Our pilgrim Dante falls asleep on the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory, just as he’s been passed by the racing slothful. The night air is chilly and his dream is chillier: a deformed woman made beautiful by our pilgrim’s act of observing her.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, take on the last bit of the climb out of the first terrace of Purgatory proper, the terrace of pride. PURGATORIO continues to compellingly difficult and enjoyable because they exit the terrace with two interesting and unexpected moments: Virgil smiles and God’s writing is erased.
Read MoreOn Purgatory’s terrace of pride, Dante encounters Oderisi, an artist, a manuscript illuminator, who utters some of the most famous lines in PURGATORIO. Oderisi discusses the vagaries of artistic fame and finds himself both forgotten and yet still prideful . . . about as Dante, our poet, who seems to vaunt his fame high in the passage but may actually be bringing himself pretty low.
Read More