60 Fun Facts About Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy is divided into three parts. Which is the middle one?

Allegorically the three parts trace the soul's rejection of sin, the penitent Christian life and the ascent to God.

Roughly when was the Divine Comedy written?

Dante finished it shortly before his death in September 1321.

In which language, rather than Latin, did Dante write the Divine Comedy?

The poem helped establish that dialect as standard Italian; Dante is called the father of the Italian language.

Who first attached the adjective 'Divine' to Dante's Comedy, in a treatise written in the 1350s?

Dante simply called it Comedìa; the first printed edition to put 'Divina Comedia' on the title page was Dolce's of 1555.

How many lines does the Divine Comedy contain?

They are split into three cantiche of 33 cantos each, plus an introductory canto, for 100 in total.

What is the name of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme (ABA BCB CDC) Dante used?

Each line has eleven syllables, so a tercet has 33 syllables, matching the 33 cantos per cantica.

What does Virgil represent allegorically as Dante's guide through Hell and most of Purgatory?

Beatrice stands for divine revelation, theology and grace; his Aeneid is praised in language Dante otherwise reserves for Scripture.

Which Cistercian abbot guides Dante through the final three cantos of Paradiso?

He represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary, and prays to the Virgin on Dante's behalf.

In which year is the journey of the Divine Comedy set?

It runs from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter, when Dante was 35, 'halfway along our life's path'.

What is the last word of each of the three cantiche?

Dante and Virgil climb out of Hell 'to see the stars again' at the end of Inferno.

Which three beasts block Dante's path in the dark wood at the start of the poem?

They are read as three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent and the malicious, which also structure Hell.

What is the term for the symbolic poetic justice by which each sin in the Inferno is punished?

Fortune-tellers, for instance, walk with their heads twisted backwards because they tried to see ahead in life.

Which phrase ends the inscription on the gate of Hell in Canto III?

The Italian is 'Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate'.

Which ferryman carries souls across the Acheron and initially refuses Dante because he is alive?

Virgil silences him with 'It is so willed there where is power to do that which is willed'; Dante faints and wakes on the far side.

Which pope is implied to be the soul who made "the great refusal", seen among the neutrals in Hell's vestibule?

His abdication was seen as opening the door to Boniface VIII, whom Dante loathed.

In Limbo, which four poets welcome Dante as 'sixth in that high company' alongside Virgil?

Dante had no access to Homer's actual works; his classical models were Virgil, Ovid and Lucan.

How does the judge Minos assign each soul to its circle of Hell?

He combines the classical judge Minos with Rhadamanthus, interrogator of the underworld.

Which pair of lovers, killed by her husband, does Dante meet among the lustful in Canto V?

They fell in love reading of Lancelot and Guinevere; Francesca calls the book their 'Galeotto', their go-between.

Which three-headed beast guards the gluttons in the third circle, and how does Virgil get past it?

The gluttons wallow in putrid slush under ceaseless icy rain; the Florentine Ciacco, 'hog', predicts Dante's exile here.

Which winged monster of fraud carries Dante and Virgil down the great cliff into the Eighth Circle?

Dante gives him a scorpion's tail, hairy arms, a gaudy reptile body and 'the face of a just and honest man'.

What is the name of the Eighth Circle, a funnel of ten concentric ditches for the fraudulent?

The name means 'evil ditches'; each ditch, or bolgia, holds a different kind of fraud, from seducers to falsifiers.

Which pope, planted head-first among the simoniacs, mistakes Dante for Boniface VIII arriving early?

Boniface will take his place in the stone tube in 1303, and be replaced in turn by Clement V, who moved the papacy to Avignon.

Which hero, sharing a flame with Diomedes, tells Dante of a final voyage past the Pillars of Hercules?

His crew drown within sight of Mount Purgatory, an emblem of rhetoric without wisdom.

Which count is found gnawing the skull of Archbishop Ruggieri, who starved him in a tower?

His story in Canto XXXIII has been called the most pathetic and dramatic passage of the Inferno.

What is the Ninth Circle of Hell, home of the traitors?

Its four rounds are named for Cain, Antenor, Ptolemy and Judas.

Which unchained giant lowers Dante and Virgil in his palm to the bottom of Hell?

Nimrod, builder of Babel, babbles nonsense nearby, and Ephialtes has his arms chained.

Which fourth round of Cocytus, with sinners fully encased in ice, is named for Judas Iscariot?

It holds traitors to their lords and benefactors.

Which river of boiling blood punishes murderers and tyrants in the Seventh Circle, patrolled by centaurs?

The centaur Nessus points out Alexander the Great and Ezzelino da Romano before ferrying the poets across.

Which beloved teacher of Dante's does he meet, to his surprise, among the sodomites on the burning sand?

Dante tells him 'you taught me how man makes himself eternal', the highest tribute paid to any sinner in Hell.

Into what are the souls of suicides transformed in the second ring of the Seventh Circle?

Harpies feed on them, and they can speak only when broken and bleeding; they alone will not regain their bodies at the Last Judgement.

