The Inferno Dante Alighieri

Dante: Poet  Exiled from Florence  White Guelph  1265 – 1321  Places enemies in hell  Politicians  Poets (Ovid, Lucan)  Church figures  Commentary on corruption  Popes

Dante: Character Travels through hell Nature of sin Symbolic of human race Sympathy towards shades suffering Emotional, fainting Contrasts the feelings of the author

Virgil Condemned to Limbo(1 st circle) Master, Guide, Teacher Guides and protects Dante through hell Teaches morals and God’s justification Teaches morals and God’s justification Represents human rationality and reason Represents human rationality and reason Deliberate, determined, wise

Canto I Dark wood, facing sunlit hill Leopard, Lion, She-wolf Back to the wood, Virgil Can’t pass the beasts, propose as a guide through Hell

Canto II Feel not worthy Feel not worthy Virgil comfort him => how he has been send to him Virgil comfort him => how he has been send to him

Canto III Vestibule, hear sighs from the damned souls Souls rejected by Heaven and Hell => no hope of truly dying Meet Charon Strong wind disturbs Dante’s senses => fall on the ground

Canto IV First circle : Limbo Meet people around the only light Reach a castle => “bearing told of great authority” and “master sage”

Canto V Second circle : Lustful Minos First time see souls being punished Constantly whirling without hope of rest Francesca and Paolo => pity => faint

Canto VI Third circle : Gluttons Punishment = discomfort CerberusCiaccoPlutus

Canto VII Confronting Plutus – fourth circle :Prodigal and Miserly 2 semicircles – clashing Fortune Fifth circle (river Styx) : wrathful Fight forever Tower

Canto VIII Before reaching the tower => Phlegyas Attacked by Filippo Argenti City of Dis => fiendish angels threating Virgil comfort, argue Slam doors

Canto IX Gate of Dis Lack of Divine aid Three furies Call for Medusa Heavenly messenger approaches Enter into sixth circle- vast setting Torment by Heretics

Canto X Tombs of heretics Epicureans Farinata interrupts

Canto XI Edge of seventh circle Explanation of next three circles and subdivisions

Canto XII First ring of seventh circle River of blood Navigate around the river Guard (Nessus) names 3 shades within the river

Canto XIII Second ring Enters forest (Shade trees) Formation of Shade trees

Canto XIV Edge of third ring Divisions (zones) Explanation of blasphemers (zone 1- within) Happen across another “Red River”

Canto XV Second zone Explanation of sodomites Happen across Latini (Shade)

Canto XVI Still in second zone Sinners from Florence Virgil asks for Dante’s belt

Canto XVII Geryon (Fraud) 3 rd Zone Usurers Preventing art Greed/Money Furthering Mankind Rain of Fire Purses/Emblems around Neck Down to 8 th Circle

Canto XVIII Malebolge (Evil Pouches) Wall, 10 ridges, pit 1 st Pouch Panderers/Seducers Demons with whips 2 nd Pouch Flatterers “Foul sight”

Canto XIX 3 rd Pouch Simoniacs (pardoners) Pope Nicholas III Dante’s Criticism

Canto XX 4 th Pouch Astrologers, Magicians, Diviners Continuous line Face backwards

Canto XXI 5 th Pouch Grafters/Conmen Positions of power Greed Tar Pits Malebranche (evil claws) Malacoda (leader) Time frame: Good Friday

Canto XXII Still 5 th pouch Speak with Barterer Virgil and Dante run from Malebranche

Canto XXIII Slide down to 6 th pouch Escape Malebranche Hypocrites Lead lined clothing Caiphus (preist to Pontius Pilate) Crucified Dante gets directions

Canto XXIV Rocky descent to 7 th pouch Thieves Serpents chasing shades “Stealing” forms Catch, bite, burn, recreated Dante’s Political Party

Canto XXV Three shades Six footed serpent Merge forms

Canto XXVI Eighth Circle, Eighth Pouch Flames-contain souls of sinners that committed a fraud Ulysses and Diomedes – Trojan Horse

Canto XXVII Guido de Montefeltro – advisor to the Pope Release from guilt cannot come before repentance, which cannot come before the sin

Canto XXVIII Eight Circle, Ninth Pouch Sowers of Discord Dance in a circle as a demon hacks them to pieces

Canto XXIX Eighth Circle, Tenth Pouch – 4 zones Zone 1. Falsifiers of Metals

Canto XXX Zone 2. Falsifiers of others’ Persons - Myhrra Zone 3. Falsifiers of Coins (counterfeiters) Zone 4. Falsifiers of Words (liars) - Potiphar

Canto XXXI Into the Ninth Circle Chained giants

Canto XXXII Cocytus – Frozen Lake 4 rings Ring 1. – Caina – Traitors to kin Ring 2. – Antenora – Traitors to homeland

Canto XXXIII Count Ugolino, Archbishop Ruggieri Ring 3. – Ptolomea – Traitors to guests

Canto XXXIV Ring 4. – Judecca – Traitors to lords and benefactors The Devil – Brutus, Cassius, Judas Virgil leads Dante out the other end of Earth

Qualities of an Epic Begins in medias res - Canto 1 (l. 1-3) “Midway upon the journey of our life” Vast setting – Canto 34 (l ) “And now beneath the hemisphere” Begins with a statement of theme – Canto 1 (l ) “Therefore I think and judge it for thy best “ Begins with an invocation to a muse – Canto 2 (l. 7-9) “O Muses, O high genius, now assist me!” Includes the use of long lists – Canto 4 (l ) “Mongst who I knew” Ship references

Qualities of an Epic: 2 ” Features long and formal speeches – Canto 2 (l ) “Tell me, my master, tell me” Shows divine intervention on human affairs - Canto 9 (l ) “He reached the gate” Features heroes that embody the values of civilization – Canto 5 (l ) “The torment that you suffer” Often features the epic hero’s descent into hell – Canto 3 (l. 9) “All hope abandon, ye who enter in!” Epithets…

Literary Elements Alliteration- “So that the firm foot ever was the lower.” Canto I (l. 30) Allusion- “He answered me: ‘Within there are tormented / Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together / They unto vengeance run as unto wrath. / And there within their flame do they lament / The ambush of the horse, which made the door / Whence issued forth the Romans’ gentle seed...’” Canto XXVI (l ) Assonance- “Here the nobility shall be manifest / And I began...” Canto II (l. 9-10) Consonance- “Justice incited my sublime Creator” Canto III (l. 4) Deus ex Machina- “Well I perceived one sent from Heaven was he, / And to the Master turned; and he made a sign / That I should quiet stand, and bow before him.” Canto IX (l ) Enjambment- “The many people and the diverse wounds / These eyes of mine had so inebriated” Canto XXIX (l. 1-2) Imagery- “Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes / Forth from the wood a little rivulet, / Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. / As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, / The sinful women later share among them, / So downward through the sand it went its way. / The bottom of it, and both sloping banks, / Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; / Whence I perceived that there the passage was.” Canto XIV (l ) In medias res- “Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” Canto I (l. 1-3) Parallelism- “Through me the way is to the city dolent; / Through me the way is to eternal dole; / Through me the way among the people lost.” Canto III (1-3) Simile- “In similar wise the evil seed of Adam / Throw themselves on that margin one by one, / at signals, as a bird unto its lure.” Canto III (l ) Symbolism- “The infernal hurricane that never rests / Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine; / Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.” Canto V (l ) In life the sinners were blown around and controlled by lustful thoughts, now in hell they are eternally punished the same way. “For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” Canto I (l. 3) -Dante has lost his way on the true path of life; meaning sin has obstructed his path to God Crumbling Statue