What happens in Canto XIV of Dante's Inferno?

XIV

Before Dante and Virgil take leave of the Florentine who has committed
suicide and, as punishment, has been transformed into a thorny bush, Dante takes pity on the
shade. He gathers up all the broken branches he is able to find and gently places them back on
the tangle of twigs.

As they walk, the poets begin to see the forest
thinning. Here, there is no foliage of any kind. Planes of sand stretch out before them. The
sand is unbearably hot. Dante peers closer and see hundreds of naked, condemned souls writhing
and crying out in misery. He notices that those able to move about somewhat are less vocal than
those buried in its depths:

...naked souls beheld I many
herds,

Who all were weeping very miserably,

And over them
seemed set a law diverse.

Supine upon the ground some folk were
lying;

And some were sitting all drawn up together,

And
others went about continually.

Those who were going round were far the
more,

And those were less who lay down to their torment,

But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.

Dante looks up and notices that not only does the burning ground torment the sinners,
but so too do flakes of fire falling from the sky. The glowing ash sears whatever flesh is
exposed. Those who are able to move can periodically avoid the falling flames, but those trapped
in the sand, many buried from the waist down, suffer the ignition of the sand around them the
flakes land. They frantically try to beat out the fire, and to Dante, it looks like a macabre
dance.

Watching their horror, Dante notices one shade in particular. His eye
is drawn to the enormous physical size of the former man as well as the giants loud complaints
against God. Dante asks Virgil who the shade had been in life, but before Virgil can reply, the
giant himself responds, but not with his name. Rather, he continues his vocal denouncement of
God (whom he calls Jove) and, despite his predicament, claims that God will never will never
be able to take revenge against him. The giant is committing the worst sin€¦ blasphemy. He
shouts to the travelers:

"Such as I was living, am I,
dead.

If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom

He
seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,

Wherewith upon the last day I was
smitten,

And if he wearied out by turns the others

In
Mongibello at the swarthy forge,

Vociferating, 'Help, good Vulcan,
help!'

Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra,

And
shot his bolts at me with all his might,

He would not have thereby a joyous
vengeance."

Virgil knows who this blasphemous shade
is. The mans name is Capaneus; he had been one of the seven kings who fought against Thebes. The
poets leave the howling giant and walk on; Virgil tells his charge to stay as close as possible
to the outer edge of the sand, which is cooler.

The come to a small stream
which is red with blood.It reminds Dante of a hot spring in Florencecalled the Bulicame, in
which the local prostitutes bathed. Virgil tells him his stream is an offshoot the Phlegethon,
the large river of blood that they crossed in Circle Six, just on the other side of the City of
Dis.

Virgil, at Dantes request, tells him more about the creation of the
river. The origins of the rivers of Hell come from a weeping statue in the Crete.It faces Rome
and its back is toward Egypt. The left leg is constructed of gold and silver, while the right
leg is constructed of clay, each leg, perhaps, representing the strength of Rome and the decline
of the Church, respectively. The entire statue is covered in cracks, from which leaks spring.
The mysterious tearseventually seep through the earth and form the four rivers of Hell:the
Acheron, the Styx, the Phlegethon, and the Cocytus.

Dante recalls a fifth
river, the Lethe, and asks Virgil why he has not mentioned its presence in Hell. Virgil replies
that the Lethe flows not in Hell proper, but in Purgatory, the plane that exists between Heaven
and Hell. Lethe means forgetfulness. After having their sins purged in Purgatory, the sinners
memories are wiped clean of their past transgressions so that they can enter Heaven with
joy.

The poets move on, deeper into this torturous
circle.