Geryon

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Geryon appears in Inferno XVII as a monstrous beast that appears on the bank of the seventh circle, symbol of fraud; Virgil calls upon him to transport the two poets into the lower hell (Inferno XVII, v. 97). The introduction to Canto XVII describes him as the first protagonist of the final scene, a monstrous dragon on which Dante and Virgil place themselves for the descent, marking the passage from the circle of the violent to the pit of Malebolge. The notes to Canto XVII indicate him as a double animal, opposed to the beaver for the fraud that conceals the hostile part; according to the introduction, his descent is narrated in function of Dante's sensations, who is the true moral protagonist of the scene. In Canto XVIII the two poets find themselves again on his back (v. 20) and finally, in Purgatorio XXVII (v. 23), it is Dante himself who recalls how Virgil guided him safely on Geryon through the pit.