purgatorio

purgatorio is the second canticle of the divina commediadivina commedia
la divina commedia is an epic poem written by dante in italian, chronicling his journey through inferno, purgatorio, and paradiso, each place taking up its own canticle of 3... following infernoinferno
inferno is the first canticle of the divina commedia.

canto 1

dante is lost in the woods. he meets virgil.

canto 3

entrance to hell.

canto 4

meet homer, horace, ovid, lu....

antepurgatory

those in antepurgatory must wait.

canto 1

virgilvirgil
virgil was a roman poet who wrote aeneid. his influences include homer, lucretius, and callimachus.
and dantedante
dante was an italian poet from florence who wrote the poem divina commedia. he also wrote la vita nuova and de vulgari eloquentia and monarchia.
finish their journey through earth arriving at mount purgatory, the antipode to Jerusalem. virgil and dante run into catocato
cato was a roman stoic. he killed himself rather than be defeated by julius caesar.
who is guarding the mountain. virgil explains what they're doing there, why dante has to go up the mountain. he appeals to cato by making a connection to cato's wife marcia. cato replies that he's no longer moved by her. they come to the dewy grass when virgil realizes his face was made dirty in hell.

canto 2

dante sees the ship drop off new residents for purgatory. he runs into his friend casella and tries to hug him, but he's a shade (cf. odysseyodyssey
the odyssey is a greek epic poem by homer.

Reading


Daniel Mendelsohn on the Odyssey

and aeneidaeneid
the aeneid is a epic poem written by virgil in latin telling the founding myth of rome by the trojan prince aeneas. when the ploy of the trojan horse succeeds and the greeks set fir...). virgil asks him to sing one of his poems, but cato shoos them on for lingering.

canto 3

dante and virgil talk to manfred, who asks them to tell his daughter to intercede. as he was dying, he prayed to god. manfred explains that those who repent only at the end must wait thirty times the length of their life on the shore (reduced by prayers)

canto 4

dante and virgil scale the mountain, making their way through narrow passage ways. virgil explains that purgatory is antipodal to jerusalem. the two encounter belacqua, who is just sitting around. dante is happy to see that he's here.

canto 5

dante and virgil encounter buonconte. when he uttered mary's name and died, he was taken by an angel, but hell wanted to take him back. a devil causes rain to carry of his body to loosen the cross buonconte had made with his body.

they also talk to pia. she was killed by her fiance.

canto 6

this canto starts with a simile comparing all the souls who want to talk to dante with the winner of a dice game. dante and virgil encounter sordello, who lights up when virgil says he is from mantua.

canto 7

sordello praises virgil and asks about how he's come here, introductions ensue. sordello explains how night time works in purgatorio. they come to the valley of princes. sordello describes how the noses are passed on but not the integrity of the rulers. we have to look to god for it, he says.

canto 8

the last canto of ante-purgatory. there is the ritual of the snakes with the angels. then they talk to nino visconti, who asks dante to find his daughter giovanna. he speaks disparagingly of his wife, calling her a slut.

they also talk to currado malaspina. during dante-poet's exile, malaspina's family hosted him. so dante-pilgrim praises the family here.

pride

the proud have to carry boulders on their backs.

canto 9

dante has a dream where he is snatched up like ganymede by saint lucy. dante then faces the angel guarding the gate of purgatory. it inscribes the seven p's on his forehead that will be washed away as he goes through the terraces.

canto 10

dante stops to look at the border of the terrace in marble carvings. there is an animated angel gabriel. this is the terrace of pride, where people are forced to carry boulders on their backs and look at the ground in humility.

canto 11

here, dante meets three souls of three kinds of prides. he meets omberto aldobrandeschi, proud of family; oderisi da gubbio, proud of art; and salvani, proud of power. oderisi discusses how he's learned that fame in the art world is nothing because one person will just replace another. salvani was able to make it because he tried to free his friend in prison.

canto 12

again, dante sees portraits on the ground that the prideful would see on their walk. for example, he sees arachne (cf. metamorphosesmetamorphoses

omnia mutantur, nihil interit (15.165)


metamorphoses (Greek/Latin for transformations) is a lengthy narrative poem (is it an epic poem?) written in Latin by the Roman poet ovid. It cov...). he passes his first terrace, and one of the p's on his face comes off.

envy

the envious have their eyes wide shut.

canto 13

the second terrace of envy. dante listens to examples of love in opposition to envy. he hears the one who pretended to be orestes. he talks to sapia. she prayed for god's will when her citizens fought their enemies, and when the enemies were driven off, she said she no longer feared god. dante says he is more concerned about pride rather than envy.

canto 14

we meet guido del duca and rinieri da calboli. dante says in so many words that he's from the valley near the arno. to which one of them says the arno should perish. guido says where rinieri is from and that all those lands are foregone.

wrath

the wrathful walk around in blinding smoke.

canto 15

dante passes the terrace of envy, another p taken away. passing the time while climbing, dante asks virgil about divieto e consorte. virgil explains that humans tend to love things that are diminished when shared. in heaven, people delight in love that is shared. dante has an ecstatic vision, one which virgil asks him about later.

examples of meekness or gentleness.

canto 16

dante speaks to marco lombardo. he says that free will would not exist if everything moved by the heavens. he explains that rome used to separate its religion and politics, but they became intertwined.

canto 17

still on the terrace of wrath. virgil explains the divisions of love.

sloth

the slothful have to run around the terrace.

canto 18

dante asks virgil two more questions. one of them is how we know what's right and wrong love. virgil says he'll give his reasons, but only beatrice can talk about the faith.

avarice

they have to lie face-down on the ground and recite adhaesit pavimento anima mea.

canto 19

dante has a strange dream in which there is a siren and a woman standing next to her unmasks her and rebukes virgil. then, they come to the fifth terrace of avarice. dante speaks to pope adrian v. when dante bows to him, he cites the neque nubent to say that they're all equals.

canto 20

encounter with hugh capet. earthquake.

canto 21

dante and virgil talk to statius. he says he was raised on the aeneidaeneid
the aeneid is a epic poem written by virgil in latin telling the founding myth of rome by the trojan prince aeneas. when the ploy of the trojan horse succeeds and the greeks set fir... and that he'd extend his stay in purgatory by a year to have lived with virgil.

gluttony

they are starved with trees whose fruit is out of reach. they pray labia mea domine.

canto 22

statius says he gave too much away, that's why he's here and not in hell. in aeneid 3, quid non mortalia pectora cogis / auri sacra fames is taken as per che non reggi tu, o sacra fame / de l'oro, l'appetito de' mortali?

the terrace of gluttony.

canto 23

dante recognizes forese donati, someone he wrote insulting sonnets with. he's here even though he was dante's friend because his wife nella prayed for him.

canto 24

dolce stil novo

forese introduces a group of gluttons including bonagiunta, who asks dante about his poems. bonagiunta says he and giacomo de lentini, the tuscan poets, and d'arezzo fell behind this style.

lust

an immense wall of flame that every soul has to pass through.

canto 25

virgil talks about embryology. as soon as the unborn can think, god breathes spirit into it. self-consciousness is the basis.

canto 26

the lustful go in and out out the fire while singing songs. dante talks to arnaut daniel.

canto 27

virgil says dante can let pleasure lead him now.

earthly paradise

canto 28

dante sees matilda, likens her to persephone

canto 29

the allegorical procession. 24 old men for the old testament. the chariot, seven females, four creatures.

canto 30

beatrice chastises dante.