Walking With Dante

Guido del Duca reaches the climax of his diatribe: a nostalgic retrospective of the courts and families of Romagna. Where have the good guys gone?Is this Dante the poet's lament? Or Guido del Duca's? Does this passage tell us more about Guido's problems or Dante's hopes?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through a tough passage about historical figures from Romagna, many of whom have been lost to the historical record.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 97 - 126. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this passage, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:49] The genre: "ubi sunt?" But whose? Guido del Duca's or Dante the poet's?[09:26] The structure of this passage: good people, to good families (without children), to bad town, to childless warlords.[14:47] The nostalgic diatribe becomes infernal.[16:59] More play with bestial and vegetal metaphors (as throughout Canto XIV).[19:19] The trap of chivalry.[22:28] Guido del Duca finally finds delight in his laments: the key problem.[25:28] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 97 - 126.

At long last, the speaker in PURGATORIO Canto XIV comes clean and reveals who he is . . . and who his compatriot is. They're Guido del Duca and Rinier (or Rinieri) da Calboli. Now that we now who they are, we have to go back and reassess Canto XIV as a whole.Dante is nothing but cagey in the rhetorical games he's playing. He's demanding more and more out of his reader. And rightly so, given the complexity of COMEDY up to this point.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through this passage in which these envious souls reveal who they are and we discover the underlying politics of the passage among the envious on the second terrace of Purgatory proper.If you'd like to help support this podcast by donating to cover its many fees, including streaming, hosting, and licensing, please consider giving whatever you can (even a small amount per month) via this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:15] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, Lines 73 - 96. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please do so under this episode on my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:22] Who is Guido del Duca, a Ghibelline warlord from Romagna?[06:40] Who is Rinier (or Rinieri) da Calboli, a Guelph warlord from Romagna?[09:08] Who is Fulcieri da Calboli, the bloody hunter previously mentioned?[11:13] Two questions for this passage: Is the political strife between these two healed . . . or being healed? And why are these warlords among the envious?[13:04] What details in this passage help us to understand its nuances?[21:21] When exactly does Dante's journey take place?[25:38] Rereading the scope of PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, from line 10 to line 96.

Dante has been cagey about where he's from, using periphrastic phrasing to describe the Arno valley without naming it.It was apparently the wrong thing to do . . . because one of the envious penitents is going to pick up the pilgrim's (and the poet's?) rhetorical games and push them much further into fully metaphoric space that is also somehow prophetic space, a diatribe against Tuscan corruption that borders on the incomprehensible at this moment before the speakers are named in Purgatorio XIV.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we play with truth and metaphor in the increasingly complex landscape of Purgatory.If you'd like to help you, please consider donating to support this podcast's many fees. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:41] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 43 - 72. If you'd like to read along or even continue the conversation about this passage, please see the page on my website for this episode at markscarbrough.com.[04:11] The standard interpretation of the allegory of the Arno valley.[08:59] One more level of complexity: the personification of the Arno.[11:02] A third level of complexity: so much periphrasis![12:32] A fourth level of complexity: a beast fable added to the rhetorical strategy (hello, Sapía!).[13:34] A fifth level of complexity: fraud, the end stop of the Arno and INFERNO.[15:06] A final level of complexity: The Old Man Of Crete in INFERNO XIV.[16:33] The interpretive or rhetorical muddle after the allegory of the Arno.[18:18] The bloody nephew's rampage: a metaphoric space.[26:56] The pay-off of intimacy?[29:52] Possible blasphemy in the high-level poetics.

Dante has started a conversation with two envious penitents . . . a conversation he might not be ready for. They prove more than his rhetorical match. They also muddy the theology of Purgatory itself. Is that intentional? Or are we expected to understand their still-fallen state?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore more about the two envious souls who interrupt Dante's journey around the second terrace of Purgatory proper.Please consider helping this podcast stay sponsor-free. You can help me with its many fees by donating at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:23] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 22 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find the entry for this episode of the podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:23] Dante's cagey periphrasis about the Arno may not have paid off.[07:00] The first envious penitent is bestialized as he fastens his teeth into the meat of Dante's intentions.[09:49] These penitent shades have lots of debt, even though one soul launches into a typical Dantean diatribe against Tuscany.[14:43] How can good things happen in a fallen world? Only by moving the fence.[16:55] Two inset tercets show the changing nature (or fence?) of COMEDY from a theological poem to an encyclopedic one.[21:59] This passage contains the third and final use in COMEDY of a word for "snake."[25:55] The problem with the diatribe is that is seems to remove culpability from humans . . . or at least, Tuscans.[28:55] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 22 - 42.

Sapía has finished her amazingly complex speech with the pilgrim Dante . . . or has she? At the opening of Canto XIV, we're not sure who is speaking? Still Sapía? No, two envious souls, leaning against each other, almost gossiping about our pilgrim. And nothing satisfies envy quite like gossip.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this new thing: the opening of a canto in COMEDY in which unnamed (and unknowable!) souls just starting talking out of the blue. Be on guard. They may not be all they seem at first blush.Please consider supporting this podcast through your contribution. There are many fees associated with this work . . . and I'd like to keep it sponsor-free. You can help you with a donation at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:34] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 1 - 21. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please find this individual episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:31] Two penitent souls interrupt the action of PURGATORIO.[06:00] The opening of canto XIV is a new thing in COMEDY, much as Sapía has identified Dante the pilgrim as a new thing in her world.[08:19] There are two curious words in this opening dialogue: "our" and "sweetly."[11:45] These two spirits are apparently quite intimate with each other. Will that intimacy pay off?[12:50] One of the envious penitents divides Dante's soul from his body . . . and uses Dante's own words to address him.[15:41] Dante is quite cagey when he answers their question, all the while putting his soul and body back together.[20:16] Dante replies with one of his own favorite rhetorical techniques: periphrasis. Elsewhere in COMEDY, Dante is pretty forthcoming about his origins.[22:53] Is Dante modest? Or cagey? Or "just" truthful?[28:41] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIV, lines 1 - 21.

