Purgatorio Summaries

Dante, Purgatorio (Purgatory)

Brief Canto Summaries

by Ryan Patrick Crisp

Canto I Summary

Dante and Virgil have arrived on the shores of Purgatory, the place where the soul is cleansed in preparation for its ascension into Heaven. As he begins this stage of his journey, Dante calls upon the ancient muse of epic poetry, Calliope, for her aid. The travellers find the air is better here than in Hell, and they can see the heavens, in particular the planet Venus and four southern stars not normally visible in the northern hemisphere. When Dante turns back towards the north, he sees a venerable old man who is never identified by name, but based on the clues in the text is clearly the ancient Roman Cato the Younger (Cato Uticensis). Cato asks them how they escaped from Hell to come here, and Virgil explains his mission to free Dante’s soul from damnation. Virgil tries to win Cato over by offering to mention him to his wife, Marcia, who lives in Limbo with all the other “virtuous pagans,” but Cato corrects him, pointing out that his earthly love for Marcia no longer matters, and all he needed to say was that Beatrice sent them. Cato then instructs Virgil to prepare Dante for the trip through Purgatory by going down to the shore of the sea and girding him with a plain, straight reed and cleansing his face from the grime of their trip through Hell—they are now on the right path to God.

Canto II Summary

As Dante lingers on the shore, hesitating to begin his journey through Purgatory, he sees a bright light which, as it gets closer, becomes an angel bringing a boatload of new souls to the shores of Purgatory. As they approach, Dante hears them singing a psalm about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. After disembarking, Dante recognizes one soul and tries to embrace him, but he finds that he does not have a physical body to actually hug. The soul is named Casella, a musician of Dante’s acquaintance who had died some three months earlier but had delayed crossing over from the port of Ostia into the underworld. Dante asks him to sing one of the songs of love he was known for, and so Casella begins singing one of Dante’s own poems set to music. Everyone on the shore is captivated by the song until Cato arrives to break up the party, chastising them for delaying their entrance into Purgatory proper. Dante likens the now scattering people to birds when they get frightened. Dante and Virgil also start making their way toward Mount Purgatory.

Canto III Summary

As they run towards the mountain, Dante notices his shadow, but when he doesn’t see Virgil’s shadow, he thinks he may have been abandoned. Virgil rebukes him for his lack of faith, and then discourses on the limitations of reason—one cannot understand through reason the nature of bodiless souls which can still feel bodily sensations in the afterlife, just as one cannot attain salvation simply through reason—the incarnation of Jesus Christ was necessary. When they arrive at the mountain, it is too steep to climb and Virgil cannot figure out how to ascend. Then Dante looks up and sees a group of penitents in the distance, coming slowly towards them. They turn to the left and rush forward to meet this group, seeking assistance. When they get closer, Dante observes that they move like a flock of sheep, slowly, humbly, and faithfully following the leader of the group. When Virgil asks them if they know how to ascend, they are puzzled by the two poets, and disturbed by Dante’s shadow. Virgil explains their divinely appointed mission, and the group indicates that they should turn around and walk towards the right (the proper direction of moving in Purgatory). Then Dante converses with their leader, Manfred, who describes himself as the grandson of Empress Constance (i.e. the mother of Frederick II) and father of Queen Constance of Sicily and Aragon. He explains that even though he died as an excommunicate at war with the church, he did turn to Christ before succumbing to his wounds. Still, he must wait outside Purgatory for thirty times as long as he was an excommunicate, unless living souls should reduce that time by praying for his soul. He asks Dante to talk to his daughter, when he returns, for this very purpose.

Canto IV Summary

Having lost track of the time while conversing with Manfred, Dante is now informed by the group of penitents that they have arrived at the place where he can ascend. It is a narrow passage through a rock crevice that is very steep and difficult, and Dante struggles to keep up with Virgil. They finally reach a ledge where he can rest and look back eastward from where they have come. Dante observes that the position of the sun is opposite to what he would expect, since Mount Purgatory is exactly on the other side of the world from Jerusalem. Looking up the mountain, Dante cannot see the end in sight, but Virgil assures him that the steepest part of the climb is already past them. Then they notice some people resting in the shade of a great boulder, and Dante comments on their laziness. One penitent responds wittily to him and Dante discovers an old acquaintance of his, Belacqua, who was known for his laziness in life. He had just barely managed the effort to repent before dying and now he must wait outside Purgatory proper for a space of time equal to the time he had procrastinated his repentance in life. Only the prayers of the righteous still living might shorten this time. At this point, Virgil notes that it is now noon and starts ascending again, urging Dante to keep moving.

Canto V Summary

As they ascend away, the group from the last canto now notices Dante’s shadow, and he turns back towards them until Virgil rebukes him for being distracted from his goal. A group of penitents in front of them, singing a psalm of penance, then notices his shadow as well, sending a couple of messengers to find out about this strange phenomenon. Virgil explains and sends them back, which brings this whole group of people, who died violent deaths but who repented and forgave their killers before dying, rushing towards them. Dante doesn’t recognize any of them, but promises to do what he can for them. Then one penitent specifically asks him to seek prayers from his homeland, providing a brief summary of his career and his ultimate assassination—details which would have informed Dante’s original audience that this was a well-known podestà named Jacopo del Cassero. Next up is Buonconte da Montefeltro, the son of Guido whom Dante met in Inferno XXVII, who was wounded at the Battle of Campaldino. He explains that Heaven and Hell fought over his soul because he had repented at the very last minute, and when Hell lost it exacted revenge on his mortal body by carrying it away via a storm to the bottom of the Arno River never to be found. Finally, La Pia of Siena (an otherwise unknown figure) briefly recalls her murder at her husband’s hand.

