Dante’s Inferno Calendar

Feb. 6
HW Due – Canto 2 / Feb. 7
Report Cards Issued / Feb. 8
HW Due – Canto 3 & 4 / Feb. 9 / Feb. 10*
Research Paper Workday #1
HW Due – Canto 5 - 9
Feb. 13 / Feb. 14
Research Paper Workday #2
HW Due – Canto 10-12
QUIZ on Cantos 1-9 / Feb. 15 / Feb. 16
Research Paper Workday #3
HW Due – Canto 13-15 / Feb. 17
Feb. 20
President’s Day
NO SCHOOL / Feb. 21
HW Due – Canto 16 - 18 / Feb. 22
Research Paper DUE / Feb. 23
HW Due – Canto 19-21
QUIZ on Cantos 10-21 / Feb. 24
Feb. 27
HW Due – Canto 22-25 / Feb. 28 / March 1
HW Due – Canto 26-30 / March 2 / March 3
HW Due – Canto 31-34
QUIZ on Cantos 22-34
March 6 / March 7
Review for Inferno Test / March 8 / March 9
Inferno Test / March 10

Fifth Period

Dante’s InfernoHW Questions Canto 3-34

Canto III

  1. The inscription on the Gate to Hell includes a reference to the Trinity—what is it?
  2. What are “eternal things”?
  3. What is the “good of the intellect”? Who provides it?
  4. What is “contrapasso”? How is it represented in Inferno?
  5. Why does Dante place Pope Celestine V in Hell? What other Pope is extremely significant? Where is he?
  6. What is Acheron?
  7. Who is Charon? Where does he come from? What is his job?
  8. What causes earthquakes?
  9. What is the significance of the final line of the inscription over the Gate to Hell? (9)
  10. What is the first level Dante visits? What two groups of people are stuck here? (34-42, 61-63)
  11. Why do these souls envy the other souls in other levels of Hell? (46-51)
  12. What is on the other side of the river? Why are the souls so eager to cross? (84-87, 122-126)
  13. How does Dante know that he does not belong in Hell? (127-129)

Canto IV

  1. Where does Dante visit next? Who live here? What is their punishment?
  2. What is the “Harrowing of Hell”?
  3. Who is the “first father”?
  4. Where is the fire coming from? What is the Castle of Fame?
  5. What does it mean that some souls are separate?
  6. What 3 major groups of people reside here?
  7. Where does Dante awaken? Why is he afraid to venture forth? (7-12, 16-18)
  8. What is Virgil’s explanation for his pallor? (19-21)
  9. Were any souls rescued from Limbo? Who? Who rescued them? (52-61)
  10. Who are the first group of souls Dante meets? Where do they reside? Why? (70-78, 88-90)
  11. Who are the second group of souls Dante meets? (121-129)
  12. Who are the last group? (133-144)
  13. Why is Virgil in Hell?
  14. Hell is filled with poets and great thinkers; why won’t Dante end up there too?
  15. How do the punishments of the first two levels fit the “sins” committed?

Canto V

  1. Why does Francesca’s heart still hurt and ache?
  2. How does Dante react to Francesca’s tale?
  3. What does Francesca say is the greatest sadness in this place?
  4. What is the sin and the contrapasso in this 2nd circle?
  5. How did Francesca die?
  6. Who assigns each sinner to a particular circle of Hell?
  7. What happens to Dante at the end of Canto V? Compare it to a similar event at the end of Canto III.

Canto VI

  1. What are the first sensory images Dante uses to describe the 3rd Circle?
  2. Of what crimes were the soul in Circle Three guilty? What is the contrapasso?
  3. From what city does Dante come from?
  4. What are the three sparks from Hell sowed in every person’s breast?
  5. Who is the guardian of the 3rd Circle?
  6. What is the ‘enemy power’?
  7. Summarize the brief discussion that Dante and Virgil have at the end Canto VI?

Canto VII

  1. Who is Plutus and what does he do to Dante?
  2. How does Dante get past Plutus?
  3. Who are the “worst” sinners of greed, and why can’t they be recognized?
  4. Describe the contrapasso for greed and explain how it makes sense.
  5. Describe the contrapasso for wrath and explain how it makes sense.

Canto VIII

  1. Who is Phlegyas and what does he do to Dante?
  2. Who is FilippoArgenti, what does he do, and what happens to him?
  3. How does Dante participate in the sin of wrath in this canto?
  4. Who are the fallen angels and what do they say to Virgil?
  5. What happens at the negotiation between Virgil and the fallen angels?

Canto IX

  1. Why had Virgil been to lower Hell before?
  2. Who are the Furies and what do they do?
  3. What does Virgil do to protect Dante from Medusa?
  4. How do Dante and Virgil finally enter Dis?
  5. What is Dante’s perception of the messenger from Heaven?

Canto X

  1. When will the tombs and coffins be opened, according to Virgil, and why?
  2. How does Dante get recognized by Farinata? (
  3. How accurately can the dead souls see into the future?
  4. Describe the contrapasso for heresy and explain how it makes sense.
  5. How does Dante participate in the sin of heresy in this canto?

