PURGATORIO, Episode 194. A Read-Through Of PURGATORIO, Cantos XXV - XXVII

Virgil, Statius, and our pilgrim, Dante, head up to the seventh and final terrace of Mount Purgatory.

During the climb, Statius engages in a complicated discourse on embryology (at least as understood in Dante's medieval learning).

Then we find ourselves standing before a wall of flames with the lustful penitents walking, singing, and shouting as they burn. We discover there are two types of lustful penitents, then our pilgrim and his two guides have to step into that fire.

It's the first time our pilgrim has felt bodily pain from any of the terrors of hell or the penances of the mountain. He comes out on the other side and Virgil declares that our pilgrim is now his own guide, no longer in need of Virgil at all.

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[01:35] My rough English translation of the three cantos: PURGATORIO, Cantos XXV - XXVII. No translation here—just sit back and listen to the story as it unfolds.