We've spent three episodes with this penitent envious soul, Sapía. Now let's look at the entire interchange between her and our pilgrim, Dante . . . as well as the ways PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, reflects INFERNO, Canto XIII.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we talk about the increasingly complex ironies found in one of the most compelling souls in all of Dante's COMEDY.If you'd like to help support this podcast by underwriting some of its streaming, licensing, hosting, domain, and royalty fees, please do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:23] Reading the entire passage with Sapia: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 85 - 154.[05:58] If they're playing a rhetorical game, Dante the pilgrim started it.[06:54] The structure of their exchange: his flattery--her truth (sort of)--his truth (sort of)--her request.[09:23] The envious are hard to pick out from their landscape. Is that a thematic or even rhetorical problem?[10:20] Sapía's discourse is either textured with irony or incredibly uneven. Why?[12:17] PURGATORIO XIII has many parallels with INFERNO XIII.[17:10] Moments in Sapía's passage to keep in mind for PURGATORIO XIV ahead.

In the concluding moments of Sapía's speech, we find her in dialogue with Dante the pilgrim . . . who is both forthcoming in his confessional stance and also cagey with his hiding his guide, Virgil.She, too, is caught in her own rhetoric: getting what she wants but ultimately revealing herself as a soul who still has a lot more purgation ahead.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the final words of one of the most intriguing characters in PURGATORIO, if not in all of COMEDY.Please consider donating to support this podcast and cover its hosting, editing, licensing, streaming, domain, and royalty fees. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:58] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 133 - 154. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please find the comment section for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:18] Dante's reply to Sapía is both cagey and confessional. Did she manipulate him into this ambiguous spot?[09:27] Does Sapía misunderstand his place in the afterlife? But how can she, since she's already figured out that he's breathing?[13:03] She turns his confession of pride into . . . comedy or flattery?[14:12] Her changing notions of prayer exemplify the theological problems of prayer as a Christian act. Meanwhile, she lets the pilgrim know that she's figured him out even more.[19:36] Sapía is going to spend a lot more time on the terrace of the envious, given her joy over Siena's misfortunes.[24:59] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 133 - 154.

Sapía now tells her story to Dante the pilgrim . . . and it includes one of the most blasphemous lines in all of COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look closely at one of the most honest and blasphemous monologues in the poem . . . and as we grapple with Sapía's incredible skills in rhetoric.If you'd like to make a contribution to support this podcast and help me cover its many fees, you can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:39] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 112 - 132. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:56] Indicators of Sapía's interiority.[07:48] Her reaction to the Sienese battle of 17 June 1269.[10:40] Sapía's right attitude toward God's will.[12:41] One of the most blasphemous lines in all of COMEDY.[14:54] Lighthearted folkloric storytelling amid her shocking honesty.[18:48] The holy man who saves her: Peter Comb-Seller (or "Pettinaio").[22:09] Honesty or manipulation?[23:22] The logic of her monologue.[25:13] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 112 - 132.

Dante the pilgrim worked up the courage (or the flattery) to get one of the envious to speak up on the second terrace of Purgatory proper. She does . . . and gives him both more and exactly what (or perhaps a bit less) than he asked for.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I work our first sight of one of the most intricate souls in COMEDY: Sapía. She's a lot more than Dante bargained for.Donate what you can or a small monthly contribution to help me cover the many fees associated with this podcast. You can do so by clicking this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to the page about this podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:02] The penitent envious soul schools Dante the pilgrim by reassessing their relationship, both by family and by politics.[05:53] Pilgrims choose to be other, to be strangers in a foreign land.[09:19] Dante the poet focuses on the naturalistic details in an otherwise hyper-moral passage.[11:35] Dante the pilgrim is apparently not teachable at the moment . . . . except he does understand the work of the will in Purgatory.[14:30] The penitent soul identifies herself reticently . . . only by name and city.[19:38] Her reticence is found in a generous canto full of explanations.[20:55] One generosity: Sapía offers a succinct definition of envy.[24:49] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 94 - 111.

Dante has finally come among the envious on the bare, bleak, blue-gray second terrace of Mount Purgatory. We've seen their condition: eyes stitched shut. Now for Dante's reaction. And Virgil's reaction to Dante's reaction. And Dante's ham-handed attempt to flatter someone to speak up.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we approach on of the most significant and curious figures in all of COMEDY. Dante the pilgrim will call for her in this passage . . . and she'll make her appearance in the next passage/episode.If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating to cover the licensing, hosting, streaming, domain, and royalty fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:57] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Lines 73 - 93. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:05] Does Dante think he makes a social gaffe?[07:40] Is Virgil irritated at Dante's reaction?[09:48] Is this an allegorical passage or a naturalistic one? Are we being played?[14:45] Is Dante's flattery misplaced?[19:19] Is Dante's flattery predictive of the poem ahead?[22:41] How much irony textures this passage?[25:28] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 73 - 93.

The second terrace of PURGATORIO proves a wild ride into interiority, into the complicated sin of envy, and back into INFERNO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first moments in which Dante sees the penitents ahead . . . and delays until the last moment revealing their fate: eyelids stitched shut with wires.Thank you for supporting this podcast through your donations. If you'd like to help our (or continue to help out) with all the fees associated with websites, hosting, streaming, editing, and sound effects, please visit this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[00:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 46 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:28] Dante the pilgrim, the livid shades of the envious, and fragmentary prayers in the vernacular.[05:52] Compassion: apparently a virtue of enforced scarcity.[07:51] Envy, interiority, and externality.[09:42] The tried-and-true answers to envy: love, yes; but also uniformity.[13:25] The long wind-up to the revelation of the penitents' pain.[17:30] Dante's (false) etymology of envy and a folkloric explanation of the sin.[21:51] Two callbacks: 1) Provenzan Salvani and 2) the allegorical and/or naturalistic sun.[23:51] The biggest callback of all: to Pier della Vigna and Frederick II in INFERNO XIII.[25:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 46 - 72.