Canto XI

  1. Why are frauds (dishonest people, liars) in lower Hell, according to Virgil?
  2. What are the subdivisions of the seventh circle (violence)?
  3. Why are violence, fraud, and treachery punished in lower Hell, and the other sins in upper Hell, according to Virgil?
  4. What makes good art, according to Virgil?
  5. How is art God’s grandchild?

Canto XII

  1. What caused the landslide, and what does it allow Dante and Virgil to do?
  2. What do Dante and Virgil meet on the rocks, and how do they get past it?
  3. What does the minotaur symbolize?
  4. Why is the minotaur the guardian of the seventh circle, violence?
  5. Describe the sin and contrapasso of the first subcircle of violence and explain how it makes sense.
  6. What is the centaurs’ job in this subcircle?
  7. What is the Phlegethon?
  8. Which centaur helps Dante, and how?

Canto XIII

  1. What is a harpy?
  2. What kind of violence is punished in the second subcircle?
  3. Describe the contrapasso of the self-violent and explain how it makes sense.
  4. What must happen for the sinners in this subcircle to be able to speak, and how does this usually occur?
  5. What do Dante and Virgil witness as they talk to one of the bushes?
  6. What does the unidentified bush ask Dante to do near the end of the canto, and why do you think?

Canto XIV

  1. Describe the “horrible art of justice” Dante sees in the third subcircle of violence.
  2. What kind of violence is punished in the third subcircle?
  3. According to Virgil in line 70, why is Capaneus punished?
  4. Describe the contrapasso of the third subcircle of violence and explain how it makes sense.
  5. Describe the flow of the rivers in Hell, according to Virgil in lines 94-120.

Canto XV

  1. What evidence in lines 25-29 shows that Dante is familiar with this specific soul?
  2. According to BrunettoLatini, what is the punishment if a soul stands still in the third subcircle?
  3. Who is BrunettoLatini, what is his relationship to Dante, and what evidence shows this?
  4. What sins does Latini identify in the people from the Fiesole (Romans)?
  5. What does Dante tell Latini he will do?

Canto XVI

  1. What about Dante prompts the Three Noble Florentines to run after him?
  2. Compare this Canto to the previous one. Is the focus on Dante’s future or the future of Florence?
  3. How does Virgil tell Dante to treat the three spirits?
  4. What, according to Dante’s aside, were his impulses upon seeing the three noble Florentines? Why does he say, “I think my Teacher would have let me go”? (XVI.48)
  5. Explain the use of the cord.
  6. Why does Dante “swear by the lines/of [his] Comedy” that he did see the apparition mentioned at the end of this Canto? (XVI.127,128)

Canto XVII

  1. What is the symbolism of Geryon? Consider his unique physical features.
  2. What description is given of the usurers? What kind of imagery is invoked here? (16.46-54)
  3. What is the significance of the purse that hangs about the neck of each of the usurers?
  4. Why does Dante use the similes involving Phaeton and Icarus? What development of his character might we expect from these similes?
  5. Why is Geryon compared to a disobedient falcon?
  6. What literary term is used when Dante writes about Daedalus and Icarus?

Canto XVIII

  1. Previously, the geography of Hell was rough, and Dante was forced to ask what lay ahead. Why is he now offered a “general prospect” of the ten ditches? (XVIII.10) What is the significance of the number ten here?
  2. Why is the procession of frauds compared to the crowds at the Jubilee?
  3. Why does Caccianemico “speak unwillingly”? (XVIII.52)
  4. What is Dante’s opinion of Jason? Why is he described this way?
  5. Of what is the “river” in which the flatterers stand a perversion?
  6. Why does Dante mention Thais at the end of the Canto?

Canto XIX

  1. Why does Dante begin this Canto with the cry against Simon Magus? Why might he be especially unforgiving toward the Simoniacs?
  2. Why does Dante compare the holes in which the Simoniacs are placed to baptismal fonts? Why does he mention the font at San Giovanni?
  3. Why must Virgil carry Dante down to Pope Nicholas III?
  4. Why does Pope Nicholas mistake Dante for Boniface VIII
  5. Why does Dante respond to Nicholas with such scorn?
  6. Sum up the scolding Dante gives Nicholas.

Canto XX

  1. What is Dante’s view at the beginning of Canto 20?
  2. What is the significance of the fortune tellers’ punishment? How does it connect to the fact that Dante is writing this while in exile?
  3. Why does Dante weep?
  4. What is the purpose of Virgil’s tale of the founding of Mantua?
  5. Why does Virgil mention the position of the moon?

Canto XXI

  1. Why does Dante use the comparison to the Venetian army? What literary term is used from lines seven through eighteen?
  2. Describe the demons here. Also, what do they do to the sinners in their charge?
  3. How does Virgil convince Malacoda to let him pass?
  4. Why does Dante mention the Pisan surrender at Caprona? How does this relate to Dante’s own experiences?
  5. How does Virgil, representing Reason in accordance with Nature, react to the highly unnatural demons?
  6. What is the significance of the Demons’ salute?

