cantos 21-23

"The friar, 'In Bologna the saying goes/ As I have heard, that the Devil is endowed/ With many vices- among them, that he lies/ And is the father of lies, I have also heard.'" (Cantos 23, 140-143)
I really don't understand why this isn't completely obvious that the devil doesn't usually tell the truth. Honestly, don't believe what the devil says. He's supposed to be the epitome of evil. If he is evil, he must be a collection of all the sins in one being. Thus, if he is all the sins in one being, and fraud (or lying) is a sin, then the devil lies. I can't believe that they stopped to ask for directions in hell, not once, but twice. I think it's rather interesting that this guide who has known so much up till know is suddenly lot. If Virgil had been the stereotypical man and not asked for directions, he would have never been lied to by the malebranche. Also, I find it rather ironic that it was the hypocrite who told the naive pair that the devil is known for lying. A guy who is condemned to carry the weight of lead for the rest of eternity continues his sin, when he tells the Virgil and Dante that the devil lies, when he himself lies often. It's also very interesting how many people of the church are in hell, like this hypocrite is a friar.

"In winter, when the sticky pitch is boiled/ In the Venetian Arsenal to caulk/ their unsound vessels while no ship can be sailed,/ And so instead one uses the time to make/ His ship anew, another ne repairs/ Much-voyaged ribs, and some with hammers strike/ The prow, and some the stern; and this one makes oars/ While that one might twist rope, and another patch/ The jib and mainsail" (Cantos 21, 7-15)
I thought this passage was extremely strange and unnessary. I don't think it's important to know what people do in Venice in the dark. He was describing how dark it was, but explaining what people do when it's dark is completely irrevelevant. I understand if he goes on forever to describe the dark, so the reader can better see the immense darkness of the 8th circle of hell. I just don't see how this whole part adds to the story in any way, unless its some sort of metaphor that I'm completely missing. I guess it could be foreshadowing the fact that hell is falling apart, as the malebranche says later. So, after more research, I realized the connection between pitch and pitch black. So pitch is used to make repairs in ships, it's a sealant, and is a very very dark black color. Thus, Dante was comparing the extreme darkness of hell to a more recognizable substance in the 13th century to Venetians. I still don't think that the in-depth description of what Venetians do in the winter is required.