Where does Dante locate Mount Purgatory?

It is the only land in that hemisphere, thrown up by the rock displaced when Satan's fall carved out Hell beneath Jerusalem.

What crowns the summit of Mount Purgatory?

With Ante-Purgatory below and the Garden of Eden on top, the 9+1 pattern of the other realms is repeated.

Which pagan Roman stands guard at the shore of Purgatory?

His presence outside Hell has puzzled commentators; Trajan is another pagan found outside Limbo.

What does the angel at Peter's Gate carve seven times on Dante's forehead with his sword?

Each P, for peccatum, is erased by an angel's wing as Dante leaves a terrace, and the climb grows easier.

Which Roman poet, author of the Thebaid, joins Dante and Virgil after an earthquake marks his release?

Dante presents him, without historical basis, as a secret Christian who was converted by reading Virgil.

Which fellow Mantuan troubadour bows to Virgil in Ante-Purgatory?

His lover Cunizza da Romano turns up in Heaven, while her brother Ezzelino boils in Hell.

Which phrase, applied to Dante's early poetry by Bonagiunta on the terrace of gluttony, named a poetic movement?

The 'sweet new style' described the technique of Dante's La Vita Nuova.

Which murdered woman of Siena tells Dante 'Siena made me, Maremma unmade me'?

She died without last rites, killed by her husband Nello della Pietra.

On what day of the week and feast do Dante and Virgil arrive at the shore of Purgatory?

It is 6 am there and 6 pm in Jerusalem, the antipodal point; the arriving souls sing 'In exitu Israel de Aegypto'.

Which are the nine spheres of Dante's Heaven, in order from the lowest?

Above them all lies the Empyrean, containing the essence of God, completing the ten.

In which sphere of Heaven does Dante meet Emperor Justinian?

His personality remains but his earthly rank no longer counts in Heaven.

Which crusader ancestor of Dante's foretells his exile and charges him to write what he has seen?

He was Dante's great-great-grandfather and the earliest relative the poet could name.

Into what shape do the souls of the just rulers on Jupiter finally arrange themselves?

They first spell out the Latin for 'Love justice, ye that judge the earth', and the last M becomes the eagle.

Which two pagans astonish Dante by appearing among the just rulers in Heaven?

Legend held that Trajan was converted after death; Ripheus was saved by predestination.

Which three apostles examine Dante on faith, hope and love in the sphere of the Fixed Stars?

Peter then denounces Boniface VIII and declares the papal seat empty in his eyes.

Under which constellation, from which he looks back on the seven spheres, does Dante say he was born?

The clue helps date his birth to May or June 1265.

What enormous flower, its petals the enthroned souls of the faithful, does Dante see in the Empyrean?

Angels fly around it like bees, distributing peace and love; Mary sits at its head with Eve directly beneath.

Where and when was the first printed edition of the Comedy produced?

The original press is displayed in the Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno.

Which political faction was Dante part of when he was exiled from Florence in 1302?

Charles of Valois entered the city at the request of Boniface VIII, who backed the Blacks; the exile lasted the rest of Dante's life.

In which city did Dante die in September 1321, of malaria caught on a diplomatic mission to Venice?

Its prince, Guido II da Polenta, had invited him there in 1318; Florence's council did not rescind his death sentence until 2008.

Which American poet was the Divine Comedy's first translator in the United States?

William Blake, who illustrated it, helped 'rediscover' the poem for the English-speaking world.

Which Spanish priest argued in 1919 that the Divine Comedy parallels Islamic accounts of Muhammad's night journey?

The Kitab al Miraj had been translated into Latin around 1264, possibly reaching Dante through his mentor.

What was Dante's likely baptismal name?

Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are the 'tre corone', the three crowns of Italian literature.

Which boatman ferries Dante and Virgil across the Styx in Canto VIII of Inferno?

On the crossing they are accosted by Filippo Argenti, a Black Guelph of the Adimari family whom Dante treats with contempt.

Which Ghibelline leader does Dante meet in a flaming tomb among the heretics of the Sixth Circle?

After Montaperti in 1260 he had argued against razing Florence; the tombs hold Epicureans who said the soul dies with the body.

Which troubadour carries his own severed head like a lantern among the sowers of discord?

He is punished for setting Henry the Young King against his father Henry II; his punishment splits head from body.

What are the demons called that guard the boiling pitch of the corrupt politicians in the Eighth Circle?

The name means 'Evil Claws'; they tear apart any barrator caught above the surface with claws and grappling hooks.

Which blasphemer, struck by Jove's thunderbolt at Thebes, lies defiant on Hell's burning sand?

One of the Seven against Thebes, he keeps cursing the god even in Hell, and the fiery rain falls on him unheeded.

Which musician friend does Dante recognise among the newly arrived souls at the shore of Purgatory?

In Canto II Casella sings one of Dante's own poems until Cato scolds the souls for lingering.

Atop Mount Purgatory, Dante drinks from which river to have his good memories restored?

Immersion in Lethe had already erased the memory of sin; the second river readies him for the ascent to Heaven.