Purgatorio (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno and preceding the Paradiso; it was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegorical telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil—except for the last four cantos, at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide. Allegorically, Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life.Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto VII. In describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem posits the theory that all sins arise from love—either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things.
Overview of Purgatory
Dante portrays Purgatory as an island-mountain in the Southern Hemisphere. This realm is divided into three parts. The bottom slopes of Mount Purgatory (Purgatorio I–IX) have been designated as "Ante-Purgatory" by commentators. Purgatory proper consists of seven levels or terraces (Purgatorio X–XXVII) of suffering and spiritual growth, associated with the seven deadly sins. Finally, the Earthly Paradise is located at the top of the mountain (Purgatorio XXVIII–XXXIII).
Passage of time As described in the Inferno, the first twenty-four hours of Dante's journey took place on earth and started on the evening of Maundy Thursday, 24 March (or 7 April) 1300 (Inf. I and II), and the next full day (Good Friday) was spent exploring the depths of Hell with Virgil as a guide (Inf. III–XXXIV.69). Dante and Virgil spent the next day ascending from Hell to see the stars (Inf. XXXIV.70–139). They arrive at the shore of the Mountain of Purgatory—the only land in the Southern Hemisphere—at 6 am on Easter Sunday,Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, notes on Canto I: "Thus behind all the references that the canto makes to regeneration and rebirth there is the realization that all life and all redemption depends upon Christ's Resurrection from the dead." which is 6 pm on Sunday in Jerusalem, since the two points are antipodal. Dante describes Hell as existing underneath Jerusalem, having been created by the impact of Lucifer's fall; the Mountain of Purgatory was created by a displacement of rock caused by the same event.Inferno, Canto 34, lines 121–126, Mandelbaum translation "This was the side on which he fell from Heaven; / for fear of him, the land that once loomed here / made of the sea a veil and rose into / our hemisphere; and that land which appears / upon this side perhaps to flee from him / left here this hollow space and hurried upward." The Purgatorio picks up where the Inferno left off, describing Dante's three-and-one-quarter-day trip up the mountain that ends with Dante in the Earthly Paradise at the time of noon on Wednesday, 30 March (or 13 April).
Prayer Prayer is a dominant theme in Purgatorio. Many of the souls Dante meets are depicted in prayer, with multiple liturgical references to psalms and hymns throughout the terraces. Prayers by the living on behalf of the souls also play a large role in the cantica, with some souls the pilgrim meets along the way requesting prayers from living relatives and even from the pilgrim himself. Dante learns from Manfred of Sicily in Ante-Purgatory that, in Purgatory, prayers from others work by shortening the wait that souls have to endure before entering Purgatory proper and by accelerating the rate at which souls ascend Mount Purgatory.Purgatorio, III.136–145. One soul, Forese Donati, has gotten through Ante-Purgatory and the majority of the terraces only five years after his death, because of the prayers of his wife, Nella, on Earth.Purgatorio, XXIII.85–93. Forese's case, especially when compared to that of Statius, who has spent over 500 years on Mount Purgatory,Purgatorio, XXI.68. shows the power of prayer to aid souls after death. Dante receives eleven distinct requests for prayer from individual souls in Purgatory, with most of the requests coming from souls in Ante-Purgatory and with the frequency of requests decreasing as he progresses through Purgatory.
Ante-Purgatory Ante-Purgatory is the region below the entrance into Purgatory proper and houses two main categories of souls whose penitent Christian life was delayed or deficient: the excommunicate and the late-repentant. This transitional space parallels similar sections found in the Inferno (the space reserved for the lukewarm and the neutral angels found in Inferno III) and in the Paradiso (the heavens under the shadow of Earth traversed by the pilgrim in Paradiso I–IX).
This region is therefore characterised by a lingering attachment to earthly life and affairs, so that the crowds of souls whom Dante and Virgil meet here all marvel at Dante's body in the flesh (Purgatorio II–III). As Statius will later explain, Ante-Purgatory is also the only area of Mount Purgatory that is subjected to terrestrial meteorology.Purgatorio, XXI.43–57.
Shore of the island (Cantos I–II) In Purgatorio I.4–9, with the sun rising on Easter Sunday, Dante announces his intention to describe Purgatory by invoking the mythical Muses, as he did in Canto II of the Inferno:
Now I shall sing the second kingdomthere where the soul of man is cleansed,made worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Here from the dead let poetry rise up,O sacred Muses, since I am yours.Here let Calliope arise...Purgatorio, Canto I, lines 4–9, Hollander translation.
