What is the temperature in Hell? Is it hot or cold?

Brad Leithauser writes about hot Hells and cold Hells, from Dante to Robert Frost: http://nyr.kr/15woO2r

The heat I’m talking about has little to do with traditional hellfire. It’s the hell of overheated emotions. Wind is a prevailing weather condition: gusts of storming rage. Molten waves of unrequited lust break and sprawl on its rocky shores. It’s a place where rationality collapses. Nothing is predictable. You can’t count on your adversary for anything—even to act in his own self-interest. His fury may be such that he’d embrace mutual destruction before seeing you escape his wrath…

The evil genius of Cold Hell typically takes the form of a designing schemer. It’s a spider—or a wizened, dark, spidery wizard. It’s Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, Moriarty. It’s Fu Manchu. It’s the flattering, unctuous creature that proffers a tainted apple, whether the Bible’s serpent or Snow White’s witch…

Cartoon by Ariel Molvig. For more: http://nyr.kr/UXbmyE