Dante and Virgil make haste across the second terrace of Purgatory before they're accosted by disembodied voices, calling them to the banquet of love.Sounds great, right? Except there's so much alienation in the landscape and even in the poetry.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take our first steps onto the second terrace of PURGATORIO with Dante and Virgil.Please consider helping to support this podcast with a donation to cover all the various fees associated with streaming, licensing, recording, editing, and hosting. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please visit my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:54] Three disembodied voices on the second terrace of PURGATORIO: quotes from the Virgin Mary, Orestes (maybe?), and Jesus.[13:25] Voices moving from the left, not right![15:26] Envy: a root sin, sometimes seen as the primary sin, even by Dante.[18:59] The schematics of Purgatory, as intuited by Virgil.[22:03] Disembodied voices and the problem of alienation.[26:28] The distance (and alienation) between Dante and Virgil.[32:36] A rereading of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 22 - 45.

Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, have arrived at the second terrace of Purgatory proper. As readers, we're not even sure what this terrace is about, although we can infer there must be more penitents ahead.Instead, Dante the poet offers us rather straightforward, naturalistic details, a complex neologism (a new word he coined), a crazy line that has many interpretations possible, and then a pagan prayer in the afterlife of the redeemed.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk into the second terrace and immediately stumble over what at first glance looks like a fairly simple passage. That's why we're slow-walking across Dante's known universe!If you'd like to help support this podcast by donating to cover hosting, streaming, website, licensing, and royalty fees, please consider visiting this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:09] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 1- 21. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:22] The naturalistic, straightforward details complete with a surprising neologism (or newly coined word).[08:12] A deeply ambiguous line smack in the middle of rather simple details.[12:02] Virgil's haste and his internalization of Cato's ethic, as well as Dante's increasingly complicated relationship with the old poet.[15:29] Virgil's pagan prayer to the sun.[23:40] My take: Virgil, the pagan, makes a full appearance here on the second terrace of Purgatory.[29:02] Virgil, blinded.[31:42] A rereading of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 1 - 21.

Before we step onto PURGATORIO's terrace of envy, the second ledge of Purgatory proper, let's pause a moment to talk about the relationship among Dante, Aquinas, and Aristotle.We have to take this detour because Dante will increasingly incorporate scientific reasoning into his poem, changing its very nature, based on his understanding of Aristotle, which is in turn based on the work of Islamic and Jewish scholars from the Iberian caliphates.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this complicated history of thought and how it finally lands in COMEDY.Please consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the licensing, hosting, domain, royalty, streaming, and editing fees of this podcast. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:46] The collapse of the Umayyad caliphate and the inception of the Iberian schools of learning.[07:33] The discomfort with Aristotle at the University of Paris.[14:33] Classical Greek leaning and the disruption and/or incorporation into medieval Christianity.[17:30] If God is the author of all truth, then how does any truth whatsoever show up in the works of a pagan philosopher?[21:10] How does inductive truth make any sense in a deductive religion?[25:38] COMEDY is changing from an allegorical journey of a soul across the known universe to a poetic compendium of known truth.

We've come with Dante the pilgrim and Virgil, his guide, to the second terrace of Purgatory, the terrace of envy.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this initial read-through of the terrace, beginning at the first line of PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, and extending to line 84 of PURGATORIO, Canto XV.If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating whatever you can to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and web fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:54] A read-through of the second terrace of Purgatory proper: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Line 1, through Canto XV, Line 84.[24:37] Initial questions for the terrace of envy.

Dante the pilgrim and Virgil have a little ways to go before they finally exit the terrace of pride. In fact, Dante has to come to a surprising revelation: It's getting easier. And Virgil has to explain why: Desire is being purified. How? By erasing what God has written.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the interpretive dilemmas and philosophical quagmires of the final moments on the terrace of pride, the first of the terraces of Purgatory proper in Dante's PURGATORIO.If you'd like to help support this podcast and help cover its stream, licensing, web-hosting, and royalty fees, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:12] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 118 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:36] The climb in hell and in Purgatory both involve the notion of a throat.[06:44] Pride is the primary sin and delight is the primary motivation forward. But has it always been this way in COMEDY?[12:57] Canto XII ends on a light-hearted note . . . perhaps for poetic reasons.[16:32] First hard question: Is Dante the pilgrim truly expunged of pride?[19:51] Second hard question: Has Dante the poet moved the fence of his world to include himself in his own schematics?[24:56] Third hard question: Why does God's writing have to be erased?[30:53] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 118 - 139.

Dante and Virgil begin their climb from the first to the second terrace of Purgatory but as they do, they climb up in an incredibly contorted and difficult simile that swaps around emotional landscapes before landing them in the song of Jesus's beatitudes as well as the screams of hell.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the climb out in this most difficult simile.Please consider contributing to underwrite the many fees associated with this otherwise unsponsored podcast. To do so, visit this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 100 - 117. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:18] The giant simile about the staircase up to San Miniato al Monte and to the second terrace of Purgatory.[08:50] Four reasons why this simile is so difficult (and perhaps contorted).[13:29] The body/soul problem once again that ends with the first of the beatitudes.[15:50] The inescapable landscape of hell.[19:23] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 100 - 117.

Dante and Virgil begin their exit from the terrace of pride on Mount Purgtory. To do so, they must encounter and angel who implicitly calls back Lucifer (or Satan) into the text yet who welcomes them on their way up the less-steep ascent.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Virgil reassert this role as the guide and see another of the epic angels in Purgatory.If you'd like to help out, please consider donating to keep this podcast afloat. You can do at this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:22] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:47] Virgil returns to being Virgil: a guide to the afterlife who quote himself.[08:08] Virgil and the angel both seem to set the plot in motion again.[11:19] Virgil seems more interested in what's ahead and less interested in the reliefs and carvings. In fact, he seems to mistake the lesson from those carvings: Some days, like Trajan's, happen again and again in an eternal art form.[14:08] The strength of COMEDY is that the complex always resolves into the simple.[16:17] Irony: Virgil's "simple" ethic contains a Dantean neologism.[17:20] The beautiful angel contains an implicit and perhaps redemptive reference to Lucifer (or Satan).[21:11] Who speaks the condemnation against humanity? The angel or Dante the poet?[25:54] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99.

