Malacoda

Malacodais a character inDante Alighieri'sInferno(Cantos 21-2), where he features as the leader of theMalebranche,the twelve demons who guard Bolgia Five ofMalebolge,the eighth circle ofHell.The nameMalacodais roughly equivalent to "bad tail" or "evil tail" inItalian.Unlike other characters such asGeryon,which are based on mythical characters, Malacoda was invented by Dante and is not a mythological reference.

Malacoda and his squadron of Malebranche threatenVirgiland Dante in the fifth Bolgia, portrayed byGustave Doré.

He with his fiends guard the grafters, caught in boiling pitch to represent their sticky-fingered deals, torturing with grappling hooks whoever they can reach. Dante andVirgilgain a safe conduct from him (Malacoda) and he allows the poets to cross to the next Bolgia. However, Malacoda lies to the poets about the existence of bridges over the sixth Bolgia, making him less a help and more an impediment. In the Inferno it does not state whether or not Malacoda chases the poets after his demons Grizzly (Barbariccia) and Hellken (Alichino) fall into the boiling pit ofpitch.All the Inferno states is that the poets were being chased by the fiends before they escaped by sliding down a bank to the next Bolgia. Malacoda and his fiends cannot leave the fifth Bolgia of the grafters. It is said in theInferno:

"For the providence that gave them (the fiends) the fifth pit to govern as the ministers of its will takes from their souls the power of leaving it".

Malacoda also gives the reader the time by telling how long time it was since Bolgia Six passages collapsed;

And then to us: 'You can't continue farther

down this ridge, for the sixth arch

lies broken into pieces at the bottom.

"If you desire to continue on,

then make your way along this rocky ledge.

Nearby's another crag that yields a passage.

"Yesterday, at a time five hours from now,

it was a thousand two hundred sixty-six years

since the road down here was broken.

"I'm sending some men of mine along that way

to see if anyone is out to take the air.

Go with them -- they won't hurt you. "(Inferno, Canto XXI, 106-117.)

Dante assumes that the crucifixion of Jesus took place in year 34, when a great earthshake came. It happened 12 o'clock am (midnight) according to theGospel of Luke,which means that the time for Dante would be approximately 7 o'clock am in theHoly Saturday.

The last line of Canto 21 features Malacoda signalling to other demons byblowing a raspberry;another demon replies by producing a thunderousfartthat Dante likens to atrombone(«ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta»).