Canto VI Summary

Dante is pressed by a crowd of late penitents, and only gets away from them by promising to seek prayers for them among the living. He then questions Virgil about a passage from the Aeneid which seems to suggest that prayers cannot alter what God has decreed. Virgil tries to explain it in a more accommodating way and then simply tells him to wait for Beatrice to explain it better. Then they seek directions from a lone man sitting nearby. He is slow to respond to them until he finds out that Virgil is from own home city, Mantua, and then he gets excited, introduces himself as the famous poet Sordello, and embraces his fellow Mantuan. This leads Dante into a long digression about the sorry state of Italy in his day, a land where everyone aligns themselves into Guelph and Ghibelline factions that constantly fight against each other. What the horse of Italy needs is a rider in the saddle to guide her (by which he means an emperor), but the current emperor, Albert of Habsburg, has instead abandoned her. It almost makes Dante think that God has turned his back on Italy, although hopefully for some greater end. Dante then sarcastically praises Florence in particular, a place that sees itself as superior not only to other Italian states but even to ancient Athens and Sparta, so good at governing itself that it is constantly changing its laws, its constitution, and even its money. Dante compares her to an invalid wife who lays in bed all day, but always tossing and turning, never able to get comfortable and rest.

Canto VII Summary

Sordello now inquires as to the travelers’ identities, and is awestruck to find himself meeting Virgil. He asks about his eternal state and Virgil admits that owing to his lack of faith, he lives in the darkness of limbo outside of Hell with the innocent children who were not baptized and the other virtuous pagans. Virgil then asks Sordello if he can help them find the entrance to Purgatory proper, and the latter offers to be their guide as far as possible. But then Sordello observes that night is approaching so they need to find a good place to rest. Virgil learns that people here do not travel at night simply because it would not be appropriate for them to make progress up the mountain in the darkness. Sordello directs them to a valley where they see penitents singing a hymn to the Queen of Heaven. Highest up in the valley sits Emperor Rudolph, who is criticized for not coming to free Italy from factional strife, near his erstwhile opponent King Ottokar of Bohemia, the father of a worthless son named Wenceslaus. Then he points out some other well-known rival kings, mainly by description rather than by name: King Philip III of France and Henry I of Navarre sit together; likewise Pedro III of Aragon and Charles I of Anjou—rivals for the Kingdom of Sicily (with these, he takes the opportunity to point out that noble progeny rarely live up to the quality of their progenitors—Pedro’s sons James and Frederick may have inherited his territories but not his goodness). But then they see King Henry III of England, who is an exception to this rule: his son is better than him. At the bottom of the Valley of Princes sits William the Marquis of Montferrat, whose efforts in life led only to further strife in Italy.

Canto VIII Summary

As twilight descends upon them, Dante notices a penitent in the valley singing the evening hymn, joined by all the rest. After the hymn two bright angels dressed in green (the color of hope) and wielding flaming swords appear to guard the valley. Sordello leads them down into the valley and they almost immediately run into an old acquaintance of Dante’s, Judge Nino. After exchanging pleasantries, Dante reveals that he is not yet dead, and in his shock Nino calls over his companion, Currado. Nino asks Dante to seek prayers for his soul from his daughter Giovanna, since he knows his wife no longer thinks about him, having remarried to the ruler of Milan, who will soon experience his own downfall. Dante now looks up into the heavens, notes that where he saw the four stars earlier, he now sees a new set of three. Then a serpent approaches, but the angels rise up and drive it off without much trouble. Then Currado Malaspina speaks to Dante, and Dante in turn praises him and his whole family as one of the few truly honorable families left in Italy, which is now plagued by bad leadership. [Dante was aided by members of the Malaspina family when he was exiled from Florence.]

Canto IX Summary

At moonrise Dante gets sleepy, since he is still mortal. While sleeping, he has a dream that a golden eagle swoops down and carries him up, comparing himself to the mythical Ganymede who was carried off by Jove to live with the gods. Only when the eagle reaches the fiery sphere at the top of earth’s atmosphere does the perceived heat awaken him. He finds himself in a new place, and compares himself to when Achilles was carried away into hiding by his mother. Virgil comforts him, informing him that St. Lucy has carried him up to the gate of Purgatory proper while he slept. As they approach the gate, a bright angelic guard with a sword in his hand inquires about them, and upon hearing of their authorization from above, he allows them to approach. Three steps lead up to the gate: the first is clear white marble polished into a mirror; the second is darker than dark purple but cracked in the shape of a cross; the third is porphyry, a deep blood-red color. Reaching the adamantine threshold, Dante strikes his breast three times and humbly asks the angel to open the gate for him. With his sword, the angel carves seven P’s into Dante’s forehead, instructing him to get them washed away during his ascent through Purgatory. From under his ashen grey robes, the angel produces a golden and a silver key, which together enable him to open the gate. The angel instructs Dante not to look back as he advances into Purgatory. Then he opens the gate, whose hinges screech loudly but are intermixed with a hymn praising God.

