There was Tityus suffering eternal pains because he had sought to violate
the honour of Latona, as she passed from Pytho into Panopeus. Two vultures
sat perpetually preying upon his liver with their crooked beaks; which as
fast as they devoured, is forever renewed; nor can he fray them away with
his great hands.

There was Tantalus, plagued for his great sins, standing up to his chin in
water, which he can never taste, but still as he bows his head, thinking
to quench his burning thirst, instead of water he licks up unsavory dust.
All fruits pleasant to the sight, and of delicious flavor, hang in ripe
clusters about his head, seeming as though they offered themselves to be
plucked by him; but when he reaches out his hand, some wind carries them
far out of his sight into the clouds; so he is starved in the midst of
plenty by the righteous doom of Jove, in memory of that inhuman banquet at
which the sun turned pale, when the unnatural father served up the limbs
of his little son in a dish, as meat for his divine guests.

There was Sisyphus, that sees no end to his labours. His punishment is, to
be forever rolling up a vast stone to the top of a mountain, which, when
it gets to the top, falls down with a crushing weight, and all his work is
to be begun again. He was bathed all over in sweat, that reeked out a
smoke which covered his head like a mist. His crime had been the revealing
of state secrets.

There Ulysses saw Hercules--not that Hercules who enjoys immortal life in
heaven among the gods, and is married to Hebe or Youth; but his shadow,
which remains below. About him the dead flocked as thick as bats, hovering
around, and cuffing at his head: he stands with his dreadful bow, ever in
the act to shoot.