ENGL 221: The Inferno

Dante Alighieri:

• Italian poet

• Established vernacular literature

• Used the Florentine dialect

Dante was exiled from Florence because-

He was on the wrong side of the Guelph and Ghibelline dispute

Dante wrote ___ ___ following his expulsion from Florence

Divine Comedy

Inferno depicts ___ circles of Hell

9

Virgil

The guide for Dante

Each punishment is a ___ meaning a symbolic instance of justice

Contrapasso

Punishment of fortune-tellers

Walking forwards with their heads on backwards

Purgatory is space where you-

Labor through the 7 deadly sins to become free

The order of the Divine Comedy Narrative Structure:

• Hell

• Purgatory 7 sins

• Paradise 7 virtues

• Earthly Paradise

• Heaven

Lady Fortuna:

• Goddess of luck and fate

• Unpredictable

• Everyone’s luck runs out

Dis

The capital of Hell

Phlegyas

Demon boatmen of the Styx

The River of Styx

The river of death and punishment one must cross in Hell

Beings that are found at the great iron gate in Hell

Angels of Rebellion

How are heretics in level 6 defined?

As deniers of immortality

Geryon

Monster that carried Dante from circle 7 to circle 8

There’s a pocket in the 8th circle designed for people who do what to religious relics?

Fakes them and sells them for profit

People who perform false baptisms are punished with-

Being baptized in fire

Tricksters and frauds are punished-

In the lowest levels of Hell

Myrrha:

• Sinner guilty of lust

• In circle 8 because she concealed identity (fraud)

Dante becomes guilty of-

Taking pleasure in watching others suffer

Dante is lowered to Cocytus by-

The giant Antaeuos

Dante encounters Bocca degli Abati, who-

Betrayed the Florentine Guelphs in batter

Who were placed in Hell before death?

Fra Albergio and Branca d’Oria

The fourth ring of the ninth circle is called-

Judecca

Satan is in an-

Icy lake

Lucifer has ___ faces

3

Satan holds these three sinners in his mouth:

• Judas

• Brutus

• Cassius

Brutus and Cassius killed-

Julius Caesar

When Lucifer fell from Heaven, he plunged-

Headfirst into the planet

What did this plunging cause?

The Southern and Northern Hemisphere to split

Brutus and Cassius killed-

Julius Caesar

Judas, Brutus, Cassius, and Satan are all guilty of-

Betrayal