Used with permission, quoted ver batim, courtesy of Dr. Kip Wheelper, [email protected]
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/study/201_Dante_01.html
Dante: Excerpts from Inferno in The Divine Comedy
Vocabulary: terza rima, purgatory, contrapassio, vernacular, canto, rhyme, fourfold interpretation
Some questions are also used from Dr. Goldstein's website at Auburn University. We are grateful to all.
Lecture or Handouts:
1
What is the Italian word for Hell?
2
What is the difference between Hell and Purgatory in medieval belief?
3
Introduction: How many cantos are in the Divine Comedy as a whole?
4
How many in each subsection--the Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso?
5
What happened in 1302 that ensured Dante would never get to see his hometown of Florence
again?
6
Identify the Following Primary Characters, Monsters and Places from The Inferno.
a
Gemma Donati (in Introduction)
b
Beatrice Portinari (in Introduction)
c
Dante the pilgrim
d
the three beasts on the road
e
Virgil
f
Minos
g
Francesca da Rimini and Paulo, the Medusa
h
the Three Furies
i
the Angelic Gatekeeper
j
Ugolino
k
Ugolino's son Anselm
l
7
Ugolino's son Gaddo
m
Satan, Brutus
n
Cassius
o
Judas Iscariot
Explain the significance of the following and how each relates to Dante's poem:
terza rima, the number three, contrapassio, fourfold interpretation
Reading Questions:
CANTO I:
1 At what point in Dante's life does he "lose his way" on the path of righteousness?
2 When Dante tries to travel upward toward the beautiful mountain and leave the dark valley behind,
what animal blocks his path at first?
3 When Dante tries to go around that beast, what second animal appears and blocks his path?
4 When he tries yet again to get around that second beast, what third animal blocks his path?
5 Dante then sees a spirit in the desert, and asks this spirit for help. This spirit offers to guide him
through Hell. Who is Dante's guide through hell? Why does he make a suitable guide for Dante?
6 Where have we seen this spirit-guide character before as a historical figure?
7 Virgil claims that he has been exiled in this location because he was rebellious to the laws of "That
Emperor who reigns above." Of whom is Virgil speaking?
Dr. Goldstein
©Goldstein 2003, Auburn University
Canto 1 (Prologue to entire poem)
8
As the poem begins, pay attention to details of time and space. Where is he? What is he
trying to do? What difficulties does he encounter on the way?
9
Using the technique we have developed in class, analyze the simile at I, 22-27.
10
What is the significance of the name for God used in I, 40?
11
Study the details of Virgil's self-introduction (I, 67-75). What aspects of his identity does he
single out, and in what order does he arrange them?
12
What does Virgil forecast at I, 112-29?
Canto 2 (Dante's Conversion)
1. Who is Dante referring to at II, 13 (check note)?
2. Who is Dante referring to at II, 28 (check note)?
3. Study Beatrice's reported speech to Virgil (II, 58-69). What is so special about Virgil that she
chooses him to accomplish the task at hand?
4. What does Beatrice say "prompted" (II, 72) her to come to Hell to send Virgil to Dante?
5. Analyze the simile at II, 127-32.
6. What does Dante say Virgil has "disposed" (II, 136) his heart to?
Canto 3 (Entrance to Hell)
1. The famous first lines are the only significant written text Dante encounters in Hell. Who is the
fictional speaker of this text (the "me")? Who is its "maker"? After he reads the inscription, what
does Dante say to Virgil about its meaning?
2. What does Dante mean by describing this group of souls and angels as those "who never were
alive" (III, 64; reread 34-39 if you are not sure)?
3. What punishment does this group suffer?
4. What is Charon's job? How does he greet Virgil and Dante? How does Virgil respond?
5. How do the newly arrived damned souls react when they hear his words?
6. What happens to Dante at the end of the canto?
Canto 4 (Circle One: Limbo: Unbaptized Infants, Virtuous Pagans)
1. When Virgil says, "I shall go first and you will follow me" (IV, 15), can his words be interpreted in
a double sense?
2. How does Virgil correct Dante's mistaken belief that the Roman poet is "frightened" (17)?
3. What is the other name for the First Circle? Why do the souls here "sorrow without torments"
(28)?
4. Lines 52-63 describe what in popular medieval theology was called the Harrowing of Hell. When
did this event take place? Who participated? What occurred?
5. Underline each occurance of the word honor or its derivatives in lines 70-102. What is its
significance in this context?
