further ill befall them. This decision is so enthusiastically
applauded that ever since an overwhelming tumult has been termed
"Pandemonium," like Satan's hall.

The "consult" ended, the angels resume their wonted size and scatter
through hell, some exploring its recesses, where they discover huge
rivers, regions of fire and ice, and hideous monsters, while others
beguile their time by arguing of "foreknowledge, will, fate," and
discussing questions of philosophy, or join in antiphonal songs.

Meanwhile Satan has set out on his dreadful journey, wending his way
straight to the gates of Hades, before which stand two formidable
shapes, one woman down to the waist and thence scaly dragon, while the
other, a grim, skeleton-like shape, wears a royal crown and brandishes
a spear. Seeing Satan approach, this monster threatens him, whereupon
a dire fight would have ensued, had not the female stepped between
them, declaring she is Sin, Satan's daughter, and that in an
incestuous union they two produced Death, whom even they cannot
subdue. She adds that she dares not unlock the gates, but, when Satan
urges that if she will only let him pass, she and Death will be
supplied with congenial occupations in the new world, she produces a
key, and, "rolling toward the gates on scaly folds," flings wide the
massive doors which no infernal power can ever close again. Through
these gaping portals one now descries Chaos, where hot and cold, moist
and dry contend for mastery, and where Satan will have to make his
way through the elements in confusion to reach the place whither he is
bound.

The poet now graphically describes how, by means of his wings or on
foot, Satan scrambles up high battlements and plunges down deep