Canto XXII

  1. What do the sinners do as the Evil Claws approach?
  2. What does Ciampolo, the caught soul, suggest to summon more Italian souls?
  3. How does Ciampolo escape?
  4. What happens to Trample Frost and Harlequin?
  5. What allows Dante and Virgil to escape?

Canto XXIII

  1. What does Dante fear the Evil Claws will do?
  2. What does Dante compare Virgil to, and why does the comparison make sense?
  3. What prevents the Evil Claws from entering the sixth bolgia?
  4. What are the hypocrites wearing?
  5. How does the soul recognize Dante?
  6. What is the contrapasso for hypocrisy and how does it make sense?
  7. How is Caiaphas’s contrapasso special, and why?
  8. How does Virgil plan to get out of this bolgia?

Canto XXIV

  1. Describe how Dante and Virgil get out of the fifth bolgia.
  2. What is Virgil’s advice for becoming famous?
  3. What happens when people die without fame, according to Virgil?
  4. What does Dante hear from the ridge?
  5. What is Dante’s request to Virgil?
  6. What does Dante see in the sixth bolgia?
  7. What happens to the soul Dante notices in lines 97-103?
  8. What was VanniFucci’s sin and how does the contrapasso make sense?

Canto XXV

  1. What does VanniFucci do and what happens to him?
  2. What is unique about VanniFucci?
  3. What is Cacus’s crime?
  4. Describe the transformation of Agnel.
  5. Where does the third serpent bite the third soul?

Canto XXVI

  1. Why does Dante tell Florence to rejoice?
  2. What does Dante see all over the eighth bolgia?
  3. What is a counselor of fraud?
  4. Who is in the “divided” flame and what does Dante ask Virgil for?
  5. What are the three reasons for Ulysses’s and Diomedes’s punishment?
  6. How does the contrapasso for counselors of fraud make sense?
  7. Who talks to Ulysses and why?
  8. What final thing did Ulysses do that makes him a counselor of fraud?

Canto XXVII

  1. What does the new soul ask Dante?
  2. What are the eagle, the green claws, the mastiffs, and the lion?
  3. What does Dante ask the soul?
  4. Why does Guido da Montefeltro answer Dante without fear of infamy?
  5. What did Boniface ask Guido da Montefeltro to do, and for what reward?

Canto XXVIII

  1. Why does Dante find it difficult to write about the ninth bolgia?
  2. Describe what’s happened to Mohammed and Ali.
  3. What were the sins of Mohammed and Ali?
  4. Describe the contrapasso in the ninth bolgia and explain how it makes sense.
  5. How does Pier of Medicina speak?
  6. What is Mosca’s punishment?
  7. Describe Bertran de Born’s punishment.

Canto XXIX

  1. Why does Dante delay leaving the ninth bolgia?
  2. Why does Dante cover his ears?
  3. What is the sin punished in the tenth bolgia?
  4. How is alchemy a kind of falsification?
  5. Describe the suffering of the alchemists.
  6. What was Capocchio’s crime?

Canto XXX

  1. What happens to Capocchio?
  2. What did Myrrha do and how is her sin falsification?
  3. How does Master Adam suffer?
  4. What is Master Adam’s sin?
  5. What did Sinon do that was false?
  6. Why does Virgil get angry at Dante and what is his advice for the future?

Canto XXXI

  1. What does Dante hear as he leaves the Malebolgia?
  2. What does Dante think he sees, and what does he actually see?
  3. What sin do the giants represent and why, and what is their general contrapasso?
  4. Why does Nimrod speak in an unknown language?
  5. What is another cause of earthquakes, according to ancient belief?
  6. When is Dante most afraid for his life in the Inferno?
  7. How do Dante and Virgil get to Cocytus, and what do they “pay” for it?

Canto XXXII

  1. Describe the landscape of Cocytus and how the souls are imprisoned.
  2. What happens to the two souls when they look at Dante?
  3. Describe the sin in Caina, the first subcircle of complex fraud (betrayal). Explain the contrapasso.
  4. What does BoccadelDuco, the soul that Dante accidentally kicks, want?
  5. What does Dante do to Bocca?
  6. What does Dante see at the end of the canto?

Canto XXXIII

  1. What is the sin in Antenora, the second subcircle of complex fraud? Explain the contrapasso.
  2. Who is the soul talking to Dante?
  3. What does the soul hear outside his and his sons’ prison cell?
  4. What do the soul’s sons ask him to do?
  5. How is suffering increased in Ptolomea, the third subcircle of complex fraud?
  6. What is the sin in Ptolomea?
  7. What does Dante feel as he walks through Ptolomea?
  8. What is unusual about the souls in Ptolomea and why?

Canto XXXIV

  1. What causes the wind in Judecca, the fourth subcircle of complex fraud?
  2. What is the sin in Judecca. Explain the contrapasso.
  3. Describe Satan.
  4. Explain Satan’s contrapasso.
  5. Who are the souls in Satan’s mouths and what were their sins?
  6. How do Dante and Virgil get past Satan?
  7. 7. Where do Dante and Virgil go after passing Satan?