Dante’s inferno
2. Address the following questions and support your answers with a specific example/passage from the reading:
a) The Virgin Mary, St. Lucia, and Dante’s beloved Beatrice form a shadow Trinity of sorts (just as the 3 beasts on the hill form a Trinitarian “Axis of Evil”). We shortly meet their fallen sisters in the Inferno. How do Dante’s categories of women compare with those of Virgil and Augustine?
b) When Dante enters Hell proper, through the famously inscribed gate, how do you make sense of the claim that Hell was built by “Justice,” “Wisdom,” and “Love”? c) Why do Charon and Minos among several others try to turn Dante and Virgil away?