Common Monsters In Dante's Inferno

In Dante’s Inferno there are many different monsters. It is difficult to choose just one as my favorite. Some of my favorite ones are: Minos, The Geryon, Lucifer, Ciacco, the Giants, Furies, Medusa, Malacoda, and Cerberus. Each of these monsters may look different, but share some common traits. Like Minos, Geryon, and Chirons, they all are half human and half another creature. You will see these monsters in other stories, such as Greek mythology. Lucifer and Cerberus both have three heads. Minos might be at the top of my list in this category. He is half human and half snake. I just think it is extremely cool that he decides which circle they tend to. Minos plays a huge role in Hell making him an even better monster. Dante Alighieri writes,

These creatures are known as furies. Furies look like people with wings. According to Dante, these furies are what summons Medusa; they try to use her to turn him into stone (Canto IX). Medusa is a common character found in other stories. She is a woman with snakes for her hair. Why do a lot of these characters have to do with snakes? Her snakes however, aren't any ordinary snakes. These snakes turn people into stone and freeze them forever. She cannot control them, unfortunately they are just a mind of their own. In Canto XVI Virgil and Dante come across the Geryon. In the text it says that Geryon is a personification of fraud (Canto XVI). He is separated from Minos because of his unusual body. According to Dante, Geryon has a face that personates a good man, a body that is a snake, has hairy claws for arms, and a scorpion tail (Canto XVI). Geryon personifies a human, a snake, a bird, and a scorpion all at the same time. He has all these features which is why his personification is fraud. Malacoda is probably second on my list if I had to number them. He is as close as it comes to the devil when talking about looks. He carries a pitchfork, has a tail, and even horns. Dante writes, Malacoda assigns a ten demon escort for him and Virgil (Canto XXI). Malacoda is the boss of these demons in this circle. There are four different giants in the ninth circle. Nimrod, Antaeus, Ephialtes,

He was once a beautiful angel who is now ugly and in the depths of Hell. He has three faces attached to his body, this signifies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Within each face is a person. The text says, Satan has three different faces, one being red, another being black, and the last one whitish-yellow. The black face contains Brutus who is legs first. The red face contains Judas who is head first and back skinned by the devil’s claws. The whitish-yellow face contains Cassius who is legs first. Out of the three Judas is the one suffering the most (Canto