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Dante's Inferno: Exam Review

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Dante's Inferno: Exam Review
Dante’s La Divina Commedia

1. Dante’s Life
a. Born in Florence Italy (Birthplace of the Renaissance)
b. Wrote in italian
c. Greatest poet of all time
d. Due to his political views, banished in 1382
2. Dante’s Work
a. The Divine Comedy (EPIC POEM)
i. Inferno ii. Purgatory iii. Paradise
3. Dante’s Inspiration
a. Beatrice of Florentine
i. Dante’s love even though both of them are married ii. Guide in Paradise
b. Virgil the poet
i. Guide through purgatory and inferno ii. Dante’s levels of hell are based off of Virgil from the 6th book of the Aeneid
4. The Divine Comedy
a. Written in exile
b. Took 13 years to make
c. 3 sections
i. Inferno (Hell) ii. Purgatorio ( Purgatory) iii. Paradiso (Paradise)
d. Each section divided into cantos
i. Total 100 cantos
1. 34
2. 33
3. 33
e. Written in 3 line stanzas called terza rima (song)
i. Dante created terza rima
f. The number 3 had importance to dante ( 3 persons in 1 god ex. The father, the son, the holy spirit)
5. Story of the Divine Comedy
a. Dante is the main character
i. 1st stop- Hell
1. sinners receive punishment ii. 2nd stop- Purgatory
1. a place of temporary punishment iii. 3rd stop- Paradise
1. standing by the throne of God
b. Set during Easter
c. named comedy because it ends happily
d. very popular during his time
6. Allegory
a. Dante represents human kind
b. Virgil, the guide through Purgatory and Hell, is human reason
c. Beatrice, the guide through Paradise is faith and divine knowledge
7. Importance of Work
a. Vast learning( allusions to mythology, history, and contemporaries)
b. Analysis of social problems in medivial Italy
c. Imaginative power
8. The Inferno
a. Starts out with the river Acheron
i. Ferried over the river by Charon
b. First Circle- Limbo
i. Souls of Virtious Pagan who were born before Christ ii. Unbaptized babies
c. Second circle-The Lustful
i. People who were lustful ii. Tossed around in a violent storm
d. Third circle- Gluttony
i. Ppl who take excess of anything ii. Guarded by Ceberus iii. Drowning in excrement while being pelted by freezing rain
e. Fourth circle: The Avaricious and Prodigal
i. The overly greedy & overly giving souls ii. Roll boulders for eternity
f. Fifth circle- the Wrathful
i. Souls of the mean and evil ii. Fight away themselves while drowning in the river styx
g. Sixth Circle- Heretics
i. Intellectually stubborn ii. Burned alive underground in tombs
h. Seventh Circle
i. 1st ring- Violence Against someone you know
1. guarded by minatours
2. drowning in boiling blood while centaurs attack ii. 2nd ring- Suicides and Violence against oneself
1. turned into a plant
2. burned for eternity while being attacked by dogs iii. 3rd ring- Violence against others
1. rain of fire while on scorching sand
i. Eight ring: Fraud
i. Souls of basic deceivers ii. Punishments include
1. demon whipping
2. drowning in shit
3. heads turned backwards
4. boiled in tar
5. cloaks of lead
6. reptile attacks
7. burned alive
8. sick with disease

j. Ninth Circle- Traitors
i. 1st and 2nd rounds
1. those who betrayed family or country
2. frozen in ice up to their necks ii. 3rd and 4th rounds
1. those who betray friends or masters
2. frozen under ice iii. * frozen in cocytus
k. Dis/ Satan/ Lucifer
i. At the bottom of hell, suck in ice from mid breast up ii. Three mouths, three sets of wings
1. parody of the holy trinity iii. In his three mouths are Judas, Cassius, and Brutus
1. they are cut up by his teeth and clawed at by his claws
9. The End
a. The end of the inferno is when Dante exits it to acend the mountain of Purgatory and Reach paradise to meet god.
10. Other Important Information
a. In the beginning, Dante is lost and confused
b. He comes across 3 animals, each representing a different section of hell
i. Leopard- incontinence ii. Lion- Violence iii. She-wolf- Fraud
c. Seven Deadly sins
i. Lust ii. Pride iii. Greed iv. Gluttony
v. Envy vi. Sloth vii. Wrath
d. Inscription on the gates of hell
i. Abandon all hope ye who enter
e. God views hell as a place for sinners
f. Him who made the great refusal is either Pope Celestine V, or Lucifer
g. Charon is the archetypal ferryman
i. Urshanabi ii. He doesn’t like Dante coming on board
h. A Big allusion found on line 747 Canto 3 is the evil seed of Adam, or Cain
i. Minos
i. His job to judge people and decide where they belong in Hell ii. Wrap his tail around the man and turns him the amount of times that is equal to his level
j. The Hurricane of Hell is level 2’s punishment
k. Paolo and Francesca
i. Married to other people, lustful for each other ii. Dante the poet doesn’t like them, but Dante the antagonist feels pity for them
l. Mood of Mystery in canto 34
m. Judas suffers the worst in dis’ mouth
n. The references to 3 when dis is described ia a parody of the holy trinity.

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