Note 862 — CANTO XXXIV.

Judge then what bulk: The arm of Lucifer was as much longer than the stature of one of the giants as a giant was taller than Dante. We have seen (Inf. xxxi. 58) that the giants were more than fifty feet in height—nine times the stature of a man. If a man’s arm be taken as a third of his stature, then Satan is twenty-seven times as tall as a giant, that is, he is fourteen hundred feet or so. For a fourth of this, or nearly so—from the middle of the breast upwards—he stands out of the ice, that is, some three hundred and fifty feet. It seems almost too great a height for Dante’s purpose; and yet on the calculations of some commentators his stature is immensely greater—from three to five thousand feet.