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His mouth uplifted from his grim repast, that sinner, wiping it upon the hair of the same head that he behind had wasted.
UgolinoInferno · Canto XXXIII.1
Circle 9: Treachery
Canto 33 of 34 — 97% descent
At the bottom of Hell, traitors are frozen in ice. Dante sees one sinner gnawing another’s skull. It is Count Ugolino, who tells how Archbishop Ruggieri imprisoned him and his sons in a tower and let them starve. He watched his children die one by one. "Then hunger did what sorrow could not do."
Why This Matters
The most horrifying scene in the Comedy. Count Ugolino gnaws Archbishop Ruggieri’s skull for eternity — revenge for being starved to death with his children.
betrayalstarvationrevenge
Ugolino and His Sons in the Dungeon
Gustave Doré, 1857 · Public Domain