AENEAS IND THE UNDERWORLD

A. THE GATE OF IVORY

The path to Hell is dark and grim. The Entrance Hall consists of Grief and Resentful Care. Disease, Old Age, Fear, Hunger, Evil, Poverty, Death, and Pain all dwell there. Death’s close kin, Sleep, Joy of Sinning, and War are right outside. Furies and Strife the insane live there. The center has a giant shady elm-tree in which False Dreams consume. Many monstrous beasts can be seen there including Centaurs, Scyllas, Briareus, Lerna’s Beast, and Chimaera. Also, Gorgons, Harpies and Geryon. They seem harmful but they are actually bodiless and safe. From there begins the road to Tartarean Acheron. Among the mud and murk you find Charon, a ragged, filthy, evil figure. He guards the Acheron River which consists of unburied souls who cannot pass until one hundred years have passed. When you cross the river, a huge dog with three heads named Cerberus guards Hades.
As you enter Hades the first souls you encounter are those who have died a...