people 1

Question 1

Virgil

Answer 1

the Roman poet that guides Dante through the circles of hell, wrote the Aeneid

Question 2

Beatrice

Answer 2

Dante’s “one true love” who appears as an angel to help Dante guide the way, his guide throughout purgatory and heaven

Question 3

the neutrals

Answer 3

moral cowards, the angels who torment the souls in hell who neither chose god or satan

Question 4

Charon

Answer 4

the ferryman from greco-roman myth who ferries Dante and Virgil across the river Acheron

Question 5

Acheron

Answer 5

the first river in hell

Question 6

the four poets

Answer 6

Homer, Horace, Lucan, and Ovid, who are later joined by Dante and Virgil to make six. Dante considers himself a peer of theirs.

Question 7

the virtuous muslims

Answer 7

Saladin, Averroes, and Avicenna, who are not condemned for heresy by being muslim but rather remain in limbo with the virtuous pagans

Question 8

Minos

Answer 8

the gatekeeper to the rest of hell past the first circle, passes his sentence by wrapping his tail around himself the number of times equal to the circle they are condemned to

Question 9

the queens

Answer 9

Cleopatra, Semiramis, Dido, and Isolde. they all remain in the circle of lust. most of the powerful women in history are here, which says something about the way Dante thinks power and lust corrupt rule (but only for women!)

Question 10

other lovers

Answer 10

include Achilles, Paris, and Tristan

Question 11

Paolo

Answer 11

Francesca’s lover, the brother of Gianciotto, who was Francesca’s husband and killed the both of them for their affair. very passive in hell.

Question 12

Francesca

Answer 12

wife of Gianciotto and lover of his brother, Paolo. she speaks a lot in hell and seems to blame outside forces for her troubles rather than acknowledging her own part

Question 13

Cerberus

Answer 13

found in the third circle of gluttons. Hades’ three-headed dog pet. he is ripping the sinners apart in the rain. described with human features which may imply he is being punished here too.

Question 14

Ciacco

Answer 14

someone Dante recognizes in the third circle who talks politics with him and admits his sin of gluttony. a fellow Florentine.

Question 15

the furies

Answer 15

creatures of vengeance who appear before Dante and Virgil before the fifth circle and threaten that Medusa is coming

Question 16

Medusa

Answer 16

myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. woman with snakes for hair who turn those who look at her to stone. There is the threat of petrification here, erotic fascination/fixation, and the concept of revision and retrospection. Virgil is already paralyzed by his own perceived failure.

Question 17

the heavenly messenger

Answer 17

an angel that appears, grossed out by hell, and flicks the gates of Dis open

Question 18

Farinata degli Uberti

Answer 18

a ghibelline general in the fifth circle who raises himself up and speaks down to Dante despite being in a tomb below him. they verbally spar about the guelphs and the ghibellines.

Question 19

Cavalcante dei Calcalcanti

Answer 19

another one in Farinata’s tomb who rises up and asks Dante about his son, Dante’s bff, who he wrongfully believes is dead.

Question 20

Pier della Vigna

Answer 20

“Peter of the Vine.” a well-known poet and a functionary of Emperor Frederick II. he is eventually imprisoned for turning against the emperor, but we have no knowledge that this is true, and kills himself.

Question 21

the anonymous Florentine

Answer 21

just a figure who did politics in Florentine that represents the greater Florentine civil war, city against itself.

Question 22

Capaneus

Answer 22

a pagan figure who lays on the ground and continues to blaspheme god even in hell.

Question 23

Brunetto Latini

Answer 23

a well-known Florentine figure and teacher of Dante who is made to walk forever with the sin of sodomy. as we have literally no evidence Brunetto was into men, there is the idea that Brunetto is guilty of a teaching and writing style that does not bear fruit

Question 24

Geryon

Answer 24

an image of fraud with the face of a specifically just man, body of a serpent, tail of scorpion, and the back of a beautiful tapestry that Dante & Virgil ride into the circle of fraud on

Question 25

Pope Boniface VIII

Answer 25

a corrupt pope found in the maleboge of simonacs

Question 26

Vanni Fucci

Answer 26

notorious thief and murderer from near Florence, who is repeatedly struck, turned to ash, and reformed in the image of a phoenix or resurrection. tells Dante about his exile just to spite him and gives God the equivalent of the 12th century finger.