Venice Lagoon: Dante and Virgil Crossing the River Styx (Georgi Frangulyan)




 
 
 
From Canto VIII of Dante's Inferno:

Never was arrow from the cord dismiss'd,
That ran its way so nimbly through the air,
As a small bark, that through the waves I
spied
Towards us coming, under the sole sway
Of one that ferried it, who cried aloud:
 "Art thou arriv'd, fell spirit?" -- "Phlegyas,
Phlegyas,
This time thou criest in vain," my lord
replied;
"No longer shalt thou have us, but while o'er
The slimy pool we pass." As one who hears
Of some great wrong he hath sustain'd,
whereat
Inly he pines; so Phlegyas inly pin'd
In his fierce ire. My guide descending
stepp'd
Into the skiff, and bade me enter next
Close at his side; nor till my entrance seem'd
The vessel freighted. Soon as both
embark'd,
Cutting the waves, goes on the ancient prow,
More deeply than with others it is wont. 
 

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