Dante the pilgrim and Virgil come to a breather on the first ledge around Mount Purgatory. But it’s hardly a rest. Dante, in shock, notices the sun’s rays on his “wrong” side. Virgil then explains the workings of this geocentric system, an explanation guaranteed to leave a modern reader baffled.
Read MoreDante and Virgil begin their climb up Mount Purgatory. It proves exhausting! The pilgrim Dante has to climb on his hands and knees. He’s gasping for breath. Why then do we always assume that the good is hard and the bad is easy? And if this climb is so rough, what’s in it for Virgil?
Read MoreManfred has finished his grand monologue and reached a series of conclusions, including those about the ultimate fate of even the excommunicated and the ways the living can aid the souls of the dead in the “good” part of the afterlife. These are shocking bits in a shocking passage—except Dante’s not done. The poet is about to show us that the ultimate conclusions from the passage aren’t those we suspected.
Read MoreManfred continues his tale—this time, about what happened to his body after his death at the hands of the French forces at Benevento in 1266. He also asks Dante the pilgrim to go back to his daughter, Constance, to pray to elevate his lowly position in Purgatory. Why does Dante the poet make up the story of Manfred’s lost body? Why do the prayers of the living aid the dead? And why is PURGATORIO, Canto III, so tightly structured?
Read MoreDante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, take up with a flock of sheeplike souls at the bottom of Mount Purgatory. Dante and Virgil are in fact in the lead when one of these humbled souls steps out to identify himself as Manfred, self-proclaimed King of Sicily and the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II. What follows is the second (after Cato) of the many surprises of the poet Dante’s PURGATORIO.
Read MoreDante and Virgil come across a shepherd-less flock of souls on the bottom rung of Mount Purgatory. They’re hesitant, many of them moving without knowing why. They’re living in the “quia,” the “what is,” the very thing Virgil encouraged humans to be content with, the very thing that brought him so much despair earlier in PURGATORIO, Canto III.
Read MoreVirgil seems way out of his league. And we’re only at the bottom of Mount Purgatory. He (and Dante) seem to scare some of the penitent souls at the very bottom of the mountain. Virgil resorts of an excess of flattery that may miss the mark. And he ends his speech with a strange, almost incomprehensible aphorism. Dante is up to strange games in his masterwork, COMEDY.
Read MoreVirgil seems to have lost the way. He’s even a little snarky about it. But Dante has a revelation. Souls ahead. Behold. And Dante’s revelation puts Virgil back on the right path as guide up Purgatory. Can PURGATORIO get any more ironic? You bet!
Read MoreDante has been shocked at his solitary shadow on Mount Purgatory. He turns to find Virgil still there—and seems to want comfort. Does Virgil give it? Virgil seems to launch into an answer about bodies and light, but then gets diverted into a digression that reveals his bitterness and regret. This passage is the essence of the tragedy of Virgil in Dante’s COMEDY.
Read MoreVirgil is running at a frenzied pace, but as he slows down, Dante the pilgrim can finally notice the giant mountain beside them. And Dante can also realize something dramatic: he casts a shadow. He’s in his body. And his corporeality leads him to a moment of profound alienation.
Read MorePurgatorio, Canto III opens with Virgil on the run. He’s clearly ashamed. But why? What has he done? What would it matter if Virgil ever does anything wrong, since he’s already damned? To answer these questions, Dante the poet offers a moment of emotional consolation, a plea for compassion. Does that answer work? In COMEDY, the resounding reply is “yes!”
Read MoreWe’ve encountered Cato (twice!). We’ve seen the souls arrive on the angel’s boat. We’ve heard Casella sing. And now everyone has scattered toward the mountain of Purgatory. So begins the climb in cantos 3 and 4, in which Virgil comes in for a drubbing, theological questions get muddied, and Dante offers one of the funniest scenes in all of COMEDY.
Read MoreAn interpolated episode in our walk with Dante across his masterwork, COMEDY: five Biblical passages that medieval theologians used to justify, codify, and elaborate the doctrine of Purgatory. This doctrine was brand-new in Dante’s day, codified into church theology only a few decades before Dante wrote COMEDY (and not fully codified into doctrine until long after Dante’s death).
Read MoreA comparison and contrast between the first two cantos of PURGATORIO to show their structure and relationship (as well as some interpretive issues)—then a vertical reading of INFERNO, Cantos I and II with PURGATORIO, Cantos I and II to show the overall developing architecture of Dante’s masterpiece, COMEDY.
Read MoreCato returns! He seems awfully mad. But at what? And at whom? These are harder questions that we might imagine. Dante the pilgrim certainly didn’t expect his return. Cato apparently didn’t either. And maybe the poet Dante didn’t expect it as well. So many interpretations, so many quandaries at the end of PURGATORIO, Canto II.
Read MoreDante wants something from Casella. He wants refreshment, relief. And he gets it in the form of his own poetry that Casella sings back to our pilgrim. He also may be partaking in a much older version of Purgatory as the “refrigerium,” as well as the historical nodes of Pope Boniface VIII’s Jubilee Year of 1300.
Read MoreDante hears some wild news from Casella on the shores of Purgatory: Ghosts can wander around the land of the living, souls can refuse an angel’s summons, and the pope’s plenary indulgences may not be as effective as the pontiff thinks they are. PURGATORIO gets weirder by the moment. No wonder it’s the heart of Dante’s COMEDY.
Read MoreDante the pilgrim moves to hug one of the souls who’ve stepped off the angel’s boat. But Dante’s arms go right through the fellow, despite their obvious bond of affection. The body-soul problem is intensifying in PURGATORIO. How? And why? Dante the poet is not satisfied with his corporeal souls so far. So he’s starting to change the game.
Read MoreDante and Virgil encounter the souls who’ve been summarily dumped onto the shores of Purgatory from the angel’s boat. Nobody seems to know what to do. Is hesitancy the right first step toward a new life? And is hesitancy part of this new work Virgil uses: “pilgrims”? Maybe the theology of wonder requires hesitancy as its grounding in Dante’s PURGATORIO, the second third of COMEDY.
Read MoreThe souls arrive on the shores of Purgatory singing a psalm all about the exodus experience. But more than that, this psalm is a unique example of chant musicality in Dante’s day, a possible comment on the road ahead for us as we trace our route through PURGATORIO with Virgil and Dante the pilgrim.
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