Megaera

Megaera is one of the three infernal Furies, or Erinyes, who appear at the gates of the City of Dis in the sixth circle of Hell, where the heretics are punished. She is identified by Virgil as the Fury on the left-hand side, part of a triad that includes Alecto on the right and Tisiphone in the middle. The Furies are described as having the limbs and mien of women, but are begirt with the greenest hydras, and their horrid temples are entwined with small serpents and cerastes. They are stained with blood and cry out so loudly that Dante, for dread, presses close to the Poet. Their function is to guard the entrance to the city of Dis, which contains the tombs of the heretics, and they threaten to summon Medusa to turn Dante to stone, preventing his passage. Virgil, however, shields Dante's eyes and commands him not to look at the Gorgon, emphasizing the danger of spiritual petrification that the Furies represent. The Furies are handmaids of the Queen of everlasting lamentation, Proserpina, and their appearance marks a critical moment of opposition that is only overcome by the arrival of a heavenly messenger who opens the gate. Megaera, as part of this infernal trio, thus embodies the wrathful and obstructive forces that guard the deeper circles of Hell, representing the threat of despair and the hardening of the soul against grace.