Super Dante's Circles of the Inferno Quiz

Answer: First (Limbo)

Caesar makes it into the circle devoted to ranks of "virtuous pagans" who never accepted Christ. Julius was a fairly forgiving guy in life, and the fact that he was betrayed by the people he forgave was enough, in Dante's eyes, to get him into the best part of Hell. Dante's guide, the poet Virgil, is also a denizen of the First Circle, along with Aristotle and Lucius Junius Brutus.

Answer: Sorcerers/ false prophets

Sorcerers and false prophets had their heads on backwards because they never looked forward in life. They are trapped within the Eighth Circle (Fraud), along with those who are guilty of the sin of Simony (Selling of positions in the Church), flatterers, panderers, and seducers.

This is the most complicated Circle of Hell, and Dante sees some of the most controversial figures in the poem here (such as several Popes, and the Prophet Muhammed).

Answer: Suicide

If you voluntarily gave up your body on Earth, you get turned into a plant in Hell. The forest made up of those who committed suicide is in the Seventh Circle (Violence) because they did violence against themselves. On Judgement Day, when all the dead are supposed to get their bodies resurrected, the suicidal will instead have their dead bodies dropped in the thorns of their present, plant forms. Dante remains unaware that he is looking at people until he breaks a branch, and gets yelled at by the bleeding soul.

Answer: Fourth (Greed)

Some artists depict the punishment as pushing massive sacks of gold, the things the sinners wasted their lives pursuing. Dante sees the avaricious smashing into each other with their great weights, and afterwards crying out the question "Why do you hoard?" They seem to lack self-awareness, each blaming the other for their greediness.

Answer: They lie blind and ignorant in the rain

The metaphor is that they pursued their gluttony so much that they were oblivious to the things which were truly important. Not as gruesome as the punishments in the Hellraiser movies. Dante speaks to a soul named Ciacco (Hog) about the future of Florence before moving on. Dante has sympathy for the damned soul, and learns a little about the future ... especially interesting since Dante didn't survive in real life to see Ciacco's prediction come true.

Answer: Seventh (Violence)

Alexander is condemned to be boiled in blood for the violence he committed in life. Oddly enough, he doesn't get the same treatment as Caesar, maybe because Caesar and Dante were both Italians. Throughout the poem, Dante takes license with the punishments (or rewards, in Purgatory and Paradise) he gives to famous figures.

Answer: Cleopatra, Achilles, and Helen of Troy

A lot of others could probably have made it in here, but Dante specifically listed these three. For the lustful sinners who committed Sodomy, they end up condemned even deeper in Hell, in Circle Seven (Violence). The Second Circle seems to be especially for those sinners who were overcome by passion in life, to the point that love prompted them to disaster.

Answer: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

It's probably sound advice. Though it is possible to ascend through the divisions of Purgatory, Hell's structure seems pretty set. "Abandon all hope" is one of the most famous lines in all of literature, and the sculptor Auguste Rodin beautifully depicted the Gates of Hell in one of his most elaborate works.

Answer: Seventh (Violence)

The Minotaur guards the violent. Several other mythological monsters appear in the Inferno, including Medusa, the Furies, Cerberus, the Centaurs Chiron, Nessus, and Pholus, and Geryon. Most of these demons threaten Dante on his journey, but are repulsed by the actions of Virgil (or sometimes the intervention of angels).

Answer: Brutus and Cassius

The men who killed Julius Caesar, himself last seen in the First Circle of Hell. Dante shows a great deal of admiration for certain Pagans, even going so far as to put a few of them in Heaven or Purgatory later on. Still, it's telling that the betrayers of a great Roman earn an equal punishment with the betrayer of God's Son.