Dr. Kip Wheelper, [email protected]
CANTO V:
1 In Canto V, they meet the judge who assigns sinners to various places in Hell. What is this judge's
name? What does this judge do with his tail to indicate how far down in Hell the sinner must
go?
2 What does Virgil tell to Minos in order to convince him to let Virgil and Dante pass?
3 How are illicit lovers ("carnal malefactors") punished in their ring of Hell?
4 Who are some of these famous lovers?
5 When Dante wants to speak to some of the lovers, Virgil says he can call them down by imploring
them "by [XXX]."
6 By what force or name does Dante implore the lovers to come down? Why is that appropriate,
given the nature of their sins?
7 The lover that speaks with Dante in Canto V says she has "stained the world incarnadine" through
her sins. What does she mean, and how does this relate to Christian beliefs about the
forgiveness of sins?
8 According to Francesca, what was she reading when she first gave into desire?
Dr. Goldstein:
Canto 5 (Circle Two: the Lustful)
9
What is Minos's function?
10
How does Dante describe the nature of lust (V, 37-39)? What is the relation between lust and
its punishment?
11
What emotion "seized" (72) Dante when encountering the damned lovers? What emotion
leads him to faint at the end of the canto? How might this episode be interpreted in the light of the
inner struggle St. Paul describes in Rom. 7?
12
Who or what does Francesca blame for their falling into sin at lines 100-6? What activity does
she describe as "the first root of our love" (125), i.e. what she and Paolo were doing that led
to their carnal act?
Canto 6 (Circle Three: the Gluttonous)
1. What is the relation between the sin of gluttony, its punishment by filthy precipitation, and
Cerberus's behavior?
2. What do Dante and Virgil tread on at lines 34-36? How might this detail be interpreted to shed
light on Dante's poetics in Inferno?
3. What events in Florence does Ciacco [CHAHK-koh] prophesy (see note)?
4. What big event does Virgil prophesy at lines 94-99?
Canto 7 (Circle Four: the Avaricious and Prodigal; Circle Five: the Wrathful and Sullen)
1. Fourth Circle: Explain the logic of the punishment of the avaricious and prodigal by drawing on
Virgil's explanation of these sins at lines 55-66.
2. Fifth Circle: Who "tore each other piecemeal with their teeth" (114)? Who is now "bitter in the
blackened mud" (124)?
Canto 8
1. (Still Circle Five): Why does Virgil commend Dante's indignation at the sinner (44-45; cf. 57)?
2. Literally, what is the crisis situation that occurs at lines 82-130?
Dr Wheeler
CANTO IX:
1 In Canto 9, Dante and Virgil approach the city of Dis at the center of hell. They encounter the Three
Furies or Erinyes here. What are these three beings? (Consult a mythological dictionary,
encyclopedia, or look online for this information.)
2 What physical actions do the Three Furies take as they confront the two pilgrims Virgil and Dante?
3 What do those gestures and actions suggest about their state of mind?
4 Why does Virgil turn Dante away and cover his eyes as the Medusa approaches?
5 Why is he so afraid of her?
6 Who opens the gates to Dis so that Virgil and Dante can enter?
7 What tool does he use to push open the doors?
8 How does the Angelic messenger react to the air in Hell as he breathes?
9
In lines 110-120 of Canto 9, we hear what structures make up the city of Hell. What structures
are visible everywhere with flame scattered between them?Canto 9 (Descent to Dis/Lower Hell)
10
What literally is the danger posed by Medusa/the Gorgon that leads Virgil to cover Dante's
eyes? Given this literal danger, how might we interpret what Dante (the poet) is hinting when he
addresses the reader at 61-63?
11
Who or what literally rescues Dante and Virgil at lines 73-105?
12
What category of sinner is buried in the stone tombs?
Dr. Goldstein
Canto 10 (still in Circle Sixth: Heretics)
1. What heretical doctrine do the Epicureans hold (line 15)?
2. What mistake does Cavalcante, father of Dante's friend the poet Guido Cavalcanti, make that
leads Dante to ask Farinata (see image) about the inability of the damned to see "present things"
(99)?
Canto 11 (pausing in Sixth Circle)
Canto 11 is what I like to call the roadmap to Hell, where Virgil explains to Dante the wayfarer the
design of Hell. It deserves careful study, in conjunction with the diagram on p. 343.
