Write a brief essay that examines the narrator's description of Satan in Inferno: Canto XXXIV - his appearance, distinctive features, what he does, and what he eats.  How does this image of Satan fit into the historical context of Dante's Italy? A Brief Essay Response should consist of at least 8 sentences, following this format: A topic sentence that answers the essay question generally. A sentence that makes your first point or gives your first answer. A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the first point or first answer A sentence that makes your second point or gives your second answer. A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the second point or second answer. A sentence that makes your third point or gives your third answer. A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the third point or third answer. A concluding sentence that relates what your Sentence 2 thru Sentence 7 have to do with the Topic Sentence 1. The reading: ‘ Vexilla [858] Regis prodeunt Inferni Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,’My Master bade, ‘if trace of him thou spy.’As, when the exhalations dense have been,Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,A windmill from afar is sometimes seen,I seemed to catch of such a structure sight;And then to ’scape the blast did backward drawBehind my Guide—sole shelter in my plight.Now was I where [859] (I versify with awe)10The shades were wholly covered, and did showVisible as in glass are bits of straw.Some stood [860] upright and some were lying low,[Pg 261]Some with head topmost, others with their feet;And some with face to feet bent like a bow.But we kept going on till it seemed meetUnto my Master that I should beholdThe creature once [861] of countenance so sweet.He stepped aside and stopped me as he told:‘Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last20Where thou must nerve thee and must make thee bold,’How I hereon stood shivering and aghast,Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;So much the fact all reach of words surpassed.I was not dead, yet living was not quite:Think for thyself, if gifted with the power,What, life and death denied me, was my plight.Of that tormented realm the EmperorOut of the ice stood free to middle breast;And me a giant less would overtower30Than would his arm a giant. By such testJudge then what bulk the whole of him must show, [862] Of true proportion with such limb possessed.[Pg 262]If he was fair of old as hideous now,And yet his brows against his Maker raised,Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.O how it made me horribly amazedWhen on his head I saw three faces [863] grew!The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;And joining on to it were other two,40One rising up from either shoulder-bone,Till to a junction on the crest they drew.’Twixt white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;The left resembled them whose country liesWhere valleywards the floods of Nile flow down.Beneath each face two mighty wings d ...

1. Write a brief essay that examines the narrator's description of
Satan in Inferno: Canto XXXIV - his appearance, distinctive
features, what he does, and what he eats. How does this image
of Satan fit into the historical context of Dante's Italy?
A Brief Essay Response should consist of at least 8 sentences,
following this format:
A topic sentence that answers the essay question generally.
A sentence that makes your first point or gives your first
answer.
A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the
first point or first answer
A sentence that makes your second point or gives your second
answer.
A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the
second point or second answer.
A sentence that makes your third point or gives your third
answer.
A sentence that further supports, illustrates, or discusses the
third point or third answer.
A concluding sentence that relates what your Sentence 2 thru
Sentence 7 have to do with the Topic Sentence 1.
The reading:
‘
Vexilla

2. [858]
Regis prodeunt Inferni
Towards where we are; seek then with vision keen,’My Master
bade, ‘if trace of him thou spy.’As, when the exhalations dense
have been,Or when our hemisphere grows dark with night,A
windmill from afar is sometimes seen,I seemed to catch of such
a structure sight;And then to ’scape the blast did backward
drawBehind my Guide—sole shelter in my plight.Now was I
where
[859]
(I versify with awe)10The shades were wholly covered, and did
showVisible as in glass are bits of straw.Some stood
[860]
upright and some were lying low,[Pg 261]Some with head
topmost, others with their feet;And some with face to feet bent
like a bow.But we kept going on till it seemed meetUnto my
Master that I should beholdThe creature once
[861]
of countenance so sweet.He stepped aside and stopped me as he
told:‘Lo, Dis! And lo, we are arrived at last20Where thou must
nerve thee and must make thee bold,’How I hereon stood
shivering and aghast,Demand not, Reader; this I cannot write;So
much the fact all reach of words surpassed.I was not dead, yet
living was not quite:Think for thyself, if gifted with the
power,What, life and death denied me, was my plight.Of that
tormented realm the EmperorOut of the ice stood free to middle
breast;And me a giant less would overtower30Than would his
arm a giant. By such testJudge then what bulk the whole of him
must show,
[862]
Of true proportion with such limb possessed.[Pg 262]If he was
fair of old as hideous now,And yet his brows against his Maker
raised,Meetly from him doth all affliction flow.O how it made
me horribly amazedWhen on his head I saw three faces
[863]

