PURGATORIO, Episode 78: The Moral Crux Of Justice And Compassion In The Last Intaglio: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 70 - 93

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Dante goes on to find the last intaglio or relief carving in the austere, too-steep, marble wall of the first terrace of Purgatory. Here, he finds a scene between the Roman emperor Trajan and a sorrowing mother who demands justice.

Demands it so much, in fact, that she and Trajan have a dramatized conversation, although they're carved into marble. Eagles soar. Knights tramp the ground. What's Dante up to?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante the poet push the claims of realism to the breaking point to end at the moral crux of all of PURGATORIO: How do you balance justice and compassion?

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

[01:14] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[03:07] The first major players in the passage: the Roman emperor Trajan and the widow at his horse's bridle.

[05:19] The third major player in the passage: Pope Gregory the Great.

[07:21] Trajan is named outright, although other reliefs use periphrastic phrasing to identify the characters in the marble. Is that difference important?

[10:30] The passage picks up and alters the vendetta thematics from INFERNO.

[13:01] The woman at Trajan's horse's bridle seems a middle ground between the submissive Virgin Mary and the haughty Michal: an actionable humility.

 [15:56] An interpretive question about the difference between history and story (or "istoria" and "storiata," to use Dante's words).

[18:53] Mimetic (realistic) art relies on imagined details to bolster and enhance the realism claims.

[23:45] The moral crux of Purgatory is the balance between justice and compassion.

[25:36] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto X, Lines 70 – 93

I moved on a few steps from where I stood

To take a close look at another bit of history. I saw it

Gleaming white beyond Michal.

Here was told a story of the high glory

About the Roman prince whose great valor

Pushed Gregory to his tremendous victory.

I’m talking about the emperor Trajan

And the poor widow who stood at his bridle.

She was the embodiment of weeping and sorrow.

The ground beneath them seemed to have been trodden down

By the crowd of knights. In the air, even the golden eagles

Seemed to move about on the wind.

In the middle of all of that, a miserable woman

Seemed to say, “My lord, make a vendetta

For my son who was murdered. He’s the reason I’m stuck in grief.”

And he replied to her, “Hang tight for now

Until I get back.” And like a person

Whose grief is overwhelming, she [said],

“My lord, what if you don’t come back?” And he: “The one who will stand in my place

Will do it.” And she: “What’s the purpose of someone else’s goodness

If you’ve already forgotten it yourself?”

Then he [said]: “Now comfort yourself, for it appears

I have to fulfill my obligation to you before I can move on from here.

Justice wills it so and compassion reins me in.”