Canto X Summary

The gate closes loudly behind Dante, but he does not look back. Then they climb through a narrow winding crevice, carefully and slowly, until they emerge onto a broad open place facing the terrace of Purgatory. They find that the bank is covered in marble sculpture better even than that of the famous Greek sculptor Polycletus—it is so lifelike that Dante’s senses are often misled into believing them to even produce sounds and smells. The images depict scenes of humility: first, the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary the coming birth of Christ; second, King David dances like a commoner before the Ark of the Covenant while Michal looks down on him scornfully; and third, the Emperor Trajan, he who was saved through the prayers of St. Gregory, agreeing to provide justice to a grieving woman, whose son has been murdered, before he marches off to war. Then Virgil sees some people he hopes might provide them with directions, and as Dante turns to look at them he reminds his readers that the punishments they see penitents suffering here in Purgatory are but temporary. These people hardly even look like people because they are each weighed down with a great boulder such that even the lightest stone of punishment seems unbearable to its porter. Only their beating of their breasts suggests their humanity. They remind Dante of some corbel statues he has seen where the figure is crouching under the weight it is asked to hold. Dante reminds his readers that we are all like worms but with the potential to become butterflies, if we will.

Canto XI Summary

Dante now hears an adapted version of the Lord’s Prayer coming from the penitents carrying stones on their backs. They pray for the mortals they have left behind and Dante urges his mortal readers to pray for them. When Virgil asks for directions, he hears an unidentified voice tell him to follow the penitents to the stairway. Then the voice identifies himself as Omberto Aldobrandesco, who was too proud of his own noble heritage in life. When Dante bends over to listen to him, another penitent recognizes him. It is Oderisi d’Agobbio, a famous manuscript illuminator, who can now admit that Franco of Bologna was better than himself. He teaches Dante a lesson on how fleeting is mortal fame—there is always someone better coming along to displace you, just as the painter Giotto has now replaced his master Cimabue in people’s admiration. He then points to Provenzan Salvani, who walks just ahead of him, as another example: He became famous when he led Siena to victory over Florence at the Battle of Montaperti (1260), but now he is barely even remembered in his native city. Dante wonders how such a prideful man who died in the late thirteenth century has already passed out of ante-purgatory into Purgatory proper. Oderisi explains that he had already been forced to humble himself while still living, a situation that Dante will come to understand very soon (when he is exiled from Florence in 1302).

Canto XII Summary

As Dante continues to walk with Oderisi, Virgil now tells him to hasten on and then to look down at the pavement in which some images are carved; they depict exemplars of pride: Satan (the angel who rebelled against God) and Briareus (the giant who rebelled against Jove); the fall of the mythical giants, observed by Apollo, Minerva, and Mars, and the fall of Nimrod (who oversaw the building of the Tower of Babel); Niobe (whose boast about her children against the mother of Apollo and Diana brought her downfall) and Saul (whose presumption led to his fall, which was capped by David cursing the site of his death); Arachne (who challenged Minerva at weaving and was thus turned into a spider) and Rehoboam (who refused to acquiesce to his subject’s demands and then ran away from his enemies); the vengeance wreaked by her son Alcmaeon against Eriphyle (who betrayed her husband in exchange for a goddess’s necklace) and Sennacherib (who died in a temple at the hands of his sons after campaigning against King Hezekiah of Judah); Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire (dying in an ambush set by Queen Tomyris) and Holofernes, the Assyrian general (who was beheaded by Judith); and finally Troy in ruins. Dante sarcastically tells his prideful readers to go and follow these examples. It is now noon, and the poets are greeted by an angel who directs them up the stairs to the next level and taps Dante’s forehead with his wings. As they enter the next circle, Dante hears the singing of the beatitude “Blessed are the poor in spirit”—a very different kind of greeting compared to when he passed into a new circle in Inferno. Dante also notices that he feels less weighed down and Virgil points out that the angel has removed one of the P’s carved into his forehead.

Canto XIII Summary

Dante notes that each terrace in Purgatory is a smaller circle as you move up the mountain. Virgil calls upon the sun to guide them, and then they turn right and press forward until they hear disembodied voices which provide exemplars of love, since they are now in the circle of the envious penitents: Mary out of wine at the feast of Cana, Pylades claiming to be Orestes to protect the latter, and Christ’s teaching about loving one’s enemies. Looking more closely they now see a group of penitents, dressed in hairshirts the same color as the drab landscape and acting like beggars—they who were once so focused on themselves now stand supporting each other. For Dante, it is a pitiable sight, made more so by the fact that their eyes are sewn shut with wire—they cannot even look at others now (to envy them). Dante asks if there are any Italians among them, and a voice points out that here they are now all citizens of the heavenly city, but that she had been an Italian in her mortal pilgrimage. Her name is Sapia of Siena, and she admits that she took pleasure in others’ misfortunes, so much so that she had once prayed for the defeat of her own townsmen in battle. She only barely repented in life, but her journey in Purgatory has been hastened by the prayers of Peter the comb-seller. She asks Dante to not only pray for her but to visit her kinsfolk still living.

Canto XIV Summary

Dante then overhears two penitents talking about him, and who ask him who he is. He only answers that he comes from the land of the Arno (i.e. Tuscany). One of the penitents proceeds to castigate that land as full of vice, comparing its people to animals like Circe’s pigs. Dante finds out he is talking to Guido del Duca and Rinieri da Calboli, a Guelph and a Ghibelline in life. The region of the Romagna, on the other side of the Apennine mountains is also described as devoid of virtue. They mention a long list of both positive and negative exemplars from northern Italy, generally lamenting how earlier generations were better than the current generations, until finally they ask Dante to leave them to their weeping. As Dante and Virgil walk away, they hear more disembodied voices, as they had when they first entered this terrace, only now they hear negative examples of envy: Cain and Aglauros. Virgil comments on how differently Satan and God go about trying to lure men to their side.

