"Inferno: The Ninth Circle of Hell"

 
Originally drawn in '06, this is an appropriate panel for yet another week of subzero (not unlike my age, the low forties has been taking a toll). Literary pretensions aside, and contrary to conventional wisdom, a particularly and perversely applicable interpretation of the lowest and final level of Hell in Dante's Inferno is instead a region of ice:

Satan is waist deep in ice, weeping tears from his six eyes, and beating his six wings as if trying to escape, although the icy wind that emanates only further ensures his imprisonment (as well as that of the others in the ring).

A "Divine Comedy" indeed. Happy Solstice everyone.

Gustave Dore's 1868 illustration