Then, bidding Dante hold fast so as not to fall, Virgil gives the signal for departure.  Wheeling slowly, Geryon flies downward, moderating his speed so as not to unseat his passengers.  Comparing his sensations to those of Phaeton falling from the sun-chariot, or to Icarus’ horror when he dropped into the sea, Dante describes how, as they circled down on the beast’s back, he caught fleeting glimpses of fiery pools and was almost deafened by the rising chorus of wails.  With a falcon-like swoop Geryon finally alights on the next level, and, having deposited his passengers at the foot of a splintered rock, darts away like an arrow from a taut bow-string.

Canto XVIII. The eighth circle, called Malebolge (Evil Pits), is divided into ten gulfs, between which rocky arches form bridge-like passages.  This whole region is of stone and ice, and from the pit in the centre continually rise horrid exhalations.  Among the unfortunates incessantly lashed by horned demons in the first gulf, Dante perceives one who was a notorious pander on earth and who is justly suffering the penalty of his crimes.  Later on, watching a train of culprits driven by other demons, Dante recognizes among them Jason, who secured the Golden Fleece, thanks to Medea, but proved faithless toward her in the end.

Crossing to the second division, Dante beholds sinners buried in dung, in punishment for having led astray their fellow-creatures by flattery.  One of them,—­whom the poet recognizes,—­emerging from his filthy bath, sadly confesses, “Me thus low down my flatteries have sunk, wherewith I ne’er enough could glut my tongue.”  In this place Dante also notes the harlot Thais, expiating her sins, with other notorious seducers and flatterers.

Canto XIX. By means of another rocky bridge the travellers reach the third gulf, where are punished all who have been guilty of simony.  These are sunk, head first, in a series of burning pits, whence emerge only the red-hot soles of their convulsively agitated feet.  Seeing a ruddier flame hover over one pair of soles, Dante timidly inquires to whom they belong, whereupon Virgil, carrying him down to this spot, bids him seek his answer from the culprit himself.  Peering down into the stone-pit, Dante then timidly proffers his request, only to be hotly reviled by Pope Nicholas III, who first mistakes his interlocutor for Pope Boniface, and confesses he was brought to this state by nepotism.  But, when he predicts a worse pope will ultimately follow him down into this region, Dante sternly rebukes him.

Canto XX. Virgil is so pleased with Dante’s speech to Pope Nicholas that, seizing him in his arms, he carries him swiftly over the bridge which leads to the fourth division.  Here Dante beholds a procession of chanting criminals whose heads are turned to face their backs.  This sight proves so awful that Dante weeps, until Virgil bids him note the different culprits.  Among them is the witch Manto, to whom Mantua, his native city, owes its name, and Dante soon learns that all these culprits are the famous soothsayers, diviners, magicians, and witches of the world, who thus are punished for having presumed to predict the future.