uplifted scourge, lashes from side to side the spurned
and guilty soul; and brandishing in her left hand knots
of serpents, summons her unpitying sisterhood. Then at 25
last, grating on their dread-sounding hinge, the awful
gates are opened. See you what manner of sentry is
seated at the entrance? what a presence is guarding the
threshold? Know that a Hydra fiercer yet with fifty
monstrous throats, each a yawning pit, holds her seat 30
within. Then there is the abyss of Tartarus in sheer
descent, extending under the shades, twice as far as