3. grew!The one vermilion which straight forward gazed;And
joining on to it were other two,40One rising up from either
shoulder-bone,Till to a junction on the crest they drew.’Twixt
white and yellow seemed the right-hand one;The left resembled
them whose country liesWhere valleywards the floods of Nile
flow down.Beneath each face two mighty wings did rise,Such as
this bird tremendous might demand:Sails of sea-ships ne’er saw
I of such size.Not feathered were they, but in style were
plannedLike a bat’s wing:
[864]
by them a threefold breeze—50For still he flapped them—
evermore was fanned,And through its depths Cocytus caused to
freeze.Down three chins tears for ever made descentFrom his
six eyes; and red foam mixed with these.In every mouth there
was a sinner rentBy teeth that shred him as a heckle
[865]
would;Thus three at once compelled he to lament.[Pg 263]To
the one in front ’twas little to be chewedCompared with being
clawed and clawed again,Till his back-bone of skin was
sometimes nude.
[866]
60‘The soul up yonder in the greater painIs Judas ’Scariot, with
his head amongThe teeth,’ my Master said, ‘while outward
strainHis legs. Of the two whose heads are downward
hung,Brutus is from the black jowl pendulous:See how he
writhes, yet never wags his tongue.The other, great of thew, is
Cassius:
[867]
But night is rising
[868]
and we must be gone;For everything hath now been seen by
us.’Then, as he bade, I to his neck held on70While he the time
and place of vantage chose;And when the wings enough were
open thrownHe grasped the shaggy ribs and clutched them
close,[Pg 264]And so from tuft to tuft he downward
wentBetween the tangled hair and crust which froze.We to the

4. bulging haunch had made descent,To where the hip-joint lies in
it; and thenMy Guide, with painful twist and violent,Turned
round his head to where his feet had been,And like a climber
closely clutched the hair:80I thought to Hell
[869]
that we returned again.‘Hold fast to me; it needs by such a
stair,’Panting, my Leader said, like man foredone,‘That we from
all that wretchedness repair.’Right through a hole in a rock
when he had won,The edge of it he gave me for a seatAnd deftly
then to join me clambered on.I raised mine eyes, expecting they
would meetWith Lucifer as I beheld him last,But saw instead
his upturned legs
[870]
and feet.90If in perplexity I then was cast,Let ignorant people
think who do not seeWhat point
[871]
it was that I had lately passed.[Pg 265]‘Rise to thy feet,’ my
Master said to me;‘The way is long and rugged the ascent,And
at mid tierce
[872]
the sun must almost be.’’Twas not as if on palace floors we
went:A dungeon fresh from nature’s hand was this;Rough
underfoot, and of light indigent.‘Or ever I escape from the
abyss,100O Master,’ said I, standing now upright,‘Correct in
few words where I think amiss.Where lies the ice? How hold we
him in sightSet upside down? The sun, how had it skillIn so
short while to pass to morn from night?’
[873]
And he: ‘In fancy thou art standing, still,On yon side of the
centre, where I caughtThe vile worm’s hair which through the
world doth drill.There wast thou while our downward course I
wrought;But when I turned, the centre was passed by110Which
by all weights from every point is sought.And now thou standest
’neath the other sky,Opposed to that which vaults the great dry
groundAnd ’neath whose summit
[874]

5. there did whilom die[Pg 266]The Man
[875]
whose birth and life were sinless found.Thy feet are firm upon
the little sphere,On this side answering to Judecca’s round.’Tis
evening yonder when ’tis morning here;And he whose tufts our
ladder rungs supplied.Fixed as he was continues to
appear.120Headlong from Heaven he fell upon this
side;Whereon the land, protuberant here before,For fear of him
did in the ocean hide,And ’neath our sky emerged: land, as of
yore
[876]
Still on this side, perhaps that it might shunHis fall, heaved up,
and filled this depth no more.[Pg 267]’From Belzebub
[877]
still widening up and on,Far-stretching as the sepulchre,
[878]
extendsA region not beheld, but only knownBy murmur of a
brook
[879]
which through it wends,130Declining by a channel eaten
throughThe flinty rock; and gently it descends.My Guide and I,
our journey to pursueTo the bright world, upon this road
concealedMade entrance, and no thought of resting knew.He
first, I second, still ascending heldOur way until the fair
celestial trainWas through an opening round to me
revealed:And, issuing thence, we saw the stars
[880]
again.