Canto XV Summary

Dante notes that it is now about the hour of vespers (early evening) and since he is traveling west, the sun is in his eyes. Then he is struck by even more brightness bouncing up into his eyes. What is it? Virgil explains that it is an angel from heaven, and assures Dante that he will get more used to such brightness the further he proceeds in his journey. The angel instructs them to climb up to the next terrace, which is an easier passage than those to the previous two terraces. Behind them they hear voices singing “Blessed are the merciful.” While ascending, Dante asks Virgil about something Guido del Duca had said to him (in the last canto). Virgil explains that if one has his heart set on worldly possessions, then it is difficult to share with others because sharing means having less of that thing, but if one desires heavenly things, then sharing brings more of it, since in heaven one’s love is returned in even greater measure. When Dante continues his inquiries, Virgil simply replies that eventually Beatrice will be able to help him understand better, and that he should focus his attention now on having the other five P’s erased from his forehead. When they reach the next terrace, Dante is overwhelmed with a vision in which he sees three exemplars of meekness: Mary scolds in a most gentle way a young Jesus who has remained behind in the temple; Peisistratus forestalls his wife’s cries for vengeance upon a young man who has dared to kiss their daughter (how terrible must be the punishments for the truly wicked if we harshly punish someone for loving us?); and Stephen the Martyr who begs pardon from God for the mob that is baying for his blood. As Dante comes out of this vision, Virgil asks him what’s wrong, but when Dante offers to tell him of his vision, Virgil informs him that he knows what he just experienced, he was just asking him to help spur him forward now. As they press on, they are overwhelmed by a black smoke.

Canto XVI Summary

Overwhelmed by the acrid smoke of this terrace, full of those who were blinded by wrath in their lifetime, Dante must hold on to Virgil’s shoulder like a blind man following his guide. They hear voices singing the Agnus Dei (a prayer from the mass appealing for mercy and peace from the lamb of God), and then one voice asks them who they are. Dante tells him of his journey as they walk, and finds he is speaking with Marco, a Lombard, who asks Dante to pray for him when he reaches Paradise. Then Dante asks him whether heaven or earth is to blame for a world now lacking in virtue and full of evil, and Marco tells him not to blame heaven—if heaven were to blame, then it would also be the sole cause for good in the world, and humans could not experience the joy of their own good choices. He says that while heaven does have some influence, it is ultimately down to human free will. God gives us the ability to love and pursue our desires, but he also provides us with laws to curb our appetites and direct us to good. Unfortunately, there is no one enforcing those laws in Dante’s day and age. The power that claims the leadership of Christendom leads everyone astray through its example of pursuing its basest appetites. Originally, there were two lights established to lead Christendom, a secular ruler and a spiritual shepherd, but now these two have been unnaturally fused together, so that the one cannot check the other. The evidence of this is that in all of northern Italy only three men remain who might be described as virtuous: Currado da Palazzo, Gherardo da Camino, and Guido da Castello—three simple and honest Lombards. Marco specifically tells Dante that he must inform his audience that it is the Church of Rome which is to blame for this situation. Dante remarks that he now understands why the Levites (who as the priests in Israel) received no share of territory among the Israelites in the promised land. At this moment, light starts to penetrate the smoke and Marco is forced to retire back into the darkness.

Canto XVII Summary

As Dante emerges out of the darkness into light he notes that the sun is now setting, but then he becomes distracted by his own thoughts, in which he envisions three examples of wrath: Procne (who wreaked a horrible vengeance on her husband before being turned into a bird to help her flee him), Haman (whose plot to destroy the Jews was thwarted by Esther), and Amata, the mother of Lavinia (who killed herself in rage at Aeneas’s triumph over Turnus). Dante is shaken out of his reverie by a bright light which turns out to be the Angel of Mercy who invites the travelers up to the next level and erases one of Dante’s P’s. As they reach the next level, night fully descends and Dante can feel a lack of vigor in his muscles, so he asks Virgil to teach him about this level of Purgatory while they await daytime. Virgil discourses on the nature of love, particularly on the fact that at the root of all human action is love. But is this the love naturally implanted in us by God to seek Him or one developed in our own mind? There are three ways that humans go astray in pursuing the love developed in their own minds: they pursue the wrong, even evil, object (as in the first three levels of Purgatory—pride, envy, and wrath), they pursue the right object but without enough energy (as in this level—sloth), or they pursue a lesser good with too much energy (as in the three levels above—avarice, gluttony, and lust).

