Judecca
Judecca is the deepest and most terrible region of Hell, the fourth and final division of the Ninth Circle, reserved for those who betrayed their lords and benefactors. It lies at the very bottom of the universe, a frozen lake of Cocytus where all the ice and cold of the preceding circles culminate. Here, the punishment is absolute immobility and isolation within the ice, a contrapasso that mirrors the traitors' complete severance of the bonds of love and trust. The region is named after Judas Iscariot, the archetypal traitor, and it is the place where the pilgrim Dante and his guide Virgil witness the final, horrifying spectacle of the infernal realm before beginning their ascent to the other side of the world.
Geography and Description
Judecca is the innermost of the four concentric rings that make up the Ninth Circle, which is itself a frozen lake formed by the tears of the damned and the weeping of Lucifer. The other three rings—Caina, Antenora, and Ptolomaea—punish traitors to kindred, country, and guests respectively, but Judecca is reserved for the worst category: those who betrayed their lords and benefactors. The ice here is so complete that the shades are not merely stuck in it but are entirely encased, some prone, some erect, some bent like a bow, their forms glimmering through the ice like straws in glass. The wind generated by Lucifer's six bat-like wings freezes the entire lake, making it a place of utter stillness and cold, a stark contrast to the fiery torments of the upper circles. The pilgrim notes that the floor is not a palace corridor but a natural dungeon, with an uneven floor and poor light, emphasizing its raw, inhuman quality.
Lucifer and the Three Arch-Traitors
At the very center of Judecca, emerging from the ice from his mid-breast upward, stands Lucifer, the Emperor of the dolorous kingdom. He is a monstrous giant, far larger than any of the giants Dante saw in the previous circle, and he has three faces: one vermilion in front, one between white and yellow on the right, and one black on the left, resembling those from the region where the Nile flows. Under each face come two enormous bat-like wings, which he beats to generate the three winds that freeze Cocytus. In each of his three mouths, he crunches a sinner: Judas Iscariot in the central, most painful mouth, with his head inside and legs kicking outside; Brutus in the left mouth, hanging head downward and writhing silently; and Cassius in the right mouth, also head downward. These three are the ultimate traitors: Judas betrayed Christ, Brutus and Cassius betrayed Julius Caesar, and their punishment is the most severe in all of Hell, a perpetual, agonizing chewing that never ends.
The Ascent from Judecca
After witnessing Lucifer, Virgil announces that night is reascending and it is time to depart. He seizes the moment, clasping Dante around the neck and climbing down Lucifer's shaggy sides, descending from fell to fell between the thick hair and the frozen crust. When they reach the point where the thigh revolves exactly on the thickness of the haunch, Virgil turns himself around—so that his head is where his legs had been—and begins to climb upward, grappling the hair as one who mounts. This inversion marks the crossing of the earth's center, the point of gravity, and the beginning of their ascent to the southern hemisphere. They emerge through a rock opening onto a ledge, and Dante, looking back, sees Lucifer's legs now pointing upward. Virgil explains that they have passed the center and are now beneath the hemisphere opposite the one that overhangs the dry land, where the Man who was born and lived without sin was put to death. They then enter a hidden road, following a small rivulet that descends through a chasm in the stone, and mount up, he first and Dante second, until they see through a round aperture some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, and finally come forth to rebehold the stars.
