i. 7, Dante enlarges upon the confusion of tongues, and speaks of the

tower of Babel as having been begun by men on the persuasion of a giant.

[789] _Ephialtes_: One of the giants who in the war with the gods piled Ossa on Pelion.

[790] _Antæus_: Is to be asked to lift them over the wall, because, unlike Nimrod, he can understand what is said to him, and, unlike Ephialtes, is not bound. Antæus is free-handed because he took no part in the war with the gods.

[791] _The one thou'dst see_: Briareus. Virgil here gives Dante to know what is the truth about Briareus (see line 97, etc.). He is not, as he was fabled, a monster with a hundred hands, but is like Ephialtes, only fiercer to see. Hearing himself thus made light of Ephialtes trembles with anger, like a tower rocking in an earthquake.

[792] _Five ell_: Five ells make about thirty palms, so that Antæus is of the same stature as that assigned to Nimrod at line 65. This supports the view that the 'huger' of line 84 may apply to breadth rather than to height.

[793] _The fortune-haunted dell_: The valley of the Bagrada near Utica, where Scipio defeated Hannibal and won the surname of Africanus. The giant Antæus had, according to the legend, lived in that neighbourhood, with the flesh of lions for his food and his dwelling in a cave. He was son of the Earth, and could not be vanquished so long as he was able to touch the ground; and thus ere Hercules could give him a mortal hug he needed to swing him aloft. In the _Monarchia_, ii. 10, Dante refers to the combat between Hercules and Antæus as an instance of the wager of battle corresponding to that between David and Goliath. Lucan's _Pharsalia_, a favourite authority with Dante, supplies him with these references to Scipio and Antæus.

[794] _Cocytus_: The frozen lake fed by the waters of Phlegethon. See