The seventh circle is reached by a cliff of shattered rock — broken, Virgil says, when Christ descended into Hell and the earth shook. The Minotaur guards the descent, the beast of Crete born of Pasiphae's monstrous lust, half man and half bull. Virgil taunts it and it charges in mad confusion; they slip past it while it rages. The cliff is difficult, unstable, constantly shifting under Dante's living weight.
Below: the Phlegethon, the river of boiling blood. In it, submerged to varying depths according to the severity of their violence, are the violent against neighbors — tyrants and murderers and brigands. Alexander the Great is submerged to his eyebrows; Dionysius of Syracuse; Attila the Scourge of God; Pyrrhus; Sextus Pompey; Rinier Pazzo; Rinier da Corneto (contemporary bandits). The more blood spilled in life, the deeper the immersion. The centaurs — Chiron (their chief), Nessus, Pholus — patrol the bank with bows, shooting any shade that rises above its appointed level. Chiron, seeing that Dante disturbs the bank with his living weight, assigns Nessus to guide them through the ford and back to the other side.