PURGATORIO, Episode 200. The Flames And Abyss Of Lust: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 109 - 139

Dante, Statius, and Virgil arrive on the seventh terrace of Mount Purgatory filled with the flames of lust.

The pilgrim must make his precarious way between those burning fires and the abyss just to his right, a narrow path that may give us a clue to the poet's own fears of lust.

This passage is a grab-bag of ideas, hymns, references, and emotions.

Please support this podcast with a one-time donation or a very small monthly stipend:

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

[01:23] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 109 - 139. 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.

[03:55] Three curiosities: a double meaning at line 109, the flaming geography, and the parallels in INFERNO, Canto XXV.

[08:13] Three surprising moments in the passage: a bit of humor, a glancing reference to an Aristotelean mean, and a direction connection with our poet.

[12:21] A hymn for chastity and a reference to Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego from Daniel 3.

[16:56] Three examples of chastity . . . except the third seems smudged or inaccurate.

[23:08] Penance as a medieval medical remedy.

[24:19] PURGATORIO, the most human canto, about human development and art, all connected to nature.

[26:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 109 - 139.

And here’s my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 109 – 139:

With that, we’d already come to the mountain’s final turning.

Yet as we turned to the right,

We had to attend to other worries.

In that place, the embankment spits out blowing flames.

Where the cornice drops off, a blast of wind

Comes up from below and causes those flames to open a path along the edge.

That’s why, one by one, we had to pass along the drop-off side.

Yes, I was afraid of the fire on one side,

But I was also afraid of the long tumble down on the other side.

My guide said, “In this place

You have to keep a tight rein on your eyes

Because it would be easy to make a misstep here.”

“Summae Deus clementiae,” I then heard

Sung from inside that great burning.

I badly wanted to turn back.

I saw spirits walking in the flames.

I watched both them and my footsteps,

Dividing my sight between one and the other.

After this song had come to its end,

They all cried out, “Virum non cognosco.”

Then they started the song again, quieter this time.

When the song was finished, they next cried out, “Diana

Kept herself to the woods and pushed out Callisto,

Who had felt the poison barb of Venus.”

Then they returned to singing, calling on

Wives and husbands who were chaste,

Exactly as virtue and matrimony impose.

And I believe that they continued like this

The whole time the fire was burning them.

With these sorts of remedies and just this kind of a diet,

Our wounds will be healed at long last.