I read Dante for the first time in my ninth grade English class at McNeil High School. I have hazy memories of my teacher lecturing about the first few circles of Dante’s inferno, but the mental image of the ninth circle has been seared on my mind. I can always picture Dante’s Satan, frozen in ice from the waist down, flapping his ungodly wings. My teacher told us that the Emperor of Hell wanted to ascend back into heaven. In his hubris, he wished to fly upward back to his celestial origin. Perhaps he wanted to fight God again and win this time. But the cold air from the flapping of his wings kept the lake frozen and himself stuck.
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