In Canto 23, Virgil and Dante the pilgrim are traveling alongside 10 demons instructed by Malacoda to safely take Virgil and the pilgrim to an unbroken bridge spanning the sixth bolgia. Virgil and Dante did not know in Canto 21 that there wasn’t an unbroken bridge when Malacoda said, “… let these be safe until the next ridge that goes undamaged over the pits” (Inf.21 , 125-26). As stated in Barolini’s commentary, “Malacoda was effectively telling his devils that they will soon be authorized to attack the travelers.”
Dante then relates his and Virgil’s situation with the devils to a fable by Aesop about a frog and a mouse. The fable states that, “… a frog offers to swim a mouse across a body of water, intending to drown him; the frog ties his leg to the mouse’s; when the frog tries to drown the mouse their struggles attract a hawk, who seizes them; the frog’s leg being tied to the mouse makes escape impossible for both of them”(Durling, Martinez). Barolini proposes that one of the possible scenarios is, “Dante and Virgil as mouse, devils as frog, with the sometime addition of Ciampolo as kite.” Kite in this case is interchangeable with hawk. Ciampolo was one of three souls Dante, Virgil and the devils crossed paths with in Canto 22. The allusion to Aesop’s fable is effective because Virgil and Dante blindly trusted the demons to guide them when in reality their intentions were evil just as the frog in the fable. Ciampolo as the kite, benefited by both Virgil, Dante and the devils because he was able to trick the devils into letting him escape their additional torture. In other words, Ciampolo was bale to manipulate the situation that brought Dante, Vigil, and devils together to his advantage. Dante’s use of Aesop’s fable enforces the fraudulent and deceptive behavior punished in the fifth bolgia.