Dante and Virgil begin their exit from the terrace of pride on Mount Purgtory. To do so, they must encounter and angel who implicitly calls back Lucifer (or Satan) into the text yet who welcomes them on their way up the less-steep ascent.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Virgil reassert this role as the guide and see another of the epic angels in Purgatory.

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

[02:22] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:47] Virgil returns to being Virgil: a guide to the afterlife who quote himself.

[08:08] Virgil and the angel both seem to set the plot in motion again.

[11:19] Virgil seems more interested in what's ahead and less interested in the reliefs and carvings. In fact, he seems to mistake the lesson from those carvings: Some days, like Trajan's, happen again and again in an eternal art form.

[14:08] The strength of COMEDY is that the complex always resolves into the simple.

[16:17] Irony: Virgil's "simple" ethic contains a Dantean neologism.

[17:20] The beautiful angel contains an implicit and perhaps redemptive reference to Lucifer (or Satan).

[21:11] Who speaks the condemnation against humanity? The angel or Dante the poet?

[25:54] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XII, Lines 73 – 99

We had already done more of the mountain’s circle

And the sun had quickened along its path

More than my spirit, absorbed in my thoughts, had reckoned,

 

When the one, who always looks intently out in front

As he walks along, began by saying, “Lift up your head!

This is not the moment for going along all hunched over!

 

“Look at that angel who’s getting ready

To make his way toward us. See how the sixth handmaid

Returns from her service to the day.

 

“Make your face and bearing beautiful with reverence,

So that his desire will be to send us on up.

Think how this day will never dawn again!”

 

I was well acquainted with his admonitions

About not wasting time; so when it came to all this stuff,

His words weren’t obscure for me.

 

The beautiful creature came toward us.

He was clothed in white. And in his face there seemed to be

The twinklings of the morning star.

 

He opened his arms, then he spread his wings,

And he said, “Come, the steps are right at hand.

From here, the climb’s a cinch.

 

“There aren’t many who give an answer to this invitation.

O human race, you’re born to soar so high—

Why then do you topple over at a slightest breeze?”

 

He brought us to the spot where the rock was split.

He then batted my forehead with his wings

And promised me that the way up was safe.