Dante Aligheri (1265-1321)
The Divine Comedy (ca. 1300-1321)
Things To Consider:

• Imagery
• Relationship between Catholic and Pagan ideas/stories
• Symbolic Retribution:  Examples
• "Numerology"
• Chronology (i.e. Easter Weekend)
• Italian History
• Ghibellines and Guelphs (Black & White)
• Allegory
• Influence of Virgil's Aeneid
• terza rima
• See map of the journey 

** Homework Questions **

• What is "symbolic retribution"?  Provide an example from the Inferno.

561:

• Explain the numerology involved in the Divine Comedy.
• What does "comedy" mean?
• What is allegory?

Inferno:
Canto II:  The Descent
566:

• What literary technique is employed in lines 7-9 of the Canto?

569:

• Explain the epic simile at the end of the Canto (2.127-30).

Canto V:  Circle Two:  The Carnal
578:

• Who is Minos?

579:

• Who "killed herself for love, / And she betrayed the ashes of Sychaeus" (5.61-62)?
• Why are she and Achilles here?  Why isn't she with the Suicides (included in a later Canto)?

581:

• Why does Dante swoon after hearing Francesca's tale?

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Other Discussion Questions:
Canto I: The Dark Wood of Error
559:

• Why was Dante exiled from Florence in 1302?
• Who was Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290) ?

561:

• What does Virgil symbolize?
• What does Beatrice symbolize?

562:

• How old is Dante when he begins this journey?
• What do these "things" symbolize?
• Wood
• Sun
• Mountain
• Panther/Leopard
• Lion
• She-Wolf
• Virgil
• Beatrice
• Easter

564:

• What does Dante think about Virgil?

565:

• Explain Virgil's lines:  "because that Emperor, who reigns above, / since I have been rebellious to his law, / will not allow me entry top His city" (1.124-26).

Canto II:  The Descent
566:

• Why does Dante hesitate to begin the journey?

567:

• How does Virgil respond?

568:

• How has Beatrice left Heaven and arrive "not afraid to enter here" (2.87).

Canto III:  The Vestibule:  The Opportunists
570:

• Explain:  "ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE"(3.9).
• What is the punishment for those "who were not rebels / nor faithful to their God, but stood apart" (3.38-39)

571:

• What is Acheron?

573:

• Explain:  "Because celestial justice spurs them on, / . . . their fear is turned into desire" (3.125-26).
• Who is Charon?
• Explain:  "No good soul ever takes its passage here" (3.127).
• Why does Dante faint?

Canto IV:  Circle One:  Limbo:  Virtuous Pagans
574:

• Why does Virgil become "deathly pale" (4.14)?

575:

• Explain:  "We now are lost and punished just with this: / we have no hope and yet we live in longing" (4.41-42).  What is the punishment for the Virtuous Pagans?
• Has anyone ever left this Limbo/Hell for Paradise?
• Was Eve one of them?
• Why is Jesus's name not mentioned?
• Explain: "Before them / there were no human spirits that had been saved" (4.62-63).

576:

• Who is honoring whom by including Dante "among" Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid,  and Lucan?
• What does the "exalted castle" (4.106) represent?
• Who inhabits it?

Canto XXXIV: Center:  Satan
582-83:

• Describe Satan's position.
• What is Dis?

583:

• Why does Satan have three heads?  What might this symbolize?
• Whom does he chew?

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