The poets find themselves at the brink of Circle VIII with its ten “Malebolges” (meaning evil ditches or pockets or chasms), a cavern of stone with ten concentric Bowges (chasms or moats or trenches) dug into the rock in which the sinners of different natures reside.
In the first chasm (or valley), the poets approach the first of what can also be thought of as chasms or valleys, filled with tormented sinners walking in both directions. Demons with horns flog them continuously to keep them moving.
Dante notices a sinner on the side on which he is standing and calls to him. The sinner tries to hide his face, but is compelled to speak. He is Venedico Caccianemico of Bologna, who admits that he brought his own sister “the fair Ghisolabella ’round to serve the will and lust of the Marquis.” He says that there are more souls from Bologna in the ditch with him than there are living in Bologna at present. A demon strikes him with a whip and orders him off.
The poets approach a narrow bridge spanning the pit, and Virgil tells Dante to observe the sinners walking around the other way. There Dante sees the proud Jason, seeming strong in spite of the pain he receives in the pit. Other seducers are with him.
Moving to the second chasm or moat, Dante observes groups of sinners writhing in sewage and excrement, and he again recognizes a sinner, Alessio Interminelli da Lucca, who suffers in this pit because of false flattery. Virgil points out a woman in the chasm, Thaïs the whore, who also resides in the chasm because of false flattery. The poets turn away from these sinners. They have seen enough.
