Dante’s Inferno
Journey through Circle Eight
GERYON: A winged beast from the from the waist up who looks like an honest man, but from the waist down is reptilian and sports a scorpion’s tale. He embodies the nature of fraud in the same way the Minotaur does violence.
“His face was innocent of every guile,
benign and just in feature and expression;
and under it his body was half reptile.
His two great paws were hairy to the armpits;
all his back and breast and both his flanks
were figured with bright knots and subtle circlets. . .
His tail twitched in the void beyond that lip,
thrashing, and twisting up the envenomed fork
which, like a scorpion’s stinger, armed the tip.”
The poets travel with Geryon – in counter-clockwise direction – to the edge of Malebolgia (evil ditches or pockets). It is formed of a descending series of ten bolgias, each punishing a separate type of deceit.
Bolgia 1 The Panderers and Seducers
1. Describe the punishment of the Panderers and Seducers.
2. Why is Jason in this bolgia of Hell?
Bolgia 2 The Flatterers
3. Describe the punishment of the Flatterers.
4. Why are the Flatterers immersed and covered in “shit”?
Bolgia 3 The Simoniacs
5. Explain the appropriate perversion of baptism in the punishment of those who bought and sold church offices.
6. Why does Dante merit a lengthy hug from Virgil?
7. Who is Simon Magus?
8. What is the association with the plural form of his surname?
Bolgia 4 The Fortune Tellers and Diviners
9. What inspires Dante’s pity in this bolgia?
10. What is Virgil’s reaction to Dante’s pity?
Bolgia 5 The Grafters
11. Describe the punishment of the Grafters?
12. Name ten of the Demons in this bolgia
13. Dante has been called “The Master of the Disgusting.” Quote two passages (Look at XVIII and XXVIII for examples.
Bolgia 6 The Hypocrites
14. NOTE another perversion of the circle. Describe and explain the appropriate garments the Hypocrites wear.
15. What perversion of the Atonement exists in this bolgia?
Bolgia 7 The Thieves
16. Describe the allegorical retribution of the Thieves.
Bolgia 8 The Evil Counselors
17. What parody of the Pentecost exists in bolgia eight?
18. Why is Ulysses punished here?
Bolgia 9 The Sowers of Discord
19. Many Muslim countries burn Dante in effigy for putting Mohammed here. Why is Mohammed’s sin discord and not heresy?
20. Describe his punishment.
Bolgia 10 The Falsifiers
21. Describe the punishment inflicted on the Alchemists
22. Evil Impersonators
23. Counterfeiters
24. False Witnesses
25. Why does Virgil yet again “raise his voice” to Dante?