PURGATORIO, Episode 70. The Forbidding Angel At The Gate: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 79 - 93

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Dante had seemed so full of confidence when he learned that his dream was but a dream and that in fact Lucy had carried him to the gate of Purgatory.

But that was before he faced the angel guardian at the gate, whose forbidding presence seems to silence the pilgrim.

Fortunately, Virgil is ever ready to answer.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue to watch the interplay among our pilgrim Dante, his classical guide, and the Christian afterlife ahead of him.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:28] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93. If you'd like to continue the conversation, do so in the comment section below.

[04:12] The angel at Purgatory's gate is so threatening that he silences the pilgrim Dante.

[06:37] The angel is a blocking figure, reminiscent of the Cherubim placed at the Garden of Eden yet he also hearkens to medieval symbolism for St. Paul.

[08:51] This is the first angel to speak in COMEDY! We begin to understand Dante's notion of divine transcendence.

[13:13] The angel's questions have answers but seem quite forbidding, like the questions of other gatekeepers in COMEDY.

[16:22] Virgil is every ready to give a reply to the gatekeepers of COMEDY.

[19:03] The angel calls the stairs "ours." Whose?

[20:35] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 79 – 93

As my eyes opened wider to make him out more clearly,

I saw that he was seated above the upper step.

His face was so bright that I couldn’t bear to look at it.

He had an unsheathed sword in his hand.

It reflected his light rays back to us,

So much so that I turned my eyes away from him in vain.

“Speak from where you are. What is it you want?”

He began to say. “Where is your escort?

Take care that your coming up here doesn’t lead to your grief.”

“A lady from heaven,” my master replied to him,

“Who is well acquainted with such things just now said to us,

‘Go on that way—just ahead is the gate.’”

“Even so, may she hasten your steps toward what is good,”

Continued the keeper of the gate.

“Come forward, then, to these stairs of ours.”