1. Why does God find fraud "more displeasing" (26) than force?
2. Lines 28-51 discuss the varieties of "violence" (force) the travelers will encounter in the next
circle, which is subdivided into three parts, some of which are further subdivided. As Virgil explains the
distinctions on which each subdivision is based, note the reasons for the divisions. Since (as the
fictional voice on the gate of Hell reminded us in Canto 3) Dante portrays Hell as God's creation, you
might ask yourself: What aspect of God's nature does Dante the poet wish the elaborate, architectural
structure of Hell to imply?
3. Lines 52-66 discuss the punishment of fraud in the two lowest circles (Eight and Nine): What
principle distinguishes the two kinds of fraud, justifying two separate circles?
4. What is the Christian name for the ultimate traitor whom Virgil calls Dis, who sits at the center of
the universe at the bottom of the pit of Hell (65)?
5. Lines 67-90 return us to the portion of Hell that the travelers have already crossed. Dante
doesn't understand why the sinners in the first five circles are not being punished in the city of Dis
(lower Hell). Virgil replies by reminding his student of Aristotle's Ethics. What are the three
"dispositions" that Aristotle distinguishes? Which of the three does Virgil say "least offends God" (84)
that corresponds to circles 2-5?
6. In lines 91-111 Dante asks a question that leads Virgil to introduce a philosophical conception of
a hierarchical relation among Divine Intellect and Divine Art, nature, and human art ("art" being used in
its older sense: any productive activity, not limited to "fine arts"). What does Virgil mean when he
tells Dante that "your [that is, human beings'] art is almost God's grandchild" (106)?
Canto 12 (Seventh Circle, Ring One: Violent against "neighbors")
1. The landscape has evidently changed since Virgil's previous trip through Hell (see 9, 20-27).
According to Virgil's reasoning (37-44), what event and what motive force caused the "mass of
boulders" (36) to collapse?
2. What extraordinary characteristic does the centaur Chiron notice about Dante?
Canto 13 (Seventh Circle, Ring Two: Violent against self and own possessions)
1. What does Dante do to the thornbush (31) that causes the soul of the suicide, Pier della Vigna,
to cry out in pain? What are the implications of Virgil's explanation of why he encouraged Dante's to
do this deed (46-51)?
2. What does the suicide explain happens to their souls upon death (93-102)? What does he explain
will happen to their bodies when their corpses are resurrected preceding the Last Judgment (103-8)?
Canto 14 (Seventh Circle, Ring Three: Violent against God: Zone One: Blasphemers)
1. Explain what Dante the poet refers to when he records the "dread work [orribil arte in Italian] that
justice had devised" (6).
2. Consult the note to the reference to Capaneus (51-75): Who was he? What was his deed of
"arrogance" (63)? How might we interpret the appearance of this mythological figure and his crime in
an ostensibly Christian poem?
3. Compare the intiguing figure of the Old Man of Crete to Hesiod's story of the different
generations of human history (Mandelbaum's note cites Dante's two direct sources, the book of Daniel
and the Roman poet Ovid; Ovid's source is Hesiod's earlier version that you read in Works and Days)
4. In Virgil's explanation of the river system of drainage in Hell, he mentions one river from classical
mythology, Lethe, that the wayfarers will not encounter in Hell. According to Virgil, where will they
cross it (136-38)?
Canto 15 (still Circle Seven, Third Ring: Zone Two: Violent against God [Nature]: Sodomites)
1. Analyze the two similes at lines 16-21. Compare the first adjective that Brunetto Latini (Dante's
friend and mentor) uses to describe the Florentines at line 67 to see what it has in common with the
two earlier similes. This is an example of an extended pattern of imagery that we should interpret in
class discussion.
Canto 16 (continues Zone Two)
The end of this canto presents one of the most important poetic/rhetorical moves that Dante
makes in Inferno: he discusses the issue of the truth of his narrative. What does he literally mean when
he describes the figure who answers the signal of dropping the rope as "that truth which seems a lie"
(124)? By what authority does he swear (128) that what he is about to relate to the reader is true?
Canto 17 (Seventh Circle, Ring Three, Zone Three: Violent against God [Nature and Art]: Usurers)
1. What does Geryon look like? How does his appearance provide a suitable symbol for entering the
circles of fraud?
