pouches', name given by D. to Circle VIII of Hell, so called
from the ten bolge into which it is divided.
It consists of an immense inverted hollow cone,
truncated at the apex (where Circle IX is placed), towards which
the ground slopes gradually on all sides.
It is intersected with ten concentric
valleys or ravines
lying one below the other on the slope; these
valleys are divided from each other by an enormous thickness of
solid ground, forming banks or ramparts between them.
Connecting these banks, and crossing the
valleys at right angles, run arched bridges of rock
forming gangways, like the transverse
passages in a theatre.
D. gives a description of Malebolge, which he says is 'all of
stone and of the colour of iron',
[Inf. xviii. 1-18]. In this Circle are punished the Fraudulent,
who are divided into ten classes, each class being distinct and
having a separate bolgia and distinctive punishment
assigned to it
[Frodolenti].
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press