canto 34

"If he was truly once as beautiful/ As he is ugly now, and raised his brows/ Against his Maker- then all sorrow may well/ Come out of him. How great a marvel it was/ For me to see three faces on his head;/ In front there was a red one; joined to this,/ Each over the midpoint of a shoulder, he had/ Two others- all three joining at the crown./ That on the right appeared to be a shade/ Of whitish yellow; the third had such a mien/ As those who come from where the Nile descends" (Canto 34, lines 37-47)
So we've already discussed the three heads as being part of Dante's obsession with the number three, although despite its connection with the Holy Trinity, I do not understand this love. I understand that the devil is supposed to the antithesis of the Holy Trinity and God, thus he is three as well as one, just like it, but I want to know if the colors mean anything. Are the colors supposed to be representative of the different races on earth? Although, I don't think they'd seen the Indians yet, since it was still the Dark Ages, so how could they know about the "red man?" And I don't really know the whole story of Lucifer and what happened, I think he was angel, but then something happened, and God threw him down, and that's what made hell. But how did his body get so distorted? Like, he was probably a pretty angel before, and definitely did not have three different colored heads, so how come he has them now? So yeah, I don't know if the different colors are a black hat or anything, but it seems like it would have some manner of significance. And I guess I should look up Lucifer's story to see if that gives any insight, because honestly, I don't know a whole lot about those stories.

"He wept with all six eyes, and the tears fell/ Over his three chins mingled with bloody foam./ The teeth of each mouth held a sinner, kept/ As by a flax rake: thus he he held three of them/ In agony" (Canto 34, lines 54-58)
It seems very strange to me that the devil would be sad in hell. I guess I sort of have the image of the devil like Hades, who ruled the Underworld, and didn't suffer from it. In "Hercules" Hades didn't seem to mind being in charge of the Underworld, even if he would rather be ruler of all, like Zeus. But still, I never thought that the epitome of evil would not flourish in this place of evil. I also never figured he would be punished, but I guess it makes sense since he did something to anger God and all. It surprised me that he would be crying, I wouldn't think that someone so evil would feel guilt, but then again, he could be crying from the pain he has to suffer for the rest of eternity. Since Lucifer made hell, does that mean that he was the first bad guy ever to be on earth? And the first guy who needed to go to a place like hell? I really wish I knew more of the story about Lucifer, and the time period where that whole story happened, so I can put it all in perspective. But it seems strange to me that he doesn't lord over hell, that it's still God's creation, so God has control over it, and Lucifer is being punished. This definitely doesn't go with what I'd come to believe. Like, I figured that the devil wanted you to come down to hell because he was supposed to surface on earth and tempt people. But how can he tempt people if he's stuck in hell in his punishment for the rest of eternity? Are Lucifer and the devil different guys? That would probably make more sense if that were true, but based on the pictures we saw yesterday, he's not. This seems rather confusing, but I guess if I had more than a cursory knowledge of Christianity, it would help to clarify.