Dante´s Inferno

Compare Canto 1 to the opening of the Iliad or the Aeneid.  How is it different?

The odyssey starts with the cry of Homer to the muses so that they talk to him about Odysseus. In Dante´s Inferno, the writer, as well as the main character are the same person. He starts the book by having a mental breakdown in a lonely forest, wandering through it feeling lonely. 

Compare Dante's journey to the journeys taken by characters in Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Augustine's Confessions.  How does Dante's appearance as the central character in the poem make it a different kind of epic?

Because it will be an epic that will be only told through the eyes of the man that makes the action. In the others, we had an outsider as a narrator, and that helped us gather different points of view, for example, Penelope when she was not near her husband. 

Dante encounters a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf in Canto 1.  What do you think these beasts symbolize, if anything?  Which animal seems to pose the greatest problem for Dante?

I think they are the first representations of a motif in the story, which is the sin. He recognizes the she-wolf as the deadliest, and when he meets Vergil, he asks for advice on how to shake her away.

What is the role of classical literature and culture in the Inferno?  Why does Dante have a pagan, Vergil, guide him through Hell, and not a Christian, like St. Paul or St. Augustine (who certainly has actual experience with many of the sins described in the poem)?

That is why this epic defies the other epics we have seen. There is no divine guide for Dante like the Greek gods and Odysseus. Maybe that is why the title is referred as the Divine Comedy. It stars pagan people making a journey through hell, without any type of spiritual guide. 

Who are the women discussed in Canto 2?  What is their historical or symbolic significance?  What is their function in the poem?

The Virgin Mary and Beatrice. Their function in the poem is simple. Beatrice is the engine that keeps Dante alive, while the Virgin Mary is the spiritual manifestation of women that will appear in the book. 

The "neutral angels" (Canto 3) are the product of Dante's poetic imagination, not orthodox Christian theology.  Why do you think he created them?

He wanted to provide a character that was not ultimately bound to hell because they did not support any side. This way Dante can provide an examplo to non-belivers that they wil be sent to hell but that they will not be fully punished. 

Compare Dante's Underworld to Vergil's Underworld.  How is Dante's Charon different from Vergil's Charon in Aeneid 6?

In Dante´s, Charon is a far more precautious character. He is very keen upon not letting Dante cross the Acheron until Vergil tells him that they have a divine mission to carry. 

What kind of souls are in Limbo? (Canto 4) What is their defect (difetto)?

Souls that were good but died before Christianity was settled or that they never baptized

Why do you think Dante makes lust a lesser sin than gluttony?  (NB: the sins encountered at the top of the slope are less horrible or offensive than the ones at the bottom, and the ones in between are arranged in a corresponding hierarchy from one to the other.)

Because Dante himself feels a little sympathy towards the lustful. He explains that they are damned by love and he even talks to Francesca. He judges that lust depends upon love and that gluttony only depends on yourself

Paolo and Francesca (Canto 5) are some of the most attractive sinners in Hell.  What does Dante do, in a very short space, to make them real to us?  Why do you think he makes them so sympathetic (they are, after all, sinners)?

Dante deposits a very human and relatable scenario between those two lovers. They fall hopelessly in love and there is nothing for them to do. When Francesca husband kills both, Dante even faints from pity and that feeling is infatuated to the reader. 

What is the political theme of Canto 6?  How does it relate to Dante's own political experiences?

Dante talks with the man from Florence about the political situation that they are living nowadays. Dante is dissapointed about the outcome that political situations have brought to his life. 

Look up "epicurean" in a good dictionary.  What kind of sin is this?

A pleasure sin, adultery or lust. 

Describe the relationship between Farinata and Cavalcante.  What do you learn about Florentine politics from the exchange between Farinata and Dante?

Dante and Farinata have opposite political ideals, that is very clear. We can see that Farinata is a supporter of the system that reigned in that time and that Dante was somehow living uncomofrotably in his city. Farinata tells him that he will be ordered to leave Florence when the time comes. Dante does not understand this, but then realizes that the persons from Hell can see the remote future. 

Why are the Violent against Themselves (suicides) punished the way they are?  Remember that in Dante's system the sin itself is a form of punishment.

The punishment is horrible for the suicidal people, because of the way they treated their body while they lived. On the day of judgement they will be able to return to their bodies but they will be suspended in the tree branches and will never be able to move again. Dante deeply regrets suicidal people because they are wasting the gift of a healthy body. Having that sin is unspeakable. 

Does Pier della Vigne use language in a way that seems peculiar to you?  What does his manner of speaking tell you about him as a person?

Yes, he uses loads of literary figures and he never identifies himself as a speaker. He is a very studied man that reveals who he is when he gives the reader a monologue.

How is Dante's Ulysses different from Homer's Odysseus?

Dante never read the Odyssey, so he had a different perspective about Odysseus. He kind of judges him for leaving his son and wife. In the Odyssey, the main character is described as a very intelligent man, a virtuous leader, and with great physical strength.

Guido da Montefeltro is guilty of the same sin as Ulysses--but how is he a different kind of person?
They both had to make war in order to mantain peace, with the difference that Ulysses wanted to go home immediately.