Pluto

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Pluto is the figure Dante encounters in the passage from the third to the fourth circle of Hell. In Inferno VI 115 he is designated as the great enemy, an epithet that tradition attributes to the demon, here applied to the god of riches because the greed for earthly goods is considered the root of every evil. In Inferno VII 2 he speaks with a hoarse voice, and Virgil rebukes him as a cursed wolf, assimilating him to the she-wolf of the first canto, an image of greed. The authoritative notes recall that in antiquity the god of riches, son of Iasion and Demeter, was confused with Pluton, son of Cronos and Rhea; Dante instead distinguishes them: Dis is for him the name of Lucifer, while Pluto is guardian of the circle of the avaricious and prodigal. The character is never presented as a human figure, but as a monstrous and beastly entity, with a face swollen with anger.