Over the course of The Inferno, Dante visits every circle of Hell and meets sinners undergoing ironic punishments. The souls there fall into three worsening groups: the incontinent, or people who had a disordered relationship to earthly goods like sex, food, and money the violent and worst of all, the fraudulent. Hell, he learns, is funnel-shaped-a tightening pit of concentric circles. Virgil guides Dante into Hell, where Dante is forced to face his own sins in the guise of damned souls. Instead, they will have to make a long pilgrimage through Hell itself.

Dante’s dead beloved Beatrice has sent Virgil to rescue Dante, but they will not be able to get past the beasts and climb the mountain directly. He is about to give up hope when he encounters a ghost: the spirit of his great poetic hero Virgil. He desperately wishes to ascend a beautiful mountain, but is blocked by three threatening wild beasts. Midway through life, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri finds himself lost and terrified in a dark wood. Lines quoted outside the Summary section are marked with both canto and line numbers: (2.31-33).

Note as well that line numbering restarts at 1 at the beginning of each canto. Please note that quotations are marked here by line numbers rather than page numbers, so you will be able to use this guide with other translations. This guide refers to the 2003 Oxford University Press edition, translated by Robert M.

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