The Fifth Circle: The Styx and Filippo Argenti

Dante and Virgil cross the marsh of Styx, where the wrathful and the sullen are punished. The wrathful strike and tear each other on the surface, while the sullen, fixed in the mire, gurgle a hymn of their own bitterness. They approach a tower, and two flamelets signal the approach of Phlegyas, who ferries them across the Styx in his boat. During the crossing, the muddy soul of Filippo Argenti rises and challenges Dante. Dante recognizes him and wishes to see him tormented further; Virgil embraces Dante and blesses his disdain. The other souls in the mire tear Argenti apart. They then arrive at the gate of the City of Dis, whose mosques appear vermilion as if issuing from fire. This episode marks the transition from the upper circles of incontinence to the lower circles of more deliberate sins, and the city of Dis represents the stronghold of heresy and deeper evil.