The engagement of my imagination has been temporarily called off.

"His face was just a man's face, outwardly kind,

And he was like a serpent all down his trunk.

He had two paws, both hairy to the armpits;

His back and breast and both sides down to the shank

Were painted with designs of knots and circlets."

Canto XVII. lines 9-13

Going back to the whole why-does-Dante-interweave-mysticism/mythology-with-Christianity thing...from reading the notes in the back of the book and just having a basic knowledge of Greek monsters, Dante's changed or edited all the traditionally Greek monsters he uses in hell. They're more grotesque in Dante's version, usually, or just stranger. Like Cerberus has three throats instead of three heads; this monster, according to the back of the book, was a giant with three heads and three bodies. Dante's representation of it is much more frightening and eerie/grotesque than the original. This almost parallels Christianity, in a way, or at least the rituals. Christians "adopted" pagan holidays so to entice potential converters, then reorganized the particular holiday to center around Christian themes (a la Easter and Christmas). Dante does the same thing, essentially: he uses the basic Greek monster, then molds it for his own purposes. Another case of weaving Christianity and paganism/mythology. I didn't expect Dante to do that, when I first started reading, and I've been surprised by the large number of Greek/Roman references.

"... He left her great with child,

Forlorn; and such guilt brings him torment in Hell,

Avenging Madea as well. ..."

Canto XVIII.

Throughout the poem, women have gotten the short end of the stick in Hell (obviously, naturally, figures). In the second circle (...I think?), when the pilgrim encounters the women who're in Hell even though their circumstances perhaps lessen the wrongs they've committed, they're still punished for that. BOOO EVE. But this is the first instance I've seen (or at least that I remember) where women aren't necessarily the bad ones, and the men are punished 'cause they did their ladies wrong! That Madea is avenged through Jason's pain and suffering seems uncharacteristic of Christianity in general (unless we're talking Catholicism) and the patterns of the poem (as far as sexism goes). Poor Mary. So ignored outside of Catholicism. Obviously, her situation is different than that of, say, Helen's, but still. Men: 203025093719. Women: 1.