Inferno 2

Study Guide Questions for Canto Two

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

Doubt, Cowardice, Courage, Fear

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What function did the “dark air” serve for mankind?

2. According to Dante, “if we would speak the truth,” what would we say about why Aeneas laid the foundations for Rome?

3. What doubts did Dante express to Virgil in regard to undertaking this journey?

4. To what vice did Virgil attribute Dante’s doubt?

5. What did Virgil tell Dante to comfort and encourage him? 

6. What did Beatrice tell Virgil were “the only things that justly cause us fear?”

7. Through what chain of interactions did Dante’s need for help reach the ears of Virgil in Limbo?

8. How did Virgil’s story about how he received his mission affect Dante?

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

1. Why did Dante call upon the “Muses” for aid?

2. Why did Dante think he was “unfit” for the journey he had just agreed to take?

3. What did Virgil mean by comparing Dante’s cowardice to “shadows” which “fool the horse that shies away?”

4. What does it mean to ask “for the grace of a command?” How can a command be a grace?

5. Why did Beatrice (who is from Heaven) speak so favorably of and to Virgil (who is in Limbo)?

6. Why was Beatrice not afraid to leave Heaven and come down to speak with Virgil in Limbo?

7. Why did Dante’s aid go through a chain of different people before reaching Virgil? Why didn’t the first person to notice his need (the “Lady of Heaven”) simply go help Dante herself?

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

1. The text of this reading begins, “So the day wore away, and the dark air released the living souls that dwell on earth from all their labors.” We often think of the sun and light with a positive connotation whereas darkness and night often have a negative connotation. Why does darkness and night have such a bad reputation? In what ways might we think of nighttime and darkness as a blessing from God? How might this be especially true in a pre-industrial world before modern technology existed?

2. Dante experiences doubt about his fitness for the journey and Virgil attributes this to a kind of cowardice. What is the relationship between doubt and cowardice? Do you think knowledge can replace these vices with the virtue of courage? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read 1 John 4:7-21. How might we connect this passage of Scripture to the person of Beatrice in our story?

2. Read James 1:2-8 and make a connection between this passage and Dante’s present situation in Canto Two.