Dante's Inferno, Punishments, Sinners And Other Figures, Mythological References

Panderers and Seducers

"I saw horned demons with enormous lashes move through these souls, scourging them on the back."

The Violent Against God, Nature, and Art

"Enormous herds of naked souls I saw, lamenting till their eyes were burning of tears…for some were stretched supine on the ground, some squatted with their arms about themselves, and others without pause roamed and roamed."

Simoniacs

"From every mouth a sinner's legs stuck out as far as the calf. The soles were all ablaze."

Fortune Tellers and Diviners

"I saw the image of our humanity distorted so that the tears burst from their eyes and ran down the cleft of their buttocks."

Flatterers

"I saw long lines of people in a river of excrement that seems the overflow of the world's latrines."

Hoarders and Wasters

"They strained their chests against enormous weights, and with mad howls, rolled them at one another. Then, in haste, they rolled them back."

Grafters

"I saw the pitch; but I saw nothing of it except enormous bubbles of its boiling which swelled and sank, like breathing, through all the pit."

Hypocrites

"We found a painted people, weary and defeated. Slowly, in pain, they paced it round and round. All wore great cloaks cut to as ample a size…The outside is all dazzle, golden and fair; the inside, lead, so heavy."

Evil Counselors

"Only those flames, forever passing by were visible, ahead, to the right, to left; for though each steal's a sinner's soul from view not one among them leaves a trace of theft."

Thieves

"Their hands were bound behind by coils of serpents which thrust their heads and tails between the loins."

Heretics

"I saw here, spread in all directions, except that here the tombs were chests of pain: for, in a ring around each tomb, great fires raised every wall to a red heat."

Wrathful and Sullen

Sowers of Discord

"And all the other souls that bleed and mourn along this ditch were _; as they tore others apart, so are they torn."

Gluttons

"And they, too, howl like dogs in the freezing storm, turning and turning from it as if they thought one naked side could keep the other warm."

Falsifiers

"And as they scrubbed and clawed themselves, their nails drew down the scabs the way a knife scrapes bream or some other fish with even larger scales."

Treacherous to Kin

"Each holds his face bowed to the cold with his chattering mouth, to his heart's grief with tears that flood forever from his eyes."

Carnal

"Their hellish flight of storm and counterstorm through time foregone, sweeps the souls of the damned before its charge."

Ser Brunetto Latino

"And had I lived to do what I meant to do, I would have cheered and seconded your work, observing Heaven so well disposed toward you." Who is the speaker?

Beatrice

"My dearest friend, and fortune's foe, has strayed onto a friendless shore and stands beset by such distresses that he turns afraid from the True Way." Who is speaking?

Filippo Argenti

"May you weep and wail to all eternity, for I know you, hell-dog, filthy as you are…it would suit my whim to see [you] scrubbed down in the swill before we leave this stinking sink." Who is "you" in this passage?

Usurers

"Man was meant to labor and to prosper. But ___, by seeking their increase in other ways, scorn Nature in herself and her followers." What group of sinners belongs in the blank?

Pier delle Vigne

"By the new roots of this tree I swear to you that never in word or spirit did I break faith to my lord and emperor…if either of you return to the world speak for me, to vindicate in the memory of men one who lies prostrate from the blows of Envy." Identify the speaker. Who is "I"?

Dante

In the Circle with the Violent against Themselves ___ says, "Question him for my part, on whatever you think I would do well to hear; I could not, such compassion chokes my heart." Identify the speaker.

Grafters

"[All the people of the city of Lucca are _ ] except Bonturo. There 'Yes' is 'No' and 'No' is 'Yes' for a fee." What group of sinners belongs in the blank?

Bocca Degli Abbati

"As I trailed my Guide among those heads, my foot struck violently against the face of one. Weeping, it cried: 'Why do you kick me?'" Who does Dante kick?

Satan

"The Emperor of the Universe of Pain jutted his upper chest above the ice…he is hideous, and…well may he be the source of every woe." Who is "The Emperor of the Universe of Pain"?

Brutus

"…the one who dangles down from the black face is …" What name goes in the blank?

Master Adam

"In my first life's time, I had enough to please me: here, I lack a drop of water for my thirst." Who is speaking?

Bertrand de Born

"When you return to the world, remember me: I am , and it was I who set the young king on to mutiny, son against father, father against son…" What name goes in the blank?

Virgil

"O Wounded soul, could he have believed before what he has seen in my verses only, you would yet be whole." Identify the speaker.

Farinata Degli Uberti

"I alone with open face defended [Florence]."

Vanni Fucci

"A mule among men, I chose the bestial life above the human. Savage Pistoia was my fitting den." Identify the speaker.

Charon

"Steering towards us in an ancient ferry came an old man with a white bush of hair bellowing… 'I come to lead you to the other shore.'"

Cerberus

"His eyes are red, his beard is greased with phlegm, his belly is swollen, and his hands are claws to rip the wretches and flay and mangle them."

Medusa

"Call ___ that we may change him to stone!"

Furies

"Three hellish and inhuman ___ sprang to view, bloodstained and wild. Their limbs and gestures hinted they were women."

Minotaur

"Such was the passage down the steep, and there at the very top, at the edge of the broken cleft, lay spread the Infamy of Crete, the heir of bestiality and the lecherous queen who hid in a wooden cow."

Harpies

"The ___, feeding on its leaves then, give it pain and pain's outlet simultaneously."

Icarus

"I think there was no greater fear the day Phaethon let loose the reins and burned the sky…nor when ___, too close to the sun's track felt the wax melt…than I felt when I found myself in air, afloat in space with nothing visible."

Ulysses

"Forever round this path ___ and Diomede move in such dress, united in pain as once they were in wrath; there they lament the ambush of the Horse which was the door through which the noble seed of the Romans issued from its holy source."

Styx

"Beyond its rocky race and wild descent the river floods and forms a marsh called ."

Minos

"There _ sits, grinning, grotesque, and hale. He examines each lost soul as it arrives and delivers his verdict with his coiling tail."

Acheron

"Then looking onward I made out a throng assembled on the beach of a wide river…"

Phlegethon

"But turn your eyes to the valley; there we shall find the river of boiling blood in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men."

Chiron

"_ turned his head on his right breast and said to Nessus: 'Go with them, and guide them.'"

Geryon

"The filthy prototype of Fraud drew near…"

Cocytus

"Whereat I turned and saw beneath my feet and stretching out ahead, a lake so frozen it seemed to be made of glass."

Lethe

"…only by the sound of a little stream descending through the hollow it has eroded from the massive stone."