All of the lids were lifted. I discerned By keen laments which from the tombs arose That sad and suffering ones were there inurned. I said: 'O Master, tell me who are those Buried within the tombs, of whom the sighs Come to our ears thus eloquent of woes?' And he to me: 'The lords of heresies[349] With followers of all sects, a greater band Than thou wouldst think, these sepulchres comprise. To lodge them like to like the tombs are planned. 130 The sepulchres have more or less of heat.'[350] Then passed we, turning to the dexter hand,[351] 'Tween torments and the lofty parapet. FOOTNOTES: [331] _New colour_: Both have changed colour, Virgil in anger and Dante in fear. [332] _Unless_: To conceal his misgiving from Dante, Virgil refrains from expressing all his thought. The 'unless' may refer to what the lying demons had told him or threatened him with; the 'proffered aid,' to that involved in Beatrice's request. [333] _This bottom_: The lower depths of Inferno. How much still lies below him is unknown to Dante. [334] _First Degree_: The limbo where Virgil resides. Dante by an indirect question, seeks to learn how much experience of Inferno is possessed by his guide. [335] _Erichtho_: A Thessalian sorceress, of whom Lucan (_Pharsalia_ vi.) tells that she evoked a shade to predict to Sextus Pompey the result of the war between his father and Cæsar. This happened thirty years before the death of Virgil. [336] _Judas' circle_: The Judecca, or very lowest point of the Inferno. Virgil's death preceded that of Judas by fifty years. He gives no hint of whose the shade was that he went down to fetch; but Lucan's tale was probably in Dante's mind. In the Middle Ages the memory of Virgil was revered as that of a great sorcerer, especially in the neighbourhood of Naples. [337] _The heaven, etc._: The _Primum Mobile_; but used here for the highest heaven. See _Inf._ ii. 83, _note_. [338] _These fens, etc._: Virgil knows the locality. They have no choice, but must remain where they are, for the same moat and wall gird the city all around. [339] _Erynnyes_: The Furies. The Queen of whom they are handmaids is Proserpine, carried off by Dis, or Pluto, to the under world. [340] _Medusa_: One of the Gorgons. Whoever looked on the head of Medusa was turned into stone. [341] _Theseus_: Who descended into the infernal regions to rescue Proserpine, and escaped by the help of Hercules.