It is in the outermost layer of Cocytus that Dante and Ugolino first meet, when Dante finds the Count frozen in ice up to his neck in the same hole as Archbishop Ruggieri, chewing on his head so that "one head made a helmet for the other." ... When asked by Dante the pilgrim why he so viciously chews at his neighbor's head, Ugolino answers that in life they plotted together, but Ruggieri betrayed his partner in crime, and had him locked away with his four sons. Ugolino tells Dante of how he was sealed within a prison, and watched his sons all die of starvation before him, and how in...

• Word Count: 870
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate