Day 16: Meeting the three as one

Ok, this canto starts off pretty weird.  Dante and Virgil, still in the circle of sodomites, hear "a murmur, like a beehive's hum,"and are confronted by three characters.  They see the clothing style of Dante and recognize that he is from teh same land that they are; Florence.  Dante see the burn marks throughout their bodies and is racked with guilt, which is meant to convey to the reader that these unfortunate souls were on the losing end of the guelph ghebbiline struggle and were burnt alive like so many victims.  While Dante wishes to skirt past them as quickly as possible, Virgil insists that they be given a respectful audience.  The three figures then begin to perform what seems to me like a bizarre acrobatic feat.  In Dante's (translated) words, "They formed a wheel, all three of them together. As champions, naked oiled, will always do, each studying the grip that serves them best, beofre the blows and winds begin to fall, while wheeling so, each one made sure his face was turned to me, so that their necks opposed their feet in one uniterrupted flow." So basically, this apepars to me to be some kind of three man cartwheel, facing dante with all three heads.  The three are named, Guido Guerra, Tegghaio Aldobrandi and Jacopo Rusticucci.  Guerra and Aldobrandi advised the Florentine Guelphs against engaging in battle against the Sienese Ghibellines. They were also responsible for exiling the Ghibellines out of Florence.  Rusticucci, the lesser known of the three explains that it was his "shrewdish wife" which drove him to homosexuality and, consequently, the circle of sodomy.  Dante feels a certain sense of comradery with these "fine souls", as folks fighting on the same side as he was (obviously sodomy notwithstanding.  They are in inferno after all).  The souls are gratfeul for Dante's kind words and are curious about their shared hometown.  Dante laments that the newcomers have brought greed and sin to their Florence.  They sigh, but have a request for Dante.  They yearn for him to tell the living of the good deeds of them.  They only wish to have their name spoken in a positive light, and to be remembered.  This is certainly a request most people would want.  With these words, the three who had become one, broke back into three.  So what do we make of this very deliberate image.  After all, their dialog and request could have been done without the gymnastics. Was it supposed to be some sort of trinity image.  Numerology has significance throughout the Divine Comedy, and the number three has importance amongst mathmeticians (the triangle), masons, christians, etc.  And what to make of the fact that immediately after this encounter, Dante and Virgil descend down into a ravine using a rope that Dante assures is strong enough to catch a leopard.  They reach the bottom of the ravine and come to a sea, out of which a strange figure emerges like the creature formteh black lagoon.  And after hanging on a cliff, we are left on this literary cliffhanger.  I admit I am baffled by this canto.  There are some provocative lines and the image of the three as one is captivating.  I just don't get at what Mr. Alighieri is trying to accomplish with such vivid imagery.  We leave that to the "scholars."