The Guides & The Gates
The gates of Hell state that they were created by Divine Power, Supreme Wisdom, and this third attribute, which is Dante's ultimate source of justice.
What is Primal Love (or Divine Love)? (Canto III)
Who is the historical figure whose legendary descent into Hell gave Dante "license" to pass through the Gates?
Who is Aeneas? (Canto II)
What is the exact title of the first group of damned souls (Canto III) who refused to take a side in life?
Who are the Neutrals (or Cowards)? (Canto III)
Who are the political turncoats who refused to commit to either God or Satan and are chased by wasps in the Vestibule?
Who are the Neutrals/Cowards? (Canto III)
What is the underlying moral classification (hierarchy, delineations) that organizes Hell, moving from sins of lack of love to sins of hatred?
What are Incontinence, Violence, and Fraud/Malice?
Which one of the three heavenly women who intercede for Dante is his personal symbol of Grace?
Who is Beatrice? (Canto II)
In Canto V, what is the specific literary text that Paolo and Francesca were reading when their forbidden love overcame them?
What is the story of Lancelot (or King Arthur's court)? (Canto V)
Who is the creature, half-man and half-bull, that guards the Seventh Circle of Violence and is enraged by the mention of the Duke of Athens?
Who is the Minotaur? (Canto XII)
What political faction, either Guelph or Ghibelline, did Farinata degli Uberti belong to?
What is Ghibelline? (Canto X)
What is the precise name of the principle where the punishment fits the crime?
What is Contrapasso?
What is the name of the unmoving, sorrowful river that forms the boundary between Upper and Lower Hell?
What is the River Styx (or the marsh of the Styx)? (Canto VII/VIII)
What sin is being punished in the third circle, where the sinners are eternally pelted by freezing, filthy rain and snow?
What is Gluttony? (Canto VI)
What is the name of the river of boiling blood that punishes the Violent Against Neighbors?
What is the Phlegethon? (Canto XII)
Who is the ferocious enemy Dante treats with extreme spite and sees tormented by other demons in the River Styx?
Who is Filippo Argenti? (Canto VIII)
In Canto XIII, what is the specific bodily form of the pain endured by the Violent Against Self (the Suicides)?
What is being turned into thorny trees/shrubs (bleeding when broken)? (Canto XIII)
This is the specific reason why the poets must wait for heavenly aid to enter the city of Dis.
What is the fact that the sin punished within Dis is Malice/Fraud, which Heaven detests more? (Canto IX)
Who is the Wrathful man, found among the Gluttons, who delivers a political prophecy to Dante about Florence?
Who is Ciacco? (Canto VI)
What two specific types of sinners are found in the first two ditches (Bolgias) of the Eighth Circle (Malebolge)?
What are Panderers and Seducers (Bolgia 1) and Flatterers (Bolgia 2)? (Canto XVIII)
What specific crime led the Popes punished in Canto XIX (like Nicholas III) to be fixed upside down in tubes of stone with their feet burning?
What is Simony (the sale of church offices)? (Canto XIX)
What moral flaw, demonstrated by the three beasts of Canto I, must Dante overcome to successfully complete his pilgrimage?
What is the self-destructive misuse of reason/will? (Canto I)
Before seeking Virgil's aid, which three blessed women met in Heaven to organize Dante's salvation?
Who are the Virgin Mary, Saint Lucia, and Beatrice? (Canto II)
In Canto VII, what sins occupy the third-to-last circle of incontinence, where the sinners are eternally jousting with/pushing dead weight?
What are Avarice (Hoarders) and Prodigality (Spendthrifts)? (Canto VII)
Guido da Montefeltro (Canto XXVII) advised Pope Boniface VIII on how to defeat enemies not by force, but by what method of abuse?
What is giving fraudulent advice/counsel (or deceit)? (Canto XXVII)
When Dante encounters the sodomites, he recognizes Brunetto Latini. What specific, unique pain does Dante express when realizing Brunetto's fate?
What is the loss of a treasured mentor/father figure (or sorrow for his spiritual state)? (Canto XV)
What is the term for the sinners punished in Canto XX, whose heads are twisted backward, symbolizing the injustice of their attempt to see the fate that God concealed?
Who are the Sorcerers/Diviners? (Canto XX)