Dante the poet adds a coda to his (fake) ekphrastic poetry on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. He steps back and explains the very nature of the art to us: realer than real, as it were. Then he moves the passage out from its narrative base and into a moral lesson based on an allegorical (and anagogical) reading of his masterwork, COMEDY.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the last passage on the theory of art for this terrace of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 64 - 72.[02:40] Dante seems to double down on the artistic claims of the terrace of pride.[05:52] Dante reminds us that we're reading an allegorical (and anagogical) poem.[10:16] Humans create their moral truths by telling lies.[16:21] Rereading the passage: Purgatorio, Canto XII, lines 64 - 72.

We've spent three episodes going over the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. Now let's step back and look at the whole passage. Yes, its sweet. But also its curiously crafted problems. And the way it leaves us with more questions than answers, even though we're supposed to take away a very distinct moral lesson.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we run through this entire complicated passage in PURGATORIO.If you'd like to help out with the many costs associated with this podcast, please consider donating through this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:12] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 22 - 63. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:18] Biblical, classical, and historical figures flatten the interpretive landscape. Is Ovid of an equal weight to the Bible?[06:33] The passage is an acrostic poem: each tercet starts with a specific letter, here to spell out "man." But does that rhetorical technique actually work for this passage? Are these all "men"? Or even humans?[10:05] The tercets are thematically in sets of four: the judgment of God, of the self, and of others. Again, doesn't that flatten the moral landscape?[12:46] Do the penitents have to be this learned to glean the intended lesson? And is this the sum total of the reliefs on the terrace? Or are there more?[15:13] How can you be guilty of pride against or toward a God you don't know?[18:12] Where do these figures fit in hell? And while we're at it, where does pride fit in hell?[21:29] Why does this passage end with Troy, the noble city?[22:53] Why is this fake ekphrastic poetry?

We've come to the last four reliefs in the paving stones of the terrace of pride. We're almost on our way to the next terrace of Purgatory . . . but not quite. Dante the pilgrim has to pay attention to these final moments, the final exemplars, some of whom are stated outright in the carvings and some of whom are strangely occluded.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through this last passage on the reliefs in the road bed. There are still plenty of surprises under our feet!Please consider donating to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, web domain, and other fees associated with this unsponsored podcast. If you'd like to make a contribution, you can do so at this PayPal link.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:24] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 49 - 60. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please visit my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:42] The final figures in the hard pavement: Alcmeon (and Eriphyle), Sennacherib, Tomyris (and Cyrus), and Holofernes (and Judith).[11:16] The craft of the passage: children killing their parents v. women killing warlords, sacred spaces v. profane/political slaughter, occluded v. presented figures.[15:41] Curiosities in the passage: the unnamed figures, the allegory of the hard pavement, the connection between Sennacherib and Satan, and the odd notion of Holofernes' "relics."[21:24] Our final discussion on the virtue of humility: its possible evolutionary necessity for a communal animal.

We're still walking on top of the reliefs of the prideful in the road bed of the first terrace of Mount Purgatory after the gate: the terrace of pride. Here, Dante the pilgrim sees four more figures: two from the classical age and two from the Biblical age. And the classical figures seem distinctly connected to art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore another short passage on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride.Would you like to help support this podcast? I have many fees--domain, licensing, streaming, hosting, and more--and I could use a little help covering them, since I remain otherwise unsupported. To help out and donate a little, please visit this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 37 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please visit my website: markscarbrough.com.[02:39] The figures in the road bed in this passage: Niobe, Saul, Arachne, and Reheboam.[10:06] The craft of this passage: Ovid's Metamorphosis v. the Bible; poetry and art v. politics and revolt.[13:00] One curiosity in the passage: suicides.[15:43] The second of three discussions on the difficulty of making humility a virtue.

Virgil has directed Dante the pilgrim to look down at the road bed. Dante sees figures carved into the terrace . . . and he begins to walk on pride, the way one might walk over tombs in the floor of a church.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first four figures carved into road bed. Who are they? How is the passage crafted? And what can they tell us about the dualism of pride and humility?Want to help support this otherwise unsupported podcast? You can donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, domain, and other fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:02] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 25 - 36. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:47] Who are these figures? Lucifer, Briareus, Apollo, Athena, Mars, Jupiter, and Nimrod.[10:14] What are the rhetorical, thematic, and formal poetic structures used to describe this first set of four exemplars.[14:45] One curiosity in the passage: Statius's THEBIAD may lie behind much of it.[15:55] Another curiosity: One set of figures are NOT exemplars of pride.[16:59] A final curiosity: Apollo's occluded presence in the passage.[19:33] The first of three discussions on the difficulty of making humility a virtue.

The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto XII, becomes even stranger as the poet Dante claims that the art he’s about to see beneath his feet is even clearer than the actual events when they happened.All well and good, until we remember this isn’t God’s art, as Dante wants us to believe. It’s Dante’s. And audacious.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second half of the opening twenty-four lines of PURGATORIO, Canto XII.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[02:37] Virgil's call back to realism (or mimesis).[04:30] Tombs and their signs (or symbolic language).[09:56] Artifice as "realer" than real.[21:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24.

Dante is still hunched over, going along like a dumb ox, paired up with the souls on the terrace of pride. His pride has been lanced by their monologues.Until Virgil tells him to be like the damned Ulysses. And then he straightens up and heads out.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the curious opening lines to PURGATORIO, Canto XII. Dante seems to want to have it both ways at once. But all cakes spoil, no matter how careful you are.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:02] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or leave a comment and continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[02:24] Did Dante really create a problem with the redemption of Provenzan Salvani in PURGATORIO, Canto XI?[05:19] Has Dante really morphed into the oxen pulling the cart with the ark, rather than being Uzzah who touches and steadies the ark?[09:55] How is Virgil Dante's tutor?[11:30] Why does Virgil prompt Dante to be Ulysses?[13:05] How exactly is Dante "emptied out"?[16:18] Does the passage include a mistake about Virgil?

