Dante’s Inferno

Use the introductory materials on Dante, and the poem, to answer the following questions.

  1. In what year are the actions of the poem set?
  2. How old was Dante Alighieri in this year?
  3. On what day of this year does the poem begin?
  4. When did Dante actually write the Divine Comedy?
  5. Where is Dante when the poem begins?
  6. What three animals does he encounter as he tries to escape?
  7. What do these animals signify allegorically?
  8. Whose spirit comes to offer Dante help?
  9. What heavenly soul came into Hell to ask the spirit to help Dante?
  10. In what Circle of Inferno does Dante’s guide usually dwell?
  11. What message is written over the Gate of Hell?
  12. What turbulent spirits are noticed as Dante and his guide descend to the River Acheron?
  13. What simile, borrowed from Virgil, does Dante use to describe the evil seed of Adam as they descend to the shores of Acheron?
  14. What does Dante remember of his ride across the Acheron?
  15. What spirits dwell in the First Circle?
  16. Name four poets whom Dante meets in Limbo.
  17. Describe the palace in which the poet-souls dwell.
  18. What devil assigns the lost souls their place in Hell?
  19. The Lustful are compared to what creatures?
  20. Dante speaks to two famous Italian lovers in Circle II. Who are they?
  21. Name three other famous lovers whom Dante sees in this circle.
  22. What monster guards the way between Circle II and Circle III?
  23. How do Dante and Virgil get by this guardian?
  24. What is the name of the glutton to whom Dante speaks in Circle III?
  25. What do the glutton and Dante talk about?
  26. What does the guardian of Circle Four babble?
  27. What do the massive weights which the Avaricious and Prodigal pull and shove represent allegorically?
  28. Who/What is Fortune, according to Virgil?
  29. What sin is punished in Circle V?
  30. What are the two ways this sin is expressed or demonstrated by the sinner?
  31. What is the name of the demon guardian of Circle V?
  32. How do Dante and Virgil get across the Styx?
  33. Why is Dante’s indignation at Filippo Argenti not a sin?
  34. What creatures (spirits, demons) guard the walls of Dis?
  35. How do they greet Virgil and Dante?
  36. What demonic creature must Dante not look upon directly?
  37. How do Dante and Virgil gain entrance to the Sixth Circle?
  38. Name two souls to whom Dante speaks in Circle VI.
  39. How do the damned see the future?
  40. What forces Dante and Virgil to pause on the inner edge of Circle VI?
  41. What aspect of Hell does Virgil explain during this pause?
  42. What monster guards the Seventh Circle?
  43. What are the three parts of Circle VII?
  44. What creatures keep the damned in their place in Phlegethon?
  45. How do Dante and Virgil cross Phlegethon?
  46. Why don’t the souls of the suicides have human bodies?
  47. Why are some souls in Round 2 of Circle VII torn to bits by hellhounds?
  48. How do Dante and Virgil get across the third round of Circle VII (7.3)?
  49. Explain the allegory of the Old Man of Crete, whom Virgil describes in Canto XIV.
  50. What is the name of Dante’s teacher, who is seen in 7.3?
  51. What falls from above onto the lost souls of 7.3?
  52. What is usury and why is it a sin?
  53. What creature guards the 8th Circle, yet helps Dante and Virgil enter it?
  54. How does this creature’s physical appearance correlate with the sins punished in Circle VIII?
  55. What does "Malebolge" mean in English?
  56. How many sections or ditches make up Malebolge?
  57. How is it possible for Dante and Virgil to cross these ditches?
  58. In general, what kinds of sinners are punished in Malebolge?
  59. In Circle 8, Bolgia 1 (8.1), how are the Panders and Seducers urged to move along?
  60. In what substance are the sinners of 8.2 immersed?
  61. How does the punishment of the sinners of 8.2 reflect or fit their crime?
  62. For whom is the sin of Simony, punished in Bolgia 3, named?
  63. How does Dante descend to the floor of the ditch in Bolgia 3?
  64. With whom does Dante converse in Bolgia 3?
  65. What famous pagan seer, who appears also in The Odyssey and Antigone, is seen in Bolgia 4?
  66. What sinners are punished in Bolgia 5?
  67. Describe the punishment inflicted here.
  68. How do the Malebranche mislead Dante and Virgil?
  69. How do Dante and Virgil get into Bolgia 6?
  70. What is the relation of the robes worn by the sinners of Bolgia 6 to their sin?
  71. Name the great sinner who is stepped upon by the other sinners of Bolgia 6.
  72. What lesson does Virgil learn from Friar Catalano at the end of Canto 23 (XXIII)?
  73. How do Dante and Virgil get out of Bolgia 6?
  74. What sinners are punished in Bolgia 7?
  75. How are these sinners punished?
  76. What motive does Vanni Fucci have for telling Dante his prophecy?
  77. What is a "fig"?
  78. Which two Greek heroes does Dante see punished together in Bolgia 8?
  79. According to Dante, where did Ulysses go after leaving Circe?
  80. Why is it apt that the sinners of Bolgia 8 are enclosed in tongues of hellfire?
  81. What famous religious prophet is seen in Bolgia 9?
  82. What did this prophet, his son, and the other sinners in Bolgia 9 do to earn their punishment?
  83. What famous medieval poet is seen in Bolgia 9?
  84. In Bolgia 10, four sorts of falsifiers are seen; what are they?
  85. In their sinning, they corrupted the substance of themselves and Nature; what is their punishment and how is it appropriate to their sinful behavior?

  86. In Bolgia 10 we see a Greek liar who is described in Aeneid II. Who is it?
  87. Dante and Virgil see several Giants guarding the 9th Circle. Name three.
  88. What does the Babylonian Giant have to say to them?
  89. Which giant "helps" them descend into the last circle of Hell?
  90. What is the 9th Circle called?
  91. Explain the allegorical meaning of the frozen coldness of this circle.
  92. Name the four zones of Circle IX.
  93. Describe Satan, as he appears to Dante.
  94. What three great Traitors are being punished by Satan personally?
  95. How do we know that Judas is the worst of these?
  96. How do Dante and Virgil get out of the 9th Circle?
  97. What made the little cave that comes down from Mount Purgatory?
  98. What do Dante and Virgil see when they come out of Hell?
  99. What distinguishes the sins of incontinence, punished in upper Hell (Circles II-V), from those of malice or malevolence, punished in lower Hell?

  100. What are the names of the other two parts of The Divine Comedy?