<P> When Dante responds "In weeping and in grieving, accursed spirit, may you long remain," Virgil blesses him with words used to describe Christ himself (Luke 11: 27). Literally, this reflects the fact that souls in Hell are eternally fixed in the state they have chosen, but allegorically, it reflects Dante's beginning awareness of his own sin . </P> <P> In the distance, Dante perceives high towers that resemble fiery red mosques . Virgil informs him that they are approaching the City of Dis . Dis, itself surrounded by the Stygian marsh, contains Lower Hell within its walls . Dis is one of the names of Pluto, the classical king of the underworld, in addition to being the name of the realm . The walls of Dis are guarded by fallen angels . Virgil is unable to convince them to let Dante and him enter, and Dante is threatened by the Furies (consisting of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone) and Medusa . </P> <P> Canto IX An angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the poets, opening the gate by touching it with a wand, and rebukes those who opposed Dante . Allegorically, this reveals the fact that the poem is beginning to deal with sins that philosophy and humanism cannot fully understand . Virgil also mentions to Dante how Erichtho sent him down to the lowest circle of Hell to bring back a spirit from there . </P> <P> Canto X In the sixth circle, heretics, such as Epicurus and his followers (who say "the soul dies with the body") are trapped in flaming tombs . Dante holds discourse with a pair of Epicurian Florentines in one of the tombs: Farinata degli Uberti, a famous Ghibelline leader (following the Battle of Montaperti in September 1260, Farinata strongly protested the proposed destruction of Florence at the meeting of the victorious Ghibellines; he died in 1264 and was posthumously condemned for heresy in 1283); and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, a Guelph who was the father of Dante's friend and fellow poet, Guido Cavalcanti . The political affiliation of these two men allows for a further discussion of Florentine politics . In response to a question from Dante about the "prophecy" he has received, Farinata explains that what the souls in Hell know of life on earth comes from seeing the future, not from any observation of the present . Consequently, when "the portal of the future has been shut", it will no longer be possible for them to know anything . Farinata explains that also crammed within the tomb are Emperor Frederick II, commonly reputed to be an Epicurean, and Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, to whom Dante refers to as il Cardinale . </P>

Dante's inferno abandon all hope ye who enter here