Canto XVIII Summary

As Virgil concludes his discourse, Dante wants to ask a follow-up question but worries that he is annoying his guide. Virgil encourages Dante, so he asks for further clarification about the nature of love. Virgil explains that while love is inherent in us from our birth, and thus we pursue pleasing things naturally, it is possible that our mind will drive us to pursue a pleasure in a way that will not bring us to the right destination. Thus, while some people argue that all love is natural and therefore good and worthy of pursuit, we must learn to exercise our free will in deciding which natural inclinations to follow: it is like good wax which may be imprinted with either a good or a bad seal. The exercise of our free will, as Beatrice would call it, in choosing what to love and pursue is thus a measure of our moral state. Dante begins to feel drowsy as the moon is descending in the sky towards morning, until a crowd of penitents comes rushing by, speaking of their newfound zeal and energy, and invoking the examples of Mary and Caesar as people who rushed to do their duty. When Virgil asks them for directions to the ascent out of this terrace, they tell him that they can’t stop but that he can follow them there. The answering voice identifies himself as a former abbot of the San Zeno monastery near Verona and warns that soon a new but unfitting (because he is physically lame and of illegitimate birth) abbot will be appointed there (by Albert della Scala, one of Dante’s hosts during his exile). Then the penitent gets too far ahead to be heard anymore. But along comes a couple more penitents, speaking of those Israelites who weren’t able to follow Joshua into the promised land and those Trojans who decided to remain behind in Sicily rather than continue through more challenges with Aeneas to found a new Troy in Italy. Dante, thinking all this over, is overcome by drowsiness and drifts into dreaming.

Canto XIX Summary

In the cool of the early morning, Dante dreams of a decrepit, misshapen woman who turns into a siren singing her song, until another woman appears and calls on Virgil, who rips off her clothes to reveal the stench of her belly, which awakens Dante. The sun is now up and an angel calls him forth to ascend to the next terrace. Dante feels weighed down by his vision (it recalls him to his sinfulness), but Virgil points out that such a dream has prepared him to overcome his weaknesses. Arriving on the next terrace, they see the penitents lying face down in the dirt crying. When Virgil asks for directions to the next terrace, a voice tells him that if he doesn’t need to spend time on this terrace then he can just follow the path to the right around the outside. Dante becomes desirous of interviewing the voice, and learns that the speaker is no less than a pope (Adrian V by his description), who says that only his election to the papacy late in life brought him to repentance. Before that he was guilty of avarice, and thus, just as once he was so focused on earthly things, he now lies with his face against the earth. When Dante tries to bow to him in reverence, he stops him and explains that now they are all fellow servants of God. The former pope then begs Dante to let him get on with his repentance, only pausing to recall Alagia, his one virtuous niece back on earth.

Canto XX Summary

Dante feels compelled to now leave Pope Adrian to his penitence, and as he presses forward on the trail, he encounters a lot of penitents. This leads him to curse out loud the wolf, which stands as a symbol of avarice, and to call for divine aid to combat it. Then he hears a voice extolling Mary, who bore the infant Jesus in a humble stable, Caius Fabricius, a Roman general famous for not accepting bribes from his enemy, and Saint Nicholas, who gave away his gold to provide dowries for three maidens and thus save them from a life of prostitution. Dante then asks who is speaking and why he alone speaks out loud. The speaker is Hugh Capet, the founder of the dynasty of French kings, which has become avaricious, seeking to expand their territory even into Italy (he speaks here of Charles of Anjou’s invasion). Hugh prophesies of Philip IV’s attack on Pope Boniface VIII and then on the Templars, but also of eventual divine vengeance for all the French attacks on the pope and on Florence. Hugh then notes that while all the penitents contemplate the good examples of frugality during the day, albeit some more loudly than others, during the night hours their thoughts are turned to the bad examples of avarice: Pygmalion and Midas from classical antiquity, Achan, Sapphira, and Heliodorus from the Bible, Polymnestor from ancient myth, and Marcus Crassus, the ancient Roman politician infamous for his greed. As Dante and Virgil leave Hugh Capet, the mountain gives a great shudder like an earthquake, and all the penitents cry out, “Glory to God in the Highest,” but Dante does not understand what is going on.

Canto XXI Summary

As Dante and Virgil move through a crowd of penitents, they are overtaken by a penitent who greets them. In response, Virgil wishes him well (i.e. salvation) even as he laments his own eternal exile in limbo, which just confuses the penitent. So, Virgil explains their situation and then asks him about the quaking and the shout they just heard. The penitent explains that since nothing natural ever “happens” in Purgatory (unlike at the bottom of the mountain, where natural weather does still come and go), this ‘event’ he refers to must be the supernatural sign of a penitent who has completed his penance—and indeed it is this very penitent who has just reached that stage of his repentance when he has become free to ascend the mountain into Paradise. Virgil thus asks who he was in life, and the penitent identifies himself as Statius, the famous ancient poet—a poet, in fact, who says that he owes his occupation as a poet to his reading of the Aeneid, and laments that he was born too late to ever know Virgil personally. When Virgil tries to make a sign to Dante not to reveal his identity, Dante smiles and Statius notices, which forces Virgil to allow his companion to tell Statius who he is. As soon as Statius learns Virgil’s identity, he bows down to embrace the master poet’s feet, but Virgil won’t allow it—it would not be appropriate in this place.

