Inferno 13

Study Guide Questions for Canto Thirteen

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Despair

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. How would you describe the scenery of this new area Dante and Virgil have come to?

2. What kind of mythological creatures dwell there?

3. What happened when Dante snapped a twig off of one of the trees?

4. What was promised to the soul in exchange for his story?

5. Who had this soul been in life and what caused him to take his own life?

6. What did the soul say would be the case concerning the bodies of those who took their own lives after the yet future resurrection and judgment?

7. What interrupted Virgil’s conversation with the soul?

8. What did the second soul say his “city changed its patron” from and to?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why might it be fitting to the sin of suicide that these souls were turned into the state in which Dante found them?

2. What did Virgil mean when he told the soul “I made him [Dante] do what I myself regret?”

3. The soul said, “I was the guardian of Frederick’s heart, the Emperor’s trusted man who held the keys, locking, unlocking with so soft an art I stole most of the other courtiers from his secrets.” What did he mean by this?

4. Why do you think Dante felt particular pity for this soul when with others he has withheld that same sentiment?

5. Why will the souls there never resume their bodies like the others in Hell will?

6. Speaking of the city of Florence, what was meant by saying “Mars’ art will ever make her grieve?”

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Is it ever permissible to take one’s own life? If so, explain why and under what circumstances such an action would be justified. If not, why not? Be sure to make proper distinctions between killing oneself versus sacrificing oneself for others.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. How does Exodus 20:13 affect the question of suicide?

2. 2 Samuel 17 tells us of an episode in history where Absalom, King David’s son, is trying to overthrow his father. Why do you think Ahithophel killed himself? What should we learn from this story?

3. Read Matthew 27:3-10. Why do you think Judas took his own life? Do you consider this an act of repentance? Why or why not?