If you'd like to make a contribution to help me with hosting, licensing, streaming, editing, and royalty fees, please consider visiting this PayPal link right here.We’ve come to the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XI . . . and the end of the artist Oderisi’s monologue. He finishes up, not with more about himself, but with the tale of the third penitent we see on the first terrace after the gate: Provenzan Salvani, a bad boy from Siena who plotted Florence's demise and who also perhaps foreshadows our poet's exile.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore some of the gorgeous poetry in this passage and try to come to terms with how Dante is constructing this very new bit of theology: Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:30] Echoes in the opening lines of this passage: from the Bible, from INFERNO.[08:59] Back to the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 CE.[11:04] The kinds of pride on this first terrace of Purgatory.[12:58] A gorgeous passage in the Florentine.[15:36] Provenzan Salvani, a Ghibelline tyrant from Siena who plotted Florence's demise.[18:09] "Contrapasso" or "debt"?[20:24] The logistics of Dante's Purgatory.[23:37] A murky repentance.[26:52] Another prophecy of Dante's exile.[28:50] The gloss life gives to art.[31:09] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139.

I said we'd move on to the second half of Oderisi da Gubbio's speech . . . but there's no way we can. There are still so many unanswered questions about the way Dante cryptically inserts himself into the text, the way the art of miniaturization reflects the new style in poetry that Dante practices, and the very fact that Dante meets someone whose life is spent with manuscripts.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work our way through more questions about the first half of Oderisi's speech in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:57] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation (yes, please!), go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:46] Oderisi and Franco are indeed mentioned by others but mostly centuries after Dante. And for what it's worth, is Dante even writing a history-based poem?[06:48] Oderisi calls Dante the pilgrim "brother"--as in monastic brotherhood or as in the talk of artistic guilds?[08:32] Dante puts the prophetic denunciation in the mouth of a character, rather than in the poet's interpolation.[12:38] Dante meets a miniaturist, an illuminator . . . and the new style of poetry was mostly practiced in small poems like sonnets and canzone.[17:34] In my interpretation, Dante the poet remains unnamed in the tercet about the Guidos. Should we see a psychological or artistic development here?[22:13] Dante meets an illuminator, the sort who our poet might hope would someday work on COMEDY.

If you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, WALKING WITH DANTE, you can use this PayPal link right here.On Purgatory's terrace of pride, we turn from noble Omberto to an artist, a manuscript illuminator, Oderisi da Gubbio, who delivers some of the most memorable lines in all of PURGATORIO.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first half of Oderisi's speech, all about the vagaries of artistic fame, the passing of Cimabue in favor of Giotto, and the coming of a poet who can kick two well-known Guido's out of the Italian nest.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:49] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[05:18] Dante the pilgrim and the illuminator Oderisi appear to know each other--which may well be a first comment on the vagaries of artistic fame.[06:48] Who were Oderisi da Gubbio and the Bolognese Franco?[11:55] Laughter may be near the root of Dante's art.[14:25] And desire may lie near the root of Dante's understanding of human behavior.[18:29] Oderisi mixes his metaphors--he is no poet![20:21] Giotto surpasses Cimabue in the development of craft and its tie to fame.[23:35] And someone (Dante?) may well pass the two Guidos in literature . . . although he may be more humbled than first appears to be the case.[27:28] The prideful in PURGATORIO's first terrace reference the heretics in INFERNO.[29:44] The end of the passage makes Brunetto Latini's grand, heroic speech into a lie.[34:52] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108.

We've come to the first penitent who speaks after the gate of Purgatory: Omberto Aldobrandesco. He's from a storied, titled family, a nobleman brought low. Or is he?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Omberto's side of the story, try to discern his character through his words, and ponder why Dante makes the first penitent of Purgatory proper so very boring.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:27] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 46 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:55] More decentering in the passage: Is Dante trying to decenter (or humble) the reader?[09:35] Is Omberto Aldobrandesco humbled?[14:12] Or is he still prideful?[15:54] Or is he both?[17:49] Who was Omberto Aldobrandesco?[22:55] Omberto articulates the basic understanding of purgation in PURGATORIO.[25:53] But why does Dante make the first penitent beyond Purgatory's gate so, well, boring?[29:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 46 - 72.

If you'd like to help out with editing, licensing, streaming, hosting, and website fees for this podcast, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here.Dante the pilgrim has heard the prayer of the prideful penitents under their boulders and now he sees them more clearly, weighed down "as if during dreams." What?It gets more confusing. Dante the poet interrupts the narrative to remind his readers of their duties (to his imagined penitents? what?). And then Virgil speaks without ever being given a dialogue clue, further disorienting COMEDY's readers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this strange passage from PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:05] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:55] Three curiosities in the passage from the medieval Florentine, plus one thematic tie back to Canto X.[10:41] For whom are the prideful penitents praying? And what exactly are they praying for them?[16:18] The poet's lesson, inserted into the ongoing story, is disconcertingly awkward.[21:36] Virgil offers nine lines of dialogue without a cue to us know it's Virgil who's speaking until almost the end--more disorientation.[27:19] The passage ultimately connects to a medieval notion of art by its reference to the weight of dreams.[29:35] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 25 - 45.

Please support this podcast! Help me with streaming, hosting, licensing, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here.Dante now hears the first of the penitents of Purgatory proper. They're under their boulders, reciting the foundational of Christianity.Except they're not. They're reciting Dante's rewrite of that prayer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this curious passage that opens PURGATORIO, Canto XI, in which our poet has the sheer bravado to rewrite the most important prayer in the Christian tradition.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:06] Initial comments about the prayer from the prideful penitents on the first terrace of Purgatory proper.[09:25] The original statement of the prayer from Matthew 6: 9 - 13 versus Dante's rewrite of it.[12:55] Dante's additions to this foundational prayer.[21:39] The controversies Dante writes into this foundational prayer.[32:29] Two interpretive questions. One, why does Dante feel free to rewrite a ritualized prayer, part of the liturgy itself?[35:45] Two, what is Dante's ultimate poetic theory? That sacred space creates metaphoric/poetic space which then creates actual/physical reality.

