Pardon Me, Satan Trivia Quiz

Answer: Limbo

Dante describes Limbo, the First Circle, as the home for those who may have lived virtuous lives but failed to accept Christ and are therefore damned to reside in a lesser form of Heaven. Limbo is described as having green fields and a castle with seven gates - each gate representing one of the seven virtues.

In some quarters it is said to contain similarities to the Ancient Greek underworld of Asphodel Meadows, where there are fertile fields with flowers, but the residents are witless and without futures.

Answer: Lust

Dante dictates that the Second Circle is for those overcome with "appetites that sway their reason". Their punishment in this realm is to be tossed around in darkness by violent storms for eternity, a symbol of the aimlessness of their sins. Among the luminaries that Dante encounters at this level are Cleopatra and Helen of Troy.

Answer: Gluttony

In the Third Circle gluttony does not relate merely to an overindulgence of food and drink, but also to other addictions and sensual pleasures that gradually lead to degradation and self-indulgence. The residents are cast into a pit of vile slush, made of shadows and putrid water poured forth by a never-ending rainstorm.

Here the residents cannot see their neighbours nor can they hear them, so that the circle can reflect the selfish lives they indulged in while on Earth.

Answer: Greed

The avaricious, the miserly, the hoarders and the wasters are all condemned to the Fourth Circle. Here the sinners have lost their individuality and are forced into jousting contests, with the weapons being massive weights that they push with their chests while yelling out, "Why do you hoard? Why do you squander?" The artist Gustave Dore, in his work, depicted these weights as giant money bags.

Answer: Anger

The River Styx dominates the Fifth Circle, and upon its waters the wrathful are left naked, fighting each other with furious anger and tearing at each other with their teeth. Meanwhile the slothful and the sullen, those that were cruel and vindictive in life, are left below the surface of the Styx, gurgling in black mud as they try to sing a doleful hymn with words that they cannot speak.

Answer: Heresy

The Sixth Circle holds the City of Dis, Satan's wretched city. Iron walls surround a wide plain that is littered with burning tombs. Inside these tombs are the heretics such as the Epicureans who claim that the soul also passes when the body does. In this realm the heretics are kept company by the three Infernal Furies whom Dante calls the "handmaids of the Queen of everlasting lamentation".

Answer: Violence - Outer Ring

The Seventh Circle houses the violent. The Outer Ring is dominated by the river Phlegethon, full of boiling blood and a horrendous stench. Dumped into this cauldron are the murderers, the assassins, tyrants, plunderers and the war-mongers, each wallowing at the depths that warrant their sin. Centaurs patrol this river shooting arrows at any that try to escape or move to a higher station.

Answer: Violence - Middle Ring

In the Middle Ring of the Seventh Circle are those that have committed violence upon themselves, the suicides and the profligates. The suicides are turned into a forest of small stunted trees complete with gnarled branches and bearing poisoned fruit. Here they are fed upon by Harpies, creatures that look like birds but have the faces of humans.

The profligates, those that have destroyed their means of survival, also live here; they are endlessly pursued and mauled by packs of vicious dogs.

Answer: Violence - Inner Ring

Within the Inner Ring of the Seventh Circle is a desert of scorching sand that is home to those that have committed violence against God or nature. The blasphemers lie naked on the sand, the usurers (shylocks, loan-sharks) sit on the sand and the sodomites wander in groups while, all the while, a rain of fire flakes descend upon them to burn their skin.

Answer: Treachery

The deepest hole in Hell is the Ninth Circle. Here resides Satan (Lucifer) and the treacherous, those who have betrayed God, their country, their families and their benefactors. They sit in the frozen waters of despair that is the river Cocytus, only their faces are out but their eyes and mouths have been frozen shut.