Cato is the gatekeeper of Purgatory. Does that mean he’s redeemed? And if he is, what does that do to the poem. What’s more, Marcia, Cato’s wife, is praying for him in Limbo. Can she? Or does Virgil not know what prayer is? Questions abound as we explore this mind-boggling passage a second time from Canto I of PURGATORIO, the second third of Dante’s COMEDY.

Virgil answers the lone old man with the first long speech of PURGATORIO. But that speech opens up so many questions. How does Virgil know who this old man is? How does Virgil know there are seven realms of Purgatory? Why does Virgil make Dante the pilgrim show such abject obeisance, more so than he will show to many of the saints in Paradise? Is Virgil still a reliable guide?

In the opening canto of PURGATORIO, Dante the pilgrim turns from the wonder of the stars to something even more astounding: a lone, old man standing next to him. The pilgrim doesn’t seem shocked. But we certainly will be. This lone old man will disrupt COMEDY, unsettle its readers, and change the laws of the afterlife. Quite a lot a solitary figure under a gorgeous predawn sky.

In the opening lines of PURGATORIO, we turn from the Dante the poet to Dante the pilgrim—and specifically to his wonder at the predawn sky and the regeneration it begins in him. But we also encounter some tough interpretive questions right up front: Who are the “first people” and what are these four stars the pilgrim sees? All in all, this passage moves from laughter to loss, the poles of the human experience.

Dante opens PURGATORIO with himself, with the poet, rather than with the pilgrim, his fictional alter ego (who gets the opening bits of INFERNO). Dante expresses his Christian hopes as well as his potentially heterodox theology on the human will. And he offers us a glimpse of both his hubris and his doubts with his third invocation to the muses in COMEDY.

We’ve begun our exploration of Dante’s mountain of Purgatory. A mountain in more than one way! As we stand on the shores, we’ll read the first two cantos in my English translation, then I’ll raise six initial, interpretive questions that we can answer over the course of breaking these cantos into smaller sections.

An introduction to PURGATORIO—not so much to the second portion of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY; more, an introduction to how we’re going to climb this beast of a mountain. Also, the five ways I initially read (that is, interpret) PURGATORIO—although I’ll bet they’ll change during our climb.

We’ve concluded our slow-walk across hell, the first third (or so) of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY. But there are many more ways you can deepen your understanding of INFERNO. Here are some suggestions for ways to come to terms with the poem beyond this podcast—all as we get ready to ascend Mount Purgatory.

We’ve finished our slow-walk through the first third (or so) of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY. Here are some final thoughts on INFERNO. No firm conclusions. Just further access points for you to consider to deepen your understanding and appreciation of the poem.

We finish off reading through INFERNO in my English translation, a celebration of our slow-walk through the first third of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY. We pass the treacherous souls, hear from the unforgettable Count Ugolino, and grab hold of Satan to make our way out of hell—all before coming out to see the gorgeous stars in the heavens once again.

We’re reading straight through INFERNO, the first third (or so) of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY (or “The Divine Comedy,” as some insist on calling it, although he never did). In this episode, we follow Dante the pilgrim and Virgil through the last pit of fraud, the one with the sickening falsifiers, then on down to the giants who line the final circle of Cocytus.

We’re reading straight through Dante’s INFERNO, the first third (or so) of his masterpiece COMEDY, as a celebration of our having slow-walked through the entire piece. Here, we’re at Cantos 26 - 28 of my English translation: the false counselors and the schismatics. These are two nasty pits of fraud. And they contain some of the most interesting characters in all of INFERNO.

Dante and Virgil continue on down through the pits of fraud, the eighth circle of hell in INFERNO. We’ve come to the pit of fraud. Ovid and Lucan don’t stand a chance against our poet!

To celebrate the finish of our slow-walk through INFERNO, the first third of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY, we’re reading straight through INFERNO without any interpretive blather or critical assessments. Here, we’re at Cantos 21 - 23: Dante and Virgil among the demons in the fraud’s fifth evil pouch of the barrators, then down with them into the sixth pouch of the lead-gold hypocrites.

As a celebration for finishing our slow-walk through INFERNO, the first third (or so) of Dante’s masterwork, COMEDY, we’re reading straight through the text in my English translation without any interpretive blather or commentary. In this episode, we’re in the first four evil pouches of fraud in the eighth circle of hell—that is, INFERNO, Cantos 18 - 20.

We’ve finished a passage-by-passage slow-walk through Dante’s INFERNO and now we’re enjoying it for what it was all along: a plot. That is, the story of a lost guy who gets an impressive if fallible guide to lead him across the known universe and to that elusive place called “home.” In this episode, INFERNO, Cantos 14 - 17, in my English translation.

Mark Scarbrough reads through INFERNO, Cantos 11 - 13, from his English translation without any commentary or interpretive blather, a reward for our slow-walk across the first third (or so) of Dante’s masterwork, COMEDY.

Having walked through Dante’s INFERNO passage by passage, we’re now reading it straight through in my English translation to see the work for what it is: a story, the narrative on one man’s walk across the known universe. Here, we’re at INFERNO, Cantos 8 - 10: across Styx, before the walls of Dis, through the gates of the city, up to, and then beyond the heretics.

A reading of INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7, not a series of interpretive knots, classical allusions, or meta-poetical games. Rather, a reading for what it is: a story. Or the story of one person’s walk across hell—and eventually, his known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for my translation of INFERNO, Cantos 4 - 7, with nothing more than the text itself.

We’ve walked through INFERNO point by point. We’ve discussed so many angles. We’ve tried to untie so many knots. But we’ve missed something: the narrative through-line. As a conclusion to the first canticle of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY, let’s read through INFERNO. Here’s the first part: Cantos 1 - 3 in my English translation.