"Horned Demons stood, where the rock, glooming, rose, this side and that, huge whips in hand, prepared to flog them from behind with cruel blows."
. . . . .
The most significant moment in Canto XV is the meeting between Dante and Ser Brunetto, Dante's mentor and a source of encouragement. Dante was influenced by Ser Brunetto's works, one of which he mentions — the Treasure. Brunetto Latini was one who understood Dante's genius when others failed to do so. Now the poet still finds in his master the support and the encouragement that he needs to withstand the attacks that his fellow citizens are going to direct at him. In Brunetto Latini, Dante finds a sympathetic fellow artist, especially since he encourages Dante to follow his (Dante's own) star to achieve the glorious fortune for which he is destined. Dante consistently places men he respects in Hell, and he gives them the respect they are due in his meetings with them. However, respect and good deeds on Earth are not enough to survive damnation in Dante's ideology. All of the spirits with him were scholars of renown, and all of them are guilty of the same crime — sodomy. The symbolism of the rain of fire and the scorching sand is that of sterility and unproductiveness: The rain should be life giving, the soil fertile. Instead, symbolically, the sex practices of the sodomite are not life giving.