Virgil's Aeneid

This is the first of two planned Aeneid posts. (The second will be devoted to Dido, the tragic queen abandoned by Aeneas.)  I've always been fascinated by Tartarus, the deepest pit of hell in Greco-Roman mythology. Virgil, Plato, and Dante, among others, wrote chilling descriptions of the terrors, and many people remember figures like Tantalus and Sysyphus.

Here's Dante's description of sinners submerged in Phlegethon, the fiery river of blood that circles Tartarus (verse translated by Mark Musa; line breaks removed for the sake of more space): 

So with this trusted escort [Nessus] we moved on along the boiling crimson river's bank, where piercing shrieks rose from boiling souls. . . . Then I saw other souls stuck in the river who had their heads and chests above the blood, and I knew the names of many who were there.

Older sources describe Tisiphone, the guardian of Tartarus. From Virgil (prose translation from W.F. Jackson Knight): "An iron tower also rose high into the air; and there sat Tisiphone, with bloody robe girt up, the never-sleeping guardian of the entrance-court by night and day." There's more, but it scares me.

I think I've found a great costume for Halloween.