Dante's Inferno Study Guide

Question 1

List the structure of Hell with every sin

Answer 1

vestibule to Hell- did not make decision of heaven or hell
Barrier: Acheron
1st circle- Limbo
2nd circle- Lustful
3rd circle- Gluttonous
4th circle- Avarice (greed)
5th circle- Wrathful
Barrier: City of Dis/Styx
6th circle- Heresy
7th circle- Violent Sins
1st ring- violence against neighbors
2nd ring- suicides and squanderers
3rd ring- violence against God, Art, and Nature
1st zone- blasphemers
2nd zone- Sodomites
3rd zone- Usury
Barrier: Geryon
8th circle- Regular fraud, Malebolge, against the natural bonds of humanity
1st bolgia- Seducers and Panderers
2nd bolgia- Flatterers
3rd bolgia- Simoniacs
4th bolgia- Fortune Tellers and Diviners
5th bolgia- Grafters and Barrators
6th bolgia- Hypocrisy
7th bolgia- Thievery
8th bolgia- Fraudulent/Evil Counselors
9th bolgia- Sowers of Scandal and Schism
10th bolgia- Falsifiers
9th circle- Personal Fraud
1st ring- treachery toward kin
2nd ring- treachery toward homeland/party
3rd ring- treachery toward guests
4th ring- treachery toward benefactors

Question 2

vestibule of Hell

Answer 2

did not decide whether or not they believed in God, no will, chasing banners, being stung by wasps, stuck between heaven and hell. because they did not make the decision between heaven and hell, they are now stuck between them. chasing banners- chasing something (God) they will never have

Question 3

Limbo

Answer 3

unbaptized children/people, people who live before Christ, no choice, wander around in sorrow, sorrowful because can never be near God

Question 4

Lustful

Answer 4

wanted sex too much, bad feelings toward opposite gender, needed to fulfill sexual desires, eternal storm, blown by wind against cliff, because passage in Bible that says the lustful are like a hellish hurricane

Question 5

gluttony

Answer 5

too much food, ate excessively, filthy and cold water raining down on them, lie on ground and tormented by Cerberus, because earthly things that go away are like garbage (filth)

Question 6

avarice

Answer 6

too much money and possessions, greedy and spendthrifts, push weights in semicircle, hit each other, scold each other, weights represent the huge load of things they spent on earth

Question 7

wrathful

Answer 7

too much justice when it should be left to God, submerged in boiling mud of the River Styx, tear at each other, represents their hot rage for justice

Question 8

heresy

Answer 8

believe things that do not coincide with church doctrine and the Bible, burned by fire within tombs, Dante compares these to baptismal pools, because heretics are not expected to be burning in the pools that they rejected

Question 9

murderers

Answer 9

killing neighbors, drowned in boiling blood, if tried to climb out, shot by centaurs, level of submersion=how much you killed, represented all the blood they spilled

Question 10

suicides

Answer 10

killed themselves to remove themselves from the world, disguised as trees because cannot be responsible to handle their own bodies, will hang on trees when Jesus returns to destroy hell

Question 11

squanderers

Answer 11

didn’t appreciate what they had, destroyed their land/property which was like killing yourself back then, eaten by dogs, dogs represent the sinners, sinners represent the property

Question 12

blasphemers

Answer 12

removed God from holy standing, honored themselves or other gods, fiery sands and fire raining down on them, represents the wrath of God

Question 13

sodomites

Answer 13

unnatural sexual desires (homosexuality, animals), running on the fiery sands with fire raining down, if stopped, stayed there for 100-1000 more years, represents destruction brought by God on Sodom and Gomorrah

Question 14

Usury

Answer 14

making money off of excessive interest, sitting beneath rain of fire with purses bearing family emblem, sitting = lazy, families: nobility of Florence - represents the city’s downfall, shame brought to families

Question 15

Panderers and Seducers

Answer 15

providing prostitutes with clients, convincing a person to do something with sex, running side to side and being whipped/scourged by demons, also imprisoned in chains, because trapped others with their bodies

Question 16

flatterers

Answer 16

excessive praise to get something they want, buried in human excrement, represents the real value of their words, what they were hiding

Question 17

simony

Answer 17

buying/selling positions in the church, head first in deep holes with feet burning, when another sinner comes along, they sink deeper into the hole, descending into hole because they tried to ascend into the church, and because disciples had fire over heads when they received the HS, not doing what disciples wanted so fire on feet

Question 18

fortune tellers and diviners

Answer 18

heads are on backwards, walking backwards now, saw into the future, now they have to face the past

Question 19

barrators and grafters

Answer 19

b: illegal process to sell or buy political positions
g: using position for money
in boiling tar being pitchforked by demons for unfair things, because they were unfair in there ways to get political positions

Question 20

hypocrisy

Answer 20

telling someone not to do something and then doing it yourself, wore decorated robes with lead underneath, because looked nice and upstanding but really just as ugly/bad on the inside

Question 21

thievery

Answer 21

taking things that aren’t yours, bound by hands through loin snake, bound around the neck and head by snake, dragons shoot fire at them, burn to ashes then reappear, transform into snakes, snakes and dragons = serpent which is what Satan was in the garden, represents deception

Question 22

fraudulent counselors

Answer 22

giving false counsel, clothed, surrounded by flames, ???

Question 23

sowers of scandal and schism

Answer 23

gossip that created strife and separation, punished by being cut in half by sword yielded by demon, healed and cut again, because divided others on earth

Question 24

alchemists (falsifiers of metals)

Answer 24

turn base metals into fake gold, bodies covered in scabs, turned something good into something bad, bodies going from good to bad

Question 25

counterfeiters of other people

Answer 25

disguised as other people, no identities, crazy/mad, because they stole other’s identities, they now don’t have an identity at all

Question 26

counterfeiters of coins

Answer 26

making false money, fluid retention/dehydration, remind sinner of place where he made them: Florence near tons of rivers

Question 27

Liars

Answer 27

told someone something that did not happen when another thing did, unable to move, fever/sickness, rumors/lies are like a disease that you can’t control and now the liars aren’t able to control themselves

Question 28

treachery toward kin

Answer 28

frozen with heads down, crying, chattering teeth, shamed position, love gone from their “cold” hearts

Question 29

treachery toward homeland/party

Answer 29

gnawing on each other’s head, because traitors to each other so now they must cause each other annoyance

Question 30

treachery toward guests

Answer 30

jutting out of ice, eyes sealed shut by frozen tears,

Question 31

treachery toward benefactors

Answer 31

fully covered by ice, nearest to Satan, Brutus, Cassius, and Judas are special, gnawed on by Satan’s three heads, Brutus and Cassius betrayed Holy Roman Empire and its leader, Judas betrayed the Son of God, Jesus Christ