Dante awakens in the third circle of Hell, the circle of the Gluttons. A stinking slush falls from the sky and collects on the ground where naked shades howl and roll in the mire.
Cerberus, the three-headed monster, stands over those sunk deep in the slush. He barks furiously and claws and bites all within reach. These spirits howl in the rain and attempt to evade the monster. Seeing the two travelers, Cerberus turns on them and is silenced only when Virgil throws handfuls of the reeking dirt and slime into his three mouths.
The poets make their way across the swamp, walking occasionally on the shades, which seem to have no corporeal bodies. One Glutton sits up from the mire and addresses Dante. The shade is Ciacco, the Hog, and claims to be from Florence and to know Dante. The two speak, and Dante feels sorry for Ciacco’s fate.
Dante expresses his sympathy, and then asks Ciacco the fate of Florence and why it is so divided. Ciacco foretells a future war and the defeat and expulsion of one party. He concludes his prophecy, and Dante asks where he can find certain good citizens of Florence. Ciacco tells him that they are much further down in Hell because they committed crimes far worse than his, and that Dante will see them if he travels deeper into Hell. Ciacco then swoons and falls unconscious into the muck.
Virgil tells Dante that Ciacco will remain as he is (in the muck) until the Last Judgment, and the two poets talk of the future life. Dante questions Virgil concerning the Last Judgment, and Virgil answers that, although these souls will never reach perfection, they will be nearer to it after the Last Judgment than before, and therefore, will feel more pain as well as more pleasure.
They continued their course along the way still talking and saying much more than Dante will relate and then they came to a place for descending: There they found Plutus.