Please consider supporting this podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, as well as royalties for the sound effects, by visiting this PayPal link right here.Virgil has prompted the pilgrim Dante to look at the penitents coming around the bend on the first terrace of Purgatory proper. But Dante can't make them out . . . until the poet intervenes with an invective and the envisions these penitents as works of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hall of mirrors that Dante's theory of art is becoming even on the first terrace of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:00] The prophetic denunciation in the center of the passage hopes for a collective redemption out of individual sin.[10:08] Dante's and Virgil's eyesights are first compromised so that they can't comprehend what they see.[12:30] Art's power to interpret the realities of what is seen leads to Dante's hall of mirrors in which art is interpreting the real while being based on the real.[18:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 112 - 139.

Help support this podcast by donating at this PayPal link right here.Having seen the intaglios, Dante is still in wonder as the first penitents round the bend. Virgil spots them first . . . and murmurs to Dante.Murmurs? It’s a loaded verb in a passage about Dante’s theory of art.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on this short passage in PURGATORIO, Canto X, a passage that seams the canto together . . . or perhaps reveals its stitching.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:07] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:18] This passage is a seam in the narrative, an important break in its structure.[06:50] In Dante's theory of art, only God can create something out of nothing.[08:21] Only in retrospect do we know what the intaglios were about. Or do we?[10:00] Dante is writing ekphrastic poetry (poetry about a piece of visual art) about art that doesn't exist except in his own imaginative landscape.[12:28] Several possible answers to the complicated question of Virgil's murmuring in this scene.[18:08] Dante's third address to the reader in PURGATORIO may exhibit a hesitation or even an insecurity in the narrative.[23:12] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 94 - 111.

Please consider helping to support WALKING WITH DANTE. You can help me cover streaming, licensing, royalty, hosting, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here.Dante goes on to find the last intaglio or relief carving in the austere, too-steep, marble wall of the first terrace of Purgatory. Here, he finds a scene between the Roman emperor Trajan and a sorrowing mother who demands justice.Demands it so much, in fact, that she and Trajan have a dramatized conversation, although they're carved into marble. Eagles soar. Knights tramp the ground. What's Dante up to?Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante the poet push the claims of realism to the breaking point to end at the moral crux of all of PURGATORIO: How do you balance justice and compassion?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:14] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:07] The first major players in the passage: the Roman emperor Trajan and the widow at his horse's bridle.[05:19] The third major player in the passage: Pope Gregory the Great.[07:21] Trajan is named outright, although other reliefs use periphrastic phrasing to identify the characters in the marble. Is that difference important?[10:30] The passage picks up and alters the vendetta thematics from INFERNO.[13:01] The woman at Trajan's horse's bridle seems a middle ground between the submissive Virgin Mary and the haughty Michal: an actionable humility.[15:56] An interpretive question about the difference between history and story (or "istoria" and "storiata," to use Dante's words).[18:53] Mimetic (realistic) art relies on imagined details to bolster and enhance the realism claims.[23:45] The moral crux of Purgatory is the balance between justice and compassion.[25:36] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 70 - 93.

After the intaglio about the annunciation, Dante moves beyond Virgil (or is prodded to move beyond his guide) to discover a second sequence, this time from the story of King David and his journey with the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem.The scene is so realistic that it causes a sensory confusion in our pilgrim. Problem is, his amazement at the realism in the art is based on the poet's fabrication of details in the scene. The imagined enhances the real? A complex game indeed!Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look with the pilgrim at the second carving on the terrace of the prideful in PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:00] Comparing the first image in the marble with this second one: spare vs. elaborate.[04:54] Dante, on the side of Virgil's heart, eventually passes his guide. Is this symbolic? Allegorical? Or ironic?[09:51] The relief in the marble is a story lifted from II Samuel 6: 1 - 23.[12:19] The last six lines of the passage seem to show a dichotomy between low comedy and high tragedy.[14:26] Complex ironies in the passage: Dante makes up details that are the basis of its hyper-realism.[17:23] More complex ironies in the passage: Dante the poet may appear in disguise twice in the pilgrim's story.[21:01] The call for greater realism leads to, yes, Renaissance art but also to modern abstraction.[23:48] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 46 - 69.

Please donate to help support this walk with Dante. You can help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, editing, and royalty fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.Dante the pilgrim and (shockingly!) Virgil have made it to the first terrace of Purgatory proper, although they (and we?) are still not sure exactly what's going on. All we know is that the terrace has gorgeous carvings in the white marble.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the first of these carvings that will help us understand the penance ahead--and more importantly, help us understand Dante's theory of art, developed over the central cantos of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:18] Who was Polykleitos? What does Dante know of him? And how does this artist relate to "nature," the "child" of God.[06:13] The first image in the marble is revealed through periphrasis, despite its inherent realism.[11:24] "Ave" is an inversion of "Eva"--or Eve, from the garden of Eden. The fall in Genesis and the consequence of death lie at the bottom of this passage.[14:42] Dante appears to favor very realistic art.[15:50] The art here is rather spare--or at least sparely described.[17:03] Dante appears to favor didactic (or moral) art.[17:46] Dante's theory of art is that creativity builds off what's come before.[22:30] To put "historical" matter in an imaginative space is to compromise the historicity of the matter.[25:57] The unknowable is embellished by art, a most human gesture.[28:38] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 28 - 45.

If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating to cover hosting, licensing, and streaming fees by using this PayPal link right here.Dante and Virgil have come through the dramatic gate of Purgatory proper and entered a wildly open space, edging out to the void. This stark emptiness provides an existential contrast to all of the sound and fury that came just before.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hard climb up to and the initial step onto the first of the seven terraces of Purgatory itself. Let's talk about this passage's emotional space, as well as the beautiful poetics in the medieval Florentine.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto X, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or print it off for notes, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:57] PURGATORIO, Canto X opens in a barren, quiet, and unsettling spot.[10:46] Two interpretive problems: 1) How can love be bad? And 2) what sound does the gate make when it closes?[15:10] The climb up to the first terrace references two New Testament passages: Matthew 7: 13 - 14 and Matthew 19: 24.[17:26] The medieval Florentine poetry shows the challenges of the climb.[22:23] Dante and Virgil eventually stand on a narrow terrace at the edge of the void.