2. Be sure you understand what usury means, and why it defies both nature and art (see XI, 10611).
Canto 18 (Circle Eight, Pouch One [Panders and Seducers] and Pouch Two [Flatterers])
1. Who whips the panders?
2. Which famous king of Greek legend used "polished words" to seduce Hypsipyle (82-96)?
3. What logic might explain the punishment of the flatterers?
Canto 19 (Circle Eight, Third Pouch: Simonists)
1. Comment on the significance of lines 10-12.
2. Scholars have debated the significance of Dante's story about his breaking the baptismal font in
the Baptistry of Florence (see images from the Baptistry). Given that simony is a sin unique to
ecclesiastics, how might we interpret the story of a layman breaking the font to save a drowning
person?
3. Who does Pope Nicholas III incorrectly believe Dante is (52-53)?
Canto 20 (Circle Eight, Fourth Pouch: Diviners, Astrologers, Magicians)
1. What does Dante (the poet) hope his reader will "gather" (19) from what he is about to
describe? What causes Dante (the wayfarer) to weep? What is Virgil's reaction to Dante's weeping?
(Note: Mandelbaum's translation of line 30 makes poor sense; a better translation might be: "who
sorrows/feels pain at God's judgment."
2. Feel free to skip Virgil's long disquisition on his home town, Mantua (57-99).
Canto 21 (Eighth Circle, Fifth Pouch: Barrators)
1. What "art" of the Venetians (7) does Dante recall when he describes the "art of God" (16)?
2. What human "art" does Dante recall when he describes the demons plunging the
barrator/grafter in the pitchlike substance (55-58)?
Canto 22 (Eighth Circle, still Fifth Pouch)
1. What sound does the poet compare to a strange "bugle" (12)?
2. How might we interpret the story of the Navarrese grafter who tricks the demons, who then fight
among themselves?
Canto 23 (Eighth Circle, Fifth Pouch; Sixth Pouch: Hypocrites)
1. How do you interpret the relation of the sin of hypocrisy to its punishment (64-67)?
Canto 24 (Eighth Circle, Sixth Pouch; Seventh Pouch: Thieves)
1. Study Virgil's advice to Dante at 46-57. What portion of it seems most similar to St. Paul's
theological argument? What portion seems less like that argument?
2. What literally happens to Vanni Fucci [FOOCH-chee] as punishment (97-118)?
3. The phoenix, the legendary bird that dies in flames and is reborn from its own ashes, was
traditionally read by medieval Christians as an allegorical symbol for Christ. How do you interpret the
image of the phoenix used to describe what happens to the soul of Vanni Fucci (106-8)?
Canto 25 (Eighth Circle, still Pouch 7: Thieves)
1. What is Dante's point about the Latin poets Ovid and Lucan (94-102)?
Canto 26 (Eighth Circle, Pouch 8: Fraudulent Counselors)
1. Study Ulysses's account of his final journey, which Dante invented (90-142), esp. the speech he
made to his men (112-120). What values does Ulysses advise his men to cultivate? What does it tell
us about Dante's values that he would assign Ulysses a place in the eighth circle for this advice?
Canto 27 (Still Circle Eight, Pouch 8)
1. Explain the irony in Guido da Montefeltro's opening statement (61-68).
2. What did Pope Boniface VIII ask Guido to do? What is "the law of contradiction" (120) that leads
Guido to his damnation?
Canto 28 (Circle Eight, pouch 9: Sowers of Scandal and Schism)
1. What problem as a poet does Dante address at the opening of the canto (1-6)? How effectively
do you think he addresses this problem in this canto?
2. Explain the principle of contrapasso, or "the law of counter-penalty" (142) as it seems to operate
in this canto and the poem in general.
Canto 29 (Eighth Circle, still Pouch 9: Sowers of Scandal; pouch 10: Falsifiers, first group: Alchemists,
who falsify metals)
1. At the end of the canto, the alchemist Capocchio describes his counterfeiting of precious metal
as "aping nature" (139). How might this provide a clue to interpreting the logic of this group's
punishment?
Canto 30 (Eighth Circle, Pouch 10, group 2: Counterfeiters of person; group 3: Counterfeiters of coin;
group 4: Falsifiers of words or liars)
1. What are the stories of the two liars placed together at 97-99?
2. Why does Virgil scold Dante (130-148)? How might this passage be interpreted allegorically to
implicate the reader?
Canto 31 (entering Ninth Circle: Frozen River Cocytus and Giants)
1. What mistake of perception does Dante make at 22?
2. How might we interpret the sin of Ephialtes (91-96)?
3. How do Virgil and Dante get down to the ninth circle at the end of the canto? Who does the poet
tell us is down there (143)?