At the shores of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil meet Cato, a pagan who was placed by God as the general guardian of the approach to the mountain (his symbolic significance has been much debated). The Purgatorio demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a spherical Earth,Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, The Dante Encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2000, , pp. 328–330 (EARTH, GLOBE).John Brian Harley and David Woodward, The History of Cartography, Humana Press, , p. 321. with Dante referencing the different stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various time zones of the Earth. For instance, at the start of Canto II, the reader learns that it is dawn in Purgatory; Dante conveys this concept by explaining that it is sunset at Jerusalem (antipodal to the Mount of Purgatory), midnight (six hours later) over India on the River Ganges (with the constellation Libra overhead there), and noon (six hours earlier) over Spain. The journey is conceived as taking place during the vernal equinox, when the days and nights are of the same length.
By now the sun was crossing the horizonof the meridian whose highest pointcovers Jerusalem; and from the Ganges,night, circling opposite the sun, was movingtogether with the Scales that, when the lengthof dark defeats the day, desert night's hands;so that, above the shore that I had reached,the fair Aurora's white and scarlet cheekswere, as Aurora aged, becoming orange.Purgatorio, Canto II, lines 1–9, Mandelbaum translation.
In marked contrast to Charon's ferry across the Acheron in the Inferno, Christian souls are escorted by an angel pilot from their gathering place somewhere near Ostia, the seaport of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, through the Pillars of Hercules across the seas to the Mountain of Purgatory. The souls arrive singing In exitu Israel de Aegypto.Psalm 114 (Psalm 113 in the Latin Vulgate): "When Israel came out of Egypt" (NIV). In his Letter to Cangrande, Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the redemption of Christ and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace"."The Letter to Can Grande," in Literary Criticism of Dante Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), p. 99. Dante recognises his friend Casella among the souls there (Canto II).
The Excommunicate The poets begin to climb in the early hours of morning.. On the lower slopes, Dante and Virgil first encounter the excommunicate, who are detained at the base of the cliff for a period thirty times as long as their period of contumacy. The excommunicate include Manfred of Sicily. Manfred explains that prayer from those currently alive and in the grace of God may reduce the amount of time a soul spends in purgatory.Purgatorio, III.140–145. The meeting with Manfred is over by about 9 AM.Purgatorio, III.15–16. (Canto III).
The Late-Repentant
The Late-Repentant include (1) those too lazy or too preoccupied to repent (the Indolent), (2) those who repented at the last minute without formally receiving last rites, as a result of violent deaths, and (3) the Negligent Rulers. These souls will be admitted to Purgatory thanks to their genuine repentance, but must wait outside for an amount of time equal to their lives on earth. The lazy include Belacqua (possibly a deceased friend of Dante), whom Dante is relieved to discover here, rather than in Hell. The meeting with Belacqua is over by noon (Canto IV).
Those not receiving last rites include Pia de' Tolomei of Siena, who was murdered by her husband, Nello della Pietra of the Maremma (Canto V):
"may you remember me, who am La Pia;Siena made, Maremma unmade me:he who, when we were wed, gave me his pledgeand then, as nuptial ring, his gem, knows that".Purgatorio, Canto V, lines 133–136, Mandelbaum translation.
Also in this category is the troubadour Sordello who, like Virgil, is from Mantua. When Sordello discovers the great poet's identity, he bows down to him in honour. This helps keep Virgil in the foreground of the poem, since (as a resident of Limbo) Virgil is less qualified as a guide here than he was in Hell. As a resident of Purgatory, Sordello is able to explain the Rule of the Mountain: that after sunset souls are incapable of climbing any further. Allegorically, the sun represents God, meaning that progress in the penitent Christian life can only be made through Divine Grace. Virgil's conversation with Sordello ends as the sun is moving downward, that is, after 3 PMPurgatorio, VII.43. (Cantos VI to VII).
It is sunset, so Dante and his companions stop for the night in the Valley of the Princes where they meet persons whose preoccupation with public and private duties hampered their spiritual progress, particularly deceased monarchs such as Rudolph, Ottokar, Philip the Bold, and Henry III (Cantos VII and VIII). John Ciardi writes that these Negligent Rulers are "elevated above their negligent subjects because their special duties made it difficult for them to think about the welfare of their own souls".John Ciardi, Purgatorio, notes on Canto VII, p. 343. Dante also speaks with the souls of contemporary Italian statesmen Currado Malaspina and Nino Visconti, the latter being a personal friend whom Dante rejoices at not having found among the damned.
As night approaches, the souls sing the Compline hymns Salve Regina and Te lucis ante terminum. Dante's description of evening in this valley was the inspiration for a similar passage in Byron's Don Juan:Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on Canto VIII.
Purgatorio, Canto VIII, 1–6 (Longfellow) Don Juan, Canto 3, CVIII, 1–6 'twas now the hour that turneth back desireIn those who sail the sea, and melts the heart,The day they've said to their sweet friends farewell,And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,If he doth hear from far away a bellThat seemeth to deplore the dying day, Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heartOf those who sail the seas, on the first dayWhen they from their sweet friends are torn apart;Or fills with love the pilgrim on his wayAs the far bell of vesper makes him start,Seeming to weep the dying day's decay;