Inferno 8

Study Guide Questions for Canto Eight

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

Arrogance, Doubt

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Dante see when they arrived “at the foot of the high tower?”

2. What did Phlegyas say as he approached Dante and Virgil?

3. What happened when the “spirit full of slime” attempted to grab the skiff?

4. What did Dante say he had a “hankering” to see?

5. As they approached the city of Dis, what did Dante see?

6. Who confronted Dante and Virgil as they approached the entrance of the city?

7. What occurred which made Dante believe he “never would return” from his dangerous trip?

8. What promise did Virgil make to Dante?

9. What did their “adversaries” do to try to keep Dante and Virgil from going further on their journey?

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

1. What seems to have been the purpose of the “signal” fires which Dante saw?

2. Why might Phlegyas have called Virgil a “traitor?”

3. Why did Virgil proclaim to Dante, “Blessed be she whose womb bore fruit in you?”

4. Why would there be a fortified city (i.e. Dis) between the fifth and sixth circle of Hell? What inference might be made from that fact?

5. What kind of “angels” would be residents of Dis and why might they be trying to impede Dante and Virgil’s progress?

6. What event in the past would have brought about the destruction of the “less secret gate whose locks and bars stand broken even now?”

7. What kind of being could pass “through all the rings [of Hell] without a guide?”

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

1. Dante said, “Teacher, I’ve got a hankering…to see them dunk that spirit in the swill.” To which Virgil replied, “such a desire is good to satisfy.” What are your thoughts about this exchange? Do you think it is ever appropriate to desire to see someone punished as Dante wants to see happen to Filippo Argeneti? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Matthew 16:13-20 and make a connection between this passage and our present reading in Canto Eight.