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.