PURGATORIO, Episode 127. The Shocking News That The Soul Is A Little Girl: PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, Lines 85 - 96

Marco of Lombardy continues his discourse on free will, deep in the pitch-black smoke of the third terrace of Purgatory where the angry penitents confront their sin.

His discussion takes a wild turn: a developmental hypothesis of the soul as a little girl, a scheme that may or may not nix original sin from Christian theology.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this complicated passage at almost the very heart of COMEDY.

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

[01:38] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, lines 85 - 96. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please scroll down this page.

[04:04] A passage from Dante's CONVIVIO that is the basis for some of this passage in COMEDY (CONVIVIO, Book IV, chapter xii, lines 14 - 17.)

[10:37] Dante's developmental hypothesis about the soul.

[15:35] Dante's understanding of the soul as a little girl, to confirm the heteronormative desire that is the basis of creation/being.

[20:02] Answers to whether Dante jettisons the notion of original sin: 1) yes, 2) no, 3) only here, or 4) Dante's doesn't but Marco does.

[26:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVI, lines 85 - 96.

My English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XVI, Lines 85 – 96

“From the hand of him who looks adoringly at it

Before it is [and] in the guise of a little girl

Who weeps and laughs in quick succession,

“An innocent soul comes forth. She knows nothing

Except that, pushed on by a happy maker,

She eagerly turns toward whatever gives her delight.

“At first, she savors the taste of a little something good.

She’s tantalized by it and runs toward it,

If she’s not guided or reined in by love.

“Thus, laws had to be convened as a rein.

What’s more, a leader had to be convened who could discern

At least a tower of the one true city.”