PURGATORIO, Episode 199. The Corporeal Afterlife Of The Immaterial Soul: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 79 - 108

Statius concludes his discourse on embryology by finally answering the pilgrim Dante's question about how souls can take on material attributes in the afterlife . . . and by gently correcting both Virgil's incomplete answer to the question in this canto and Virgil's larger explanation of the soul's journey after death in THE AENEID.

This passage is justifiably complicated. Dante's imaginative and intellectual powers are on full display. It's easy to be lost in the details but there are wonders afoot, including the idea that there may be an allegorical reading of the passage that concerns the afterlife of a work of art.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:49] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 79 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this episode, please scroll down this page.

[04:25] Statius fuses classical imagery (the fates) and Augustinian thought.

[10:02] The soul miraculously but of its own accord falls into the afterlife. Wait, what? And only now knows its path in the underworld?

[13:03] The formative power of the soul is intact after death.

[14:57] The afterlife soul is a fabrication of the air.

[16:52] Statius gently refines Virgil's unsatisfactory answers to the pilgrim Dante's question.

[18:28] The souls in the afterlife can enact their desires, just as they do in the world of the living.

[20:51] Statius also gently refines Virgil's discussion of souls in the afterlife in THE AENEID.

[24:24] Is this passage about the afterlife of poetry (or art), too?

[27:12] Rereading all of Statius's discourse: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 34 - 108.

My translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 79 – 108:

“When Lachesis finds she doesn’t have any more thread,

The soul then releases from the flesh, carrying with it

Powers that are both human and divine.

“The lower faculties now go silent;

But memory, intelligence and volition

Are more acute in their actions than at first.

“Without any delay, the soul miraculously falls

Of its own accord to one of the rivers.

There it first comes to know its path.

“As soon as its location circumscribes it there,

The formative power radiates around it

In the same way as when it formed the body’s living members.

“And as the air, when it’s well saturated,

Reflects the rays from another in itself

To adorn itself with various colors,

“So here the air in the soul’s vicinity

Is made into a shape because the soul seals

Its power [into the air] as it comes to rest.

“And then, like the flame that follows its fire

No matter how it changes about,

So the spirit follows along in this new shape.

“Since the invisible soul can now be seen in this way,

We call it a ‘shade.’ Moreover, it can form organs

For every sense, even as far as sight.

“This is how we speak and smile.

This is how we make our tears and even the sighs

That you may have heard on this mountain.

“Based on our desires and other affections,

Our shade changes its shape—

And this is the causality you wondered about.”