Canto 32 (Ninth Circle, First Ring: Caina, Traitors to Kin; Second Ring: Antenor, Traitors to Homeland
or Party)
1. What does Dante do to Bocca (97-105)?
2. What comparison comes to the poet's mind as he describes one soul chewing on the head of
another (127-29)?
Canto 33 (Ninth Circle, still Ring 2; Ring 3, Ptolomea, Traitors against Guests)
1. What was the new name of Eagles' Tower in which Archbishop Ruggieri imprisoned Count Ugolino
and his sons (22)?
2. What did Ugolino's sons ask their father for (39)?
3. How does Ugolino describe his reaction when the guards nailed the door shut (49)?
4. What offer do his sons make (60-63)?
5. What is unique about the status of the souls in Ptolomea (122-35)?
Canto 34 (Ninth Circle, Fourth Ring: Judecca: Traitors against Benefactors; completion of journey
through hell)
1. Who is the three-headed figure making a cold wind?
2. Who does the figure have in each mouth?
3. Why does Dante get confused when he and Virgil reach the half-way point of Lucifer's body, and
how does Virgil's explanation resolve the confusion (88-115)?
4. What literal "point" (XXXIV, 76, 93, 110) in the central part of Lucifer's body do you believe
Dante the poet has chosen as the symbolically significant place furthest from God in heaven, the point
of "the universe's center, seat of Dis," as Virgil described it earlier (XI, 65), the "melancholy hole"
(XXXII, 2) and "base of all the universe" (XXXII, 8)?
5. What does Dante glimpse when he looks up right before they reemerge on the surface of the
earth (139)? What is the symbolic significance of the noun "beauty" (138)?
Who or what does Alberigo claim is controlling these bodies?
Dr. Wheeler
CANTO XXXIV:
6
What is the temperature like in the center of hell?
7
When they cross over past the fog of freezing mist, Dante sees something he first thinks is a
giant windmill. What is this windmill in actuality?
8
What is the source of the cold winds in hell that rhythmically blow outward from the center
ring?
9
Describe Satan's body and appearance. What are some of his distinctive features in The
Inferno?
10
What three things does Satan snack on?
11
When Virgil and Dante run between Satan's beating wings, Virgil stops and puts his feet on the
ceiling and appears to turn upside down. What happened that allowed him to do this
astonishing feat, and how is this connected to their location at the center of the earth?
12
When Dante looks upward/downward to gaze at Satan, what does he see that horrifies him?
Why is this funny?
Sample Quotations for Identification: Be able to identify what work these quotations come from, what
the author is, what character (if any) is speaking, and briefly comment upon the quotations
significance or importance in the work:
A: Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward
pathway had been lost. / . . . I cannot repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the
moment / In which I had abandoned the true way."
B: "Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain / Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?" /
I made response to him with bashful forehead. / . . . / Thou art my master, and my author thou, /
Thou art alone the one from whom I took/ The beautiful style that has done honor to me."
C: More than a thousand ruined souls I saw, / Thus feeling from before one who on foot / Was passing
o'er the Styx with soles unwet. / From off his face he fanned that unctuous air, / Waving his left hand
oft in front of him / And only with that anguish seemed he weary. / Well I perceived one sent from
Heaven was he. . .
D: And one of the wretches of the frozen crust / Cried out to us: "O souls so merciless . . . Lift from
mine eyes the rigid veils, that I may vent the sorrow which impregns my heart / A little, e'er the
weeping recongeal /. . . / But hitherward stretch out thy hand forthwith, / Open mine eyes;"--and
open them I did not, / And to be rude to him was courtesy.
E: The Emperor of the kingdom dolorous / From his mid-breast forth issued from the ice; / And better
with a giant I compare / Than do the giants with those arms of his/ . . . What a marvel it appeared to
me, When I beheld three faces on his head!
F: I lifted up mine eyes and thought to see / Lucifer in the same way I had left him; / And upward I
beheld him hold his legs. / And if I then became disquieted, / Let stolid people think who do not see /
What the point is beyond which I had passed.
CANTO XXXIII: In Canto 33, Dante and Virgil encounter Ugolino frozen in ice. What is Ugolino eating?
How did Ugolino and his sons die in Pisa?
How does Ugolino spend all eternity? What is his food?
What does Dante promise to Friar Alberigo in hell? How does he fulfill his promise? (trick question!)
What is Friar Alberigo's body and Ser Branca d'Oria's body doing while their souls are in hell?