If you'd like help support this podcast by underwriting its hosting, streaming, royalty, website, and editing fees, please consider donating at this PAYPAL link right here.I hope you're ready for the climb. We've come through the gate of PURGATORY to find ourselves on the first terrace of those actually getting rid of their sins.In this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we'll read through my rough--very rough--English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII, to give us all a chance to see the landscape, understand the arc of the story, and see some of the difficulties that lie ahead.Sit back and enjoy the plot of the first terrace of Purgatory proper.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:07] A plot summary of PURGATORIO so far, just so we're all up to speed.[06:31] A read-through of my rough English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII.

Help support the work of the podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, royalty, hosting, streaming, and editing fees associated with our walk. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link here.Dante and Virgil finally walk through the gate into Purgatory . . . in one of the most complex endings of any canto in all of COMEDY. There's tragedy and comedy, classical leaning and Christian resolution, emotional distress and safety, screeching and singing, tyranny and polyphony, all tied up together in a passage that has tripped scholars for seven hundred years.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the ins and outs of this most complex ending to Canto IX of PURGATORIO. This canto is worth the admission into the poem . . . and into the realms of the redeemed souls, too.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:35] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, you can do so on my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:40] The angel's warning: Lot's wife vs. Orpheus and Eurydice.[08:44] Virgil's increasingly tenuous spot in PURGATORIO.[10:53] The tough parts of this passage: an amalgam of Roman history, Lucan's PHARSALIA, and Virgil's AENEID.[14:50] An interpretation of the negative tonalities in the imagery and Dante's role as Julius, the looter.[18:59] The hymn sung and the entrance into a monastic space.[21:54] Polyphony, a new poetic language, and the difficulties ahead.[26:56] Rereading all of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. To help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, please consider donating through this PayPal link here.Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to the angel at the very gate of Purgatory and witness his strange interchange with our pilgrim Dante.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[03:39] The colorful beauty of the scene vs. the angel's ashy robes.[05:52] Virgil's effort to get the pilgrim Dante into Purgatory.[09:44] The two keys: gold and silver.[13:28] God's forgiveness vs. humanity's capacity to forgive.[17:20] The seven Ps on Dante's forehead: an essential strangeness.[19:34] Writing on the forehead in Biblical traditions and in COMEDY.[22:46] Erring on the side of opening, rather than closing--with an important caveat.[26:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129.

Please consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, royalties, hosting, and web domains for this podcast. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link right here.We've made it to the steps into Purgatory. In other words, we've made it to an interpretive quagmire. Seven hundred years of scholarship sit on these steps. But maybe there's a way we can clear off the dons and see the steps in a new way.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these important twelve lines that lead us right up to the angel sitting at the gate of Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:01] Dante's classical dream and Virgil's Christian explanation, continued.[09:03] The aesthetic beauty of the steps into Purgatory.[11:20] Two small bits to notice: "we came on from there" and the angel's position above the steps themselves.[15:51] The traditional, theological interpretation of the allegory of the three steps.[20:55] But the larger question: Why is the entrance to Purgatory an interpretive riddle?[23:11] The entrance to hell was a writerly act of words over the gate; the entrance to Purgatory is a speech act from the angel (which is still a writerly act because we read it on the page).[26:22] Confession is also a speech act.[27:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 94 - 105.

Please help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, hosting, and producing this podcast by visiting this PayPal link right here.Dante seemed so full of confidence when he learned that his dream was indeed only a dream and that Lucy had in fact carried him to the gate of Purgatory.But that was before he faced the angel guardian at the gate, whose forbidding presence seems to silence the pilgrim.Fortunately, Virgil is ever ready to answer.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue to watch the interplay among our pilgrim Dante, his classical guide, and the Christian afterlife ahead of him.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:28] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, do so in the comment section for this episode at my website, markscarbrough.com.[04:12] The angel at Purgatory's gate is so threatening that he silences the pilgrim Dante.[06:37] The angel is a blocking figure, reminiscent of the Cherubim placed at the Garden of Eden, yet also of medieval iconography for St. Paul.[08:51] This is the first angel to speak in COMEDY! We begin to understand Dante's notion of divine transcendence.[13:13] The angel's questions have answers but still seem forbidding, like the questions of other gatekeepers in COMEDY.[16:22] The damned Virgil is ever ready to give a reply to the gatekeepers of COMEDY. Apparently, even to an angel.[19:03] The angel calls the stairs "ours." Whose?[20:35] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 79 - 93.