Canto XXII Summary

An angel has erased another one of Dante’s Ps as he moves onto the sixth terrace, making him feel even lighter as he progresses up the mountain. Virgil and Statius then enter into a long conversation. Virgil tells Statius that he has heard good things about him from the poet Juvenal, but he wonders about his avarice, given the wisdom on display in his poetry. Statius informs him that he was being punished on that terrace not for avarice but for its opposite: prodigality. Virgil then remarks that he never would have guessed Statius a Christian based on his poetry, so he asks him about his conversion. Statius says that it was one of Virgil’s own poems that set him on the road to becoming a Christian—Virgil’s fourth Eclogue had prophesied a coming savior (by which he meant the Emperor Augustus, but which Christians took to mean Christ). He is forced to admit, however, that he remained a secret Christian, and for that he had to spend four hundred years on the terrace of sloth, where those only lukewarm in the gospel are punished. Statius then asks Virgil about several other ancient poets, most of whom, answers Virgil, are with him in the first circle of hell (i.e. Limbo—land of the virtuous pagans). Many famous virtuous women who were written about in antiquity, such as Antigone, can be found there as well. Then Statius guides Virgil around the terrace, while Dante trails behind them listening to, and learning from, them talk about the art of poetry. Then they come to a great tree blocking their path and hear a voice coming out of the branches, recounting several exemplars of temperance, the virtue that overcomes gluttony: There was Mary whose concern at the feast of Cana was for the guests, not herself; there are the old Roman matrons who modestly drank water, unlike later wine-bibbing women, and Daniel who shunned banqueting and pursued wisdom instead; there were the Greeks of the first golden age of the world, who did not need to farm and simply ate what they needed straight off of the trees; finally, there is the example of John the Baptist who survived in the wilderness eating honey and locusts.

Canto XXIII Summary

Virgil urges Dante to press on—they only have so much time to make their whole journey—but they are still overtaken by a group of penitents coming up behind them. These penitents are horribly gaunt figures—Dante says they look worse than Erysichthon from the ancient myth where he is cursed with so great a hunger that he eats himself, and worse than the woman from Josephus’s account of the siege of Jerusalem who was so hungry that she cooked her own infant child. Then Dante recognizes a voice from one of these figures, the voice of his old friend Forese Donati. Dante asks him why he is in such a condition, and learns that on this terrace the gluttonous must learn to hunger after the eternal life offered by the fruit of the tree they had recently passed, so they starve. Dante then admits to Forese that he is a bit surprised to see Forese already this high up the mountain of Purgatory, since he only died four years ago, and was a late repenter (shouldn’t he be down in ante-purgatory biding his time?). It is thanks to the prayers of his virtuous widow Nella, he says, which then launches him into a diatribe against all the worldly and sinful women of Florence. He prophesies of coming legislation which will crack down on their vanity, and then he remarks upon Dante’s body and the shadow it casts—what is Dante doing here if he’s not a penitent shade? Dante tells him that it was some of the stuff they used to do together which landed him in such a state that his soul needed such an intervention. Now he is guided on this journey by Virgil, until he meets up with Beatrice.

Canto XXIV Summary

Dante and Forese keep walking as they converse, Dante inquiring about the fate of Forese’s sister Piccarda, and asking whether there is anyone else interesting here on this terrace. Forese says that Piccarda is in Paradise and points out a few famous figures: Bonagiunta da Lucca (a poet), Ubaldino dalla Pila (a famous enemy of Florence), Bonifazio of Genoa (an archbishop), Marchese of Forli (a famous city ruler), and (although he doesn’t actually use his name) Pope Martin IV. When Bonagiunta addresses him, Dante tells the old poet that he can’t understand his words—the pain he is experiencing in using his mouth, the main tool of the glutton, makes it difficult for him to speak—but eventually understands that he is asking Dante whether he is the poet of “the new style” that he has heard of, and Dante admits that when filled with love he has set forth his feelings in a new kind of poetry. As this group of penitents moves off, Forese asks Dante how long it will be until he sees him again in Purgatory (i.e. after he dies), but Dante doesn’t know and can only assure him that he will visit him in his thoughts long before he actually dies. This prompts Dante to mention the forebodings of his city’s future, which he has learned during his trip through Hell and Purgatory, and Forese confirms them with his own prophecy about the near future, although he also assures him that the leaders of the attack on Florence will not last long themselves afterwards. Forese then leaves Dante behind to catch up with his fellow penitents, and as Dante watches him depart, he notices another tree, green and full of fruit, with many penitents underneath it, who reach for its fruit but then go away empty-handed yet satisfied. When Dante starts to approach the tree, a loud voice warns him off: this is an offshoot of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Dante should not behave like the ancient centaurs of myth or like those men that Gideon did not choose for his army who showed too little personal restraint. As Dante, Virgil, and Statius move on, the voice of a bright, shining angel asks them what they are thinking about and then directs them towards the ascent to the next terrace. Dante feels the angel’s feathers remove another of the P’s from his forehead while reciting a beatitude about temperance.

Canto XXV Summary

While Virgil, Statius, and Dante climb up a narrow set of stairs, Dante hesitates to ask his guides another question, but Virgil encourages him. So, Dante asks how the shades they encountered in the terrace of gluttony could become so thin, since no one eats food in Purgatory anyway. When Virgil fails to help Dante understand the relationship between body and soul, he turns the explanation over to Statius, who then reveals an eternal mystery: procreation produces a physical ‘animal’ body, which God, out of love, then fills with a rational soul which can think, remember, and choose; at death, body and soul are separated, but the soul retains its knowledge of the physical body, and in the afterlife it is joined with an aerial body that takes on the shape of the old physical body, becoming what we call a shade; this shade responds to the thoughts and feelings of the soul in an appropriate manner, such that one can witness what look like physical effects on this aerial body, which is connected to the will of the soul. As the travelers enter the next terrace, they see flames shooting out from the wall, which are then pushed up by a strong wind, creating a narrow pathway. As they pass through, Dante sees shades within the flames singing a hymn, then speaking the words of Mary, “since I know no man” (Luke 1:34), before singing the hymn again, and then invoking the example of the goddess Diana, who had famously chased Callisto out of her forest domain after she was impregnated by Zeus. The canto ends with the penitents recalling examples of chaste husbands and wives.

