PURGATORIO, Episode 71. Three Steps Up To The Gate And Into An Interpretive Quagmire: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 94 - 105

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We've made it to the steps into Purgatory. In other words, we've made it to an interpretive quagmire. Seven hundred years of scholarship sit on these steps. But maybe there's a way we can clear off the dons and see the steps in a new way.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these important twelve lines that lead us right up to the angel sitting at the gate of Purgatory.

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

[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please scroll down this page.

[03:01] Dante's classical dream and Virgil's Christian explanation, continued.

[09:03] The aesthetic beauty of the steps into Purgatory.

[11:20] Two small bits to notice: "we came on from there" and the angel's position above the steps themselves.

[15:51] The traditional, theological interpretation of the allegory of the three steps.

[20:55] But the larger question: Why is the entrance to Purgatory an interpretive riddle?

[23:11] The entrance to hell was a writerly act of words over the gate; the entrance to Purgatory is a speech act from the angel (which is still a writerly act because we read it on the page).

[26:22] Confession is also a speech act.

[27:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto IX, Lines 94 – 105

We came on from there. The first step

Was made out of white marble, so polished and brilliant

That I could see myself in it exactly as I appeared.

The second was darker than aubergine,

Made of a rough, dry, crumbly stone,

Cracked lengthwise and widthwise.

The third, which set its massive weight at the top,

Looked to me like porphyry. It was ignited with color,

Like blood that spills from a vein.

Both of the feet of the angel of God were set on this step,

Although he was seated on the threshold,

Which seemed to be made of diamonds.