Help me cover the costs for this podcast: its hosting, licensing, streaming, and royalty fees. (Those sound effects require royalties!) You can donate using this PayPal link right here.Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory.In the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys across the known universe.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first approach to the gate of Purgatory itself.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:55] The passage opens with a curious simile that doesn't need to be a simile.[06:48] The change in the pilgrim is found in a reflexive verb.[10:53] The apparently open gate is actually shut, in contrast to the gate of hell.[12:53] The second address to the reader in PURGATORIO: Dante asks his reader to commit fearlessly to the more difficult material ahead.[18:40] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Please support this work by donating to cover hosting, streaming, editing, licensing, and other fees associated with this podcast. To do so, please visit this Paypal link right here.Dante awakens in stark terror. But he's beside his constant companion, Virgil. And he's a long way up the mountain, looking far down at the sea.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Virgil tell about the arrival of Lucy and discover that the Christian truth of comedy is always textured by the classical poetics of tragedy.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:30] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63. If you'd like to read along or to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:23] Virgil sprays Dante the pilgrim with aphorisms, perhaps the best the classical world can do.[05:06] PURGATORIO, Canto IX, has many parallels with INFERNO, Canto IX.[07:46] Lucy shows up--but first, a problem with my translation.[09:50] More importantly, which Lucy shows up?[14:03] Apparently even a saint has to obey the laws of Mount Purgatory.[15:07] Shock! Virgil follows Lucy to the gate of Purgatory![15:48] Why is the story given to Virgil? Why doesn't Dante the pilgrim just experience the ascent in Lucy's arms "in real time"?[18:00] The classical imagery is not overwhelmed by the Christian truth of comedy. Rather, the classical imagery is the constant texture of Dante's truth.[21:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 43 - 63.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free! Please donate to help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, royalty, and research fees. You can do so at this PayPal link here.Dante dreams his way to the gate of Purgatory using three classical images that explain his sexual rapture in the presence of divine love but also give his journey a texture of sadness.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first dream of PURGATORIO. Let's explore the imagery from Ovid, Virgil, and Statius, as well as Dante's rather unusual medieval attitude toward homosexuality.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to the Dante pages on my website: markscarbrough.com.[05:24] Dante's morning dream is truthful AND puts to rest the notion that COMEDY itself is somehow a dream.[07:55] The first classical image: Tereus, Procne, and Philomel.[11:36] The second classical image: Ganymede, Zeus, and the eagle.[14:22] The third classical image: Achilles on Skyros.[17:22] Love, fire, and the divine mission of COMEDY.[19:11] The classical imagery adds a sorrowful texture to the passage because real conversion always involves loss.[22:31] The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, is about unrefined, unpurged, or "unnatural" love.[25:14] Dante sees homosexuality as nonetheless a form of love, a dramatic step for a medieval thinker.[28:44] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 13 - 42.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE! To help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, research, and royalty fees (that music costs money!), consider donating to the podcast at this PayPal link.We begin PURGATORIO, Canto IX, with a mess of classical imagery that's befuddled scholars for centuries. We won't come to any conclusions about it, other than to say that such misdirection may be the heart of the matter.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this difficult opening to a central canto for PURGATORIO: the gate into the main matter of the canticle, the cornices where souls are purged (or purge themselves--but more on that to come!).Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or continue this difficult discussion, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:42] Sleeping, being human, and journeying in COMEDY.[06:53] The first mess in the passage: Tithonus, his wife, and his concubine.[10:48] The second mess in the passage: the signs of the zodiac.[13:03] The third mess in the passage: the three steps of the night.[15:56] The first common solution to the mess: European time v. Purgatorial time.[18:08] The second common solution to the mess: the concubine and the moon.[19:28] My solution: poetic play and classical imagery, not classical control of that imagery.[26:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12.

Help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can donate at this PayPal link here.We're finally at the gate of Purgatory! And it's a corker of a canto, to say the least.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this quick read-through of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, before we take it apart line by line to study it in the depth Dante intends.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[03:16] Reading through my English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto IX.[10:56] Initial interpretive questions for PURGATORIO, Canto IX.

Help support WALKING WITH DANTE. Please donate to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees, as well as royalties for the music. You can donate at this PayPal link here.We've reached the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, which means we've reached the end of Ante-Purgatory, those cantos and those parts of the mountain before the main gate of Purgatory proper.Here, Dante changes the tone completely, ending our stay outside of Purgatory proper in praise of generosity--or specifically, the generosity of the Malaspina family.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we head for the main gate of Purgatory on a high note. Some people do indeed do well and live right in this world.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:50] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue our conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:05] This shade doesn't seem at all interested in the angels or the serpent. Why?[05:18] Currado's opening speech is incredibly florid. But what is the lantern leading Dante up the mountain?[08:33] The powerful Malaspina family ruled tracts of Lunigiana.[11:29] Dante the pilgrim doesn't know what Dante the poet knows all too well.[13:45] Dante was a peace negotiator for the Malaspina family in 1306.[18:21] Currado's reply to Dante's praise is a prophecy of Dante's exile--and the care he will need in exile.[20:54] The beautiful structure of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[23:25] Ante-Purgatory ends on an ethic of care.[26:31] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 109 - 139.

Please help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can give as you like here at this PayPal link.After Judge Nino's misogynistic diatribe, Dante the pilgrim stares at the stars. The four from the opening of PURGATORIO have passed beyond his sight; three new stars are rising, when the long-awaited snake makes its appearance in the dale of the negligent rulers.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work to untangle the meaning in this curious and symbolic passage that cues us to much that's ahead in our walk across the known universe--and specifically, up Mount Purgatory.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 85 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[04:38] Many Dante scholars want Dante to stare at the heavens, his attention not on Judge Nino, if only to save our pilgrim-poet from the misogyny in the previous passage. But why?[06:11] PURGATORIO VI - VIII involves the wheel of fortune for earthly figures that eventually morphs into the wheeling stars of the heavens.[09:30] The passing of morning and night is crucial to understanding the human nature of PURGATORIO.[13:06] The four cardinal virtues are setting and the three Christian virtues are riding.[16:21] The serpent in PURGATORIO brings Eve (and Eden) into the passage that had mentioned the Virgin Mary--although Dante is clearly a tad hesitant about this serpent (and its allegory?).[19:24] The allegory of the snake in PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, may be connected to the setting of the infernal landscape and thus the setting of the classical "landscape" of Comedy.[25:45] The beginnings of grace are not seen but its action (or motion) is.

After Dante shocks Judge Nino and the poet Sordello with the revelation of the pilgrim's own corporeality, Judge Nino launches into a disgusting diatribe about his "unfaithful wife," a pernicious bit of misogyny that threatens to derail COMEDY . . . or at least our appreciation of it.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult passage in PURGATORIO, one that must be addressed but leaves us with no good answers about works of art from the past.Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:53] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this passage to continue this difficult conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.[03:52] Dante's increasingly original language in COMEDY.[07:06] Giovanna and Beatrice, Judge Nino's earthly family: the center of his rage and a node of disgusting misogyny in COMEDY.[14:09] Judge Nino and the imagined death of his allegedly "unfaithful" wife.[15:37] Judge Nino's moderating anger and the emotional landscape of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII.[17:49] The problem with misogyny in a great poem.[24:03] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, lines 64 - 84.