The ninth circle of hell is where the fallen angel Satan himself resides, trapped in a frozen lake of blood and guilt. His wings flap eternally, producing chilling cold winds that freeze the thick ice found in Cocytus. The three faces of Satan, black, red, and yellow, can be seen with mouths gushing bloody foam and eyes forever weeping, as they chew on the three traitors, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. This place is furthest removed from the source of all light and warmth. Sinners here are frozen deep in the ice, faces out, eyes and mouths frozen shut. Traitors against God, country, family, and benefactors lament their sins in this frigid pit of despair.
The Ninth Circle is ringed by classical and Biblical giants, who perhaps symbolise the pride and other spiritual flaws lying behind acts of treachery.The giants are standing on a ledge above the ninth circle of Hell,so that from the Malebolge they are visible from the waist up. They include Nimrod, as well as Ephialtes, who with his brother Otus tried to storm Olympus. The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the ninth circle of Hell (Canto XXXI).
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