The Giants and the Descent to Cocytus

The Giants and the Descent to Cocytus is the pivotal transition from the eighth circle of fraud to the ninth circle of treachery in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, where the poets encounter the towering figures of Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus, who serve as both the final guardians of the abyss and the means of descent into the frozen lake that punishes traitors. This sequence marks the last physical boundary before the absolute evil at the universe's center, transforming the poem's geography from a landscape of fire and stone to one of ice and silence.

The Approach and the Deceptive Vision of Towers

Emerging from the wretched valley of the falsifiers, Dante and Virgil find themselves on the bank that girds it, walking without speech in an atmosphere "less than night, and less than day" . The dim light forces Dante's sight to go little in advance, but his hearing is suddenly seized by the blare of a loud horn, so powerful it would make every thunder faint (E04390–E04391). The sound, which Virgil compares to the horn of Orlando after the dolorous defeat at Roncesvaux, directs Dante's eyes to a single point (E04394–E04396). Peering through the darkness, Dante mistakes what he sees for many lofty towers and asks what town this is (E04398–E04399). Virgil corrects him, explaining that distance deceives the sense, and that these are not towers but giants, standing in the well around the bank, visible from the navel downward (E04409–E04411). As the fog of darkness clears, the error flees and fear comes over Dante, for the margin surrounding the well is turreted with the upper halves of the horrible giants, whom Jove still menaces from the heavens when he thunders (E04417–E04423).

Nimrod: The Confusion of Language

The first giant Dante clearly sees has a face as long and large as the pine-cone of Saint Peter's at Rome, with all his other bones in proportion; from the place where a man buckles his mantle, he measures thirty great palms (E04436–E04444). This ferocious mouth begins to clamor, "Raphael mai amech izabi almi," a gibberish that no one can understand (E04445–E04446). Virgil immediately identifies him as Nimrod, the builder of the Tower of Babel, by whose evil thought one language in the world is no longer used (E04455–E04456). The guide tells Dante to leave him and not speak in vain, for every language is as foreign to Nimrod as his is to others, which none can comprehend (E04457–E04459). They turn to the left and continue their journey, leaving the bewildered giant behind.

Ephialtes: The Bound Rebel

After traveling the distance of a crossbow-shot, the poets find another giant, far more fierce and large than Nimrod (E04461–E04462). This one is pinioned close with chains: behind the right arm and in front the other, bound from the neck down to the fifth gyre (E04464–E04468). Virgil explains that this proud one wished to make experiment of his own power against the Supreme Jove, and therefore has such a guerdon; his name is Ephialtes, who showed great prowess when the giants terrified the gods, but the arms he wielded never more he moves (E04469–E04474). When Dante expresses a wish to see the measureless Briareus, Virgil replies that he will soon behold Antaeus, who can speak and is unbound, and who will place them at the bottom of all crime (E04478–E04480). Ephialtes suddenly shakes himself with such violence that no earthquake could shake a tower so mightily, and Dante is more afraid of death than ever, needing only the fear itself had he not beheld the manacles (E04484–E04489).

Antaeus: The Descent into the Abyss

They proceed to Antaeus, who issues forth from the cavern full five ells without the head (E04490–E04492). Virgil addresses him with a flattering speech, reminding him of the valley fortunate where Scipio made himself heir of glory when Hannibal turned back, and of the thousand lions he once brought for his prey (E04493–E04496). He asks Antaeus to place them below where the cold locks Cocytus up, and not to make them go to Tityus or Typhoeus, promising that Dante, who still lives and expects long life, can restore his fame in the world (E04500–E04507). Antaeus extends his hands—hands whose great pressure Hercules once felt—and takes up Virgil (E04508–E04510). Virgil tells Dante to draw nigh, and makes of himself and Dante one bundle (E04512–E04513). As the Carisenda tower seems to lean when a cloud passes above it, so Antaeus appears to Dante, who watches him stoop and wishes he could go some other way (E04514–E04519). But lightly, in the abyss that swallows up Judas with Lucifer, Antaeus puts them down, and then, without delay, rises like a mast in a ship (E04520–E04523).

The Frozen Lake of Cocytus

Once at the bottom, Dante finds himself in a darksome well beneath the giant's feet, and hears a voice warning him to look how he steps, lest he trample the heads of the tired, miserable brothers (E04540–E04545). Turning, he sees before him and underfoot a lake that from the frost has the semblance of glass, not water—so thick a veil that neither the Danube in Austria nor the Don beneath the frigid sky ever made such a crust (E04547–E04552). The disconsolate shades within the ice are livid as far down as where shame appears, setting their teeth unto the note of storks, each holding his countenance downward bent (E04558–E04561). From the mouth the cold, from the eyes the doleful heart witness of itself procures (E04562–E04563). This is Cocytus, the ninth circle, where traitors are punished, and the poets have arrived at the very bottom of the universe.

Thematic Significance

The encounter with the giants serves as a final threshold between the upper and lower hell, a transition from the realm of fraud to that of treachery. The giants themselves embody the sin of pride that led to rebellion against divine order: Nimrod's confusion of language, Ephialtes's bound impotence, and Antaeus's subordination to Virgil's rhetoric all demonstrate that even the most powerful earthly forces are ultimately subject to God's justice. The descent on Antaeus's shoulders, a terrifying flight through the void, mirrors the earlier descent on Geryon but plunges deeper into silence and cold, preparing the reader for the absolute stillness of the frozen lake where the ultimate traitors—Judas, Brutus, and Cassius—are eternally consumed by Lucifer himself.