Canto XXVI Summary

The penitents in the flames now notice Dante’s shadow and ask him about it, but before he can respond, he notices another group of penitents who are moving in the opposite direction. When the two groups meet, they quickly kiss each other and then move on, one group shouting out about Sodom and Gomorrah and the other referencing Queen Pasiphae (who mated with a bull to produce the minotaur). Now Dante answers their question, albeit rather vaguely, and then in turn asks them who all these passing people are. His interlocutor uses a famous story about Julius Caesar to allude to the first group’s sin of homosexuality, and then he identifies the other group as those who succumbed to their heterosexual lusts like beasts. Only now does he identify himself as Guido Guinizzelli, an Italian poet of an earlier generation whom Dante reveres as his literary father. Guido has made fairly rapid progress up the mountain of Purgatory since he repented well before his death. They then briefly discuss poetry and poets, alluding to Arnaut Daniel as the best poet in a vernacular language and to Giraut de Borneil, a famous troubadour that some mistakenly considered to be better than Arnaut, before directly naming Guittone del Vira and condemning him as someone whose poetry was initially praised quite highly until eventually people realized it wasn’t actually all that good. Guido ends by asking Dante to say a Paternoster for him and then promptly disappears, his place being taken by none other than Arnaut, who sings a little song focused on the pursuit of salvation before he too disappears back into the flames.

Canto XXVII Summary

Evening approaches and an angel appears singing “Blessed are the pure in heart”, and then instructing Dante to pass through the flames before him. Dante hesitates and Virgil encourages him, telling him the flames won’t actually burn him. Dante still won’t move, so Virgil tells him that Beatrice awaits him on the other side of the flames, which finally motivates Dante to pass into the flames. He describes them as hotter than molten glass, and Virgil has to keep reminding him of Beatrice as he passes through them. As they come to the other side, another angel, so bright that he practically blinds Dante, is singing a song announcing his worthiness for glory. They hurry now since night is fast approaching. As the three poets ascend through a passage of rocks, Dante notes that the stars are closer here than he has ever before seen, but then night falls, and they each take a step to lie upon for the night. When Dante falls asleep, he dreams of Leah and Rachel—the former working in a garden to adorn herself with flowers, the latter staring fixedly into a mirror at her beauty; each has found the satisfaction they seek: Leah in living the active life, Rachel in the contemplative. When Dante awakens in the morning, Virgil promises him that that day will provide him with the most satisfying of fruit. Dante hastens up the stairway to the top, where Virgil announces that he has led him with his intellect and skill as far as he can. He metaphorically places crown and mitre on Dante’s head, declaring that Dante is now free to guide himself according to his own desires.

Canto XXVIII Summary

Dante wanders through an ancient sacred forest, described in idyllic terms with a soft breeze gently rustling the leaves of the trees, until he reaches the purest, clearest stream he’s ever seen. Staring across the stream, he sees a beautiful lady and begs her to come closer so that he can hear the song she is singing. She gracefully turns and modestly approaches. In her beauty and loveliness, Dante can’t help but compare her to several objects of love from classical myth: Proserpina, Venus, and Leander’s lover, Hero. The lady gently corrects his misperception and offers to help him understand this place he has come to. She explains that she actively tends this garden—the Garden of Eden—which was made as a joyful abode for men by God, although mankind later lost it. She answers Dante’s questions about the garden’s environment: although it looks like an earthly garden, it operates through divine will rather than upon geological principles. The stream they stand next to is the River Lethe—the river of forgetfulness in the classical depiction of the underworld—and the other river of the garden, from out of the same source, is called Eünoè—a river that, after forgetting one’s sins by drinking from Lethe, restores one’s memory of one’s good deeds by drinking from its most delicious waters. Summing it all up for the three poets, she paints it as nothing less than the idyllic, golden-age paradise of nectar and ambrosia described by many ancient poets.

Canto XXIX Summary

The lady on the other side of the stream continues to sing, and they walk upstream along the banks until the river turns such that Dante is now facing east. Then everything grows brighter and brighter, which Dante at first mistakes for lightning, until he realizes it isn’t just a short flash. It is all so wonderful that Dante voices a condemnation of mother Eve for bringing about the fall which has deprived him of experiencing this sooner, and for longer. Dante revels in this rapturous reward for the righteous, and struggles to express his feelings in words. Now Dante notices seven bright, shining trees, which upon closer inspection prove to be a candelabra which is accompanied by chants of Hosanna. The lady then draws his attention to people clad in brilliant white who follow these lights in a great procession. Dante also notes the brilliant colors that are painted in the sky above. He counts twenty-four elders crowned with lilies in the procession, followed by four creatures who have six wings apiece, all covered in eyes, whom Dante can only explain by referring the reader to the Book of Ezekiel (although he notes that the description of their wings conforms to John’s description (in the Book of Revelation) better). Between these beasts was a triumphal chariot pulled by a golden and white griffin. This was followed by three dancing women: one red, one green, and the third white. Four more dancing women, dressed in purple, accompanied them on the left. They are followed by two old men, one described as a doctor, the other wielding a sword. Then came four more old men, walking humbly behind, with a lone old man, looking to be asleep yet bright-eyed, bringing up the rear. These men are all dressed like the twenty-four elders earlier, but with red flowers garlanding their heads instead, and seemingly with flames coming off their heads. When the chariot reaches the stream, a thunder clap signals everyone to halt.

