Dante’s Inferno Outline/Study Guide

I. Circle One (Beginning of Sins of the She-Wolf)

a. Limbo-Virtuous Pagans
i. People: Socrates, Plato, Homer, etc
1. Punishment: No torment, just no hope
II. Circle Two
a. The Carnal
i. People: Helen, Achilles, Francesca and Paolo, Cleopatra
1. Punishment: Swept forever in a giant tempest
a. Monsters: Minos-monster that sentences people to the levels
by wrapping his tail around himself
III. Circle Three
a. The Gluttons
i. People: Ciacco (the Hog)
1. Punishment: Gigantic garbage dump, filth falls constantly, stinking rain,
souls lie in the icy, nasty paste
a. Monsters: Cerberus- three headed dog, stands guard and rips
them apart
IV. Circle Four
a. The Hoarders and the Wasters
i. People: No famous people
1. Punishment: The two groups push great boulders apart, then together,
then apart constantly
a. Monsters: At the edge, Plutus menaces Dante and Virgil, but
Virgil talks him out of torturing them
V. Circle Five
a. River of Styx- the Wrathful and the Sullen
i. People: Filippo Argenti
1. Punishment: The Wrathful fight forever in the swampy river, the Sullen
are buried in tombs underneath the water
a. Monsters: To get across the river, Dante and Virgil ride on a
boat with Phlegyes, the Boatman of Styx
i. This is the end of Upper Hell
VI. Circle Six
a. The Heretics; City of Dis; the Fallen Angels
i. People:Farinata Degli Uberti, Cavalcante de Cavalcanti, Pope Anastasius
1. Punishment: Sinners are trapped in fiery tombs
a. Monsters: The Three Furies and Medusa are at the Gate of Dis;
the Heavenly Messenger opens the Gate
VII. Circle Seven
 a. The Violent and Bestial (Sins of the Lion)
Round 1: Against Neighbors
i. People: Alexander the Great, Attila
1. Punishment: buried in river of boiling blood according to severity of sin
a. Monsters: Minotaur, at beginning of the circle, then the
Centaurs, but Virgil wins over their chief, Chiron, and gets
Nessus to help them across the river
Round 2: Against Themselves
ii. People: Pier Delle Vigne, Lano de Siena
1. Punishment: Trapped in trees (Wood of Suicides), chewed on and
chased by Harpies
a. Monsters: The Harpies- dog-like monsters that tear at the trees
Round 3: Against God, Nature, and Art (Blasphemers, Perverts, Usurers,Sodomites)
iii. People: Brunetto, Capaneus
1. Punishment: trapped in burning sand; rain of fire; burned from above
and below
a. Monsters: Geryon, at crossing from 7th to 8th circle, flies Virgil
and Dante over the waterfall
VIII. Circle 8
a. Malebolge (Evil Ditches) (Beginning of Hell of the Fraudulent and Malicious)
-Simple Fraud
1: Panderers and Seducers
i. People: Jason
1. Punishment: must walk alongside the ditch constantly
a. Monsters: demons with lashes keeping them walking
2: Flatterers:
ii. People: Thais, Alessio Interminelli
1. Punishment: sunk in excrement
3: Simoniacs
iii. People: Pope Nicholas III
1. Punishment: sinners immersed in pool-like crevices with their feet out,
feet are burnt according to the degree of their sins
4: Fortune Tellers and Diviners
iv. People: TIresias, Eurypylus
1. Punishment: heads backwards, must walk backwards, eyes blinded with
tears
5: Grafters
v. People: Senator of Lucca
1. Punishment: immersed in boiling tar, torn at by demons
a. Monsters: demons with grappling hooks, leader: Malacoda,
demon minions.
 6: Hypocrites
vi. People: Jovial Friars, Caiaphas
1. Punishment: wear cloaks lined with lead, trudge around giant circle
7: Thieves
vii. People: Vanni Fucci, 5 noble thieves of Florence
1. Punishment: snakes wrapped around them, binding their hands, they
are stabbed in the neck by the serpents and destroyed by fire and
regenerated painfully
8: Evil Counselors
viii. People: Ulysses and Diomede
1. Punishment: blind and enclosed in flames
9: Sowers of Discord (religious, political, and between kinsmen)
ix. People: Mohammed, Pier da Medicina, Bertrand de Born
1. Punishment: eternally hacked by giant demons with bloody swords,
then painfully regenerate while walking around a circle, then at the end
of the circle, they are hacked again
10: Falsifiers (Alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, impersonators)
1. Punishments: darkness, stench, filth, disease, shrieks, thirst
a. Alchemists:
i. People: Capocchio
1. Punishment: Scabs covering body
b. Impersonators:
i. People: Gianni Schicchi and Myrra
1. Punishment: Changed into hogs chasing others
c. Counterfeiters:
i. People: Master Adam
1. Punishment: eternal thirst, cracked tongues, bloated bellies
d. Perjurers:
i. People: Potiphar’s Wife, SInon the Greek
1. Punishment: fever, smoke/heat cooking body
IV. Circle 9: Compound Fraud:
- Between Circles 8 and 9 are the Giants-Nimrod, Antaeus, etc
Round 1: Caina
x. Treacherous to Kin
1. People: Alessandro, Napoleon
a. Punishment: up to necks in ice; can bend necks
Round 2: Antenora
xi. Treacherous to Country
1. People: Bocca Degli Abbati (the one Dante treats with savagery)
a. Punishment: heads above ice, but cannot bend necks. Some bite
at each other
Round 3: Ptolomea
xii. Treacherous to Guests and Hosts
1. People: Friar Alberigo
a. Punishment: Only half of face out of ice, tears freeze in their
eyes
Round 4: Judeca
xiii. Treacherous to Masters
1. People: Judas Iscariot (in central mouth of Satan), Brutus and Cassius (in
side mouths of Satan)
a. Punishment: buried completely and distorted in ice
i. Monster: Satan himself