Canto XXX Summary

The procession comes to a halt, and the twenty-four elders turn towards the chariot. One of them starts singing, “Come, O bride, from Lebanon,” while the others repeat it. All of a sudden, a hundred angels arise on the chariot announcing the coming of a lady who wears a white veil, a green mantle, and a red dress, crowned with an olive branch. Dante is overcome by his love for this woman, and tries to tell Virgil about it, but then he notices that the old poet is gone, and so he sheds a tear for him. The lady calls to Dante from the other side of the stream and announces, “I am Beatrice.” She tells him not to weep for Virgil, for this is a place of joy. Dante lowers his eyes and sees his reflection in the stream, while the angels start singing a psalm to show their sympathy for him. Beatrice addresses the angels and reminds them that Dante is still on the path of repentance: in life, he had started following her towards salvation, but after her death, he had gone astray, and only this journey through hell and purgatory has brought him around again; he should still be weeping for his own sins.

Canto XXXI Summary

Now Beatrice turns her words directly towards Dante—he has not yet crossed the stream (the Lethe), so he can still recall his sins and must now confess them. When Dante is so overcome by her charges that he cannot speak, Beatrice rehashes his sins again: why did you allow yourself to be led astray from pursuing me who was waiting for you in heaven? Dante confesses his sins—after her death, he was led astray by false pleasures even though Beatrice had awakened in him the desire for God. She accepts his confession and explains the nature of his sinful wandering to him, so that he will be stronger when next he is tempted by the siren’s call. She then turns towards the griffin, who represents Christ as a single being with two natures, and Dante sees Beatrice, although veiled, as even more beautiful than he had remembered her on earth. Dante, in contrition, expresses a changing of his heart—what he had once found so alluring (what he had sinfully pursued before) he now recognizes as hateful and undesirable. Now as an act of satisfaction, the first lady he had met in the Garden draws him into the river and thrusts him under the water, forcing him even to swallow some of it, before leading him out to the four dancing women he saw before. The women explain that they are the handmaids of Beatrice, appearing here as nymphs but in heaven as stars, and they lead Dante towards Beatrice who now stands before the griffin. The other three women to the side of the chariot prepare Dante’s mind for this encounter, and they beseech Beatrice to reveal her divine beauty to Dante, who cannot even hope to convey it in words.

Canto XXXII Summary

Dante is transfixed by Beatrice’s beauty, and her handmaids rebuke him for fixating on her as a mere object of earthly beauty, so he turns away. Then he notices that the whole parade of people he saw earlier has turned around to march back east, like a great army. Dante and Statius now follow the procession through the Garden of Eden, until it stops at a great but bare tree, and Beatrice gets out of the chariot. The griffin then binds the shaft he had used to draw the chariot to the tree and it is renewed to its former splendor. The crowd begins chanting a heavenly song, which is so wonderful that it puts Dante to sleep. He is awoken by a light and a call, and he compares this whole experience to the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now he only sees the original lady from the Garden and asks her where Beatrice is. The lady points her out where she is sitting on the ground near the tree next to the chariot, while the rest of the procession ascends back into heaven behind the griffin. The seven nymphs still surround Beatrice, though, and she instructs Dante to write down all he has witnessed when he returns to earth. All of a sudden, Dante witnesses an extended allegory of the history of the church: first, an eagle swoops through the branches of the tree to attack the chariot, rocking it. Then an emaciated fox jumps into the chariot only for Beatrice to chase it away. The eagle returns to the chariot and this time leaves a lump of its feathers behind, while a voice out of heaven bewails this situation. Then a dragon breaks out of the ground and thrusts its tail into the chariot and then departs, only for another layer of feathers to fall upon the chariot. Out of this mess on the chariot appear seven heads bearing ten horns in total, and a harlot sitting upon it all. Next to her is a giant who kisses her repeatedly while she casts her lustful eyes about and particularly upon Dante. For that she receives a beating from the giant, who finally unhitches and drags the whole monstrosity away from Dante’s view.

Canto XXXIII Summary

Beatrice’s handmaids sing a psalm of lament about the situation just witnessed, and then Beatrice, also overcome, instructs Dante, Statius, and the rest to follow her. After taking several steps, she instructs Dante to move closer to her to hear her better. She then asks him why he doesn’t ask her any questions, and he replies that she already knows what he would ask. She promises him that the allegory of the church he just witnessed is not to be its final state—a new eagle will come soon to rectify the situation. She reminds Dante to record what he has witnessed, especially what happened to the tree—it is the tree whose fruit brought about the fall, which required the later redemption of Christ. Beatrice then accuses Dante of seeking the knowledge of the fruit through other means, and when Dante denies it, she reminds him that he has drunk from the river Lethe. Dante then inquires about the rivers here in the garden, and Beatrice instructs him to ask that question of Matelda, the lady he first met in the garden, who reminds him that she had already told him about it. Beatrice instructs her to take him to this second stream called Eünoè and bathe him in it. Matelda tells Statius to also come, and Dante ends the canto, and this canticle of his poem, simply describing himself as newly remade, ready to ascend to the stars.