Esta es una de mis publicaciones viejas, escrita a finales del 2021. Más que una crítica o reseña del poema, es un intento de vendérselo al público general. Me da un poco de cringe el estilo con el cual escribía antes, pero igual decido publicarla. Más importante, evité ahondar en el tema de la religión para hacer la publicación más acogedora para el público general, algo que nunca haría hoy.

"Expect no more of me in word or deed: here your will is upright, free, and whole, and you would be in error not to heed whatever your own impulse prompts you to: lord of yourself I crown and mitre you."

—Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio

Introduction

Dante's Divina Commedia was written in 1320, and 700 years later its ability to comprehensively cover all of human experience within a single narrative remains unmatched. Drawing from the teachings of Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, Dante outlines the universe as a sphere, one in which God is its circumference and Satan its center. Thus, the value of any given thing can be determined simply by establishing how close it is to the boundaries of the sphere, and how far away it is from its center. But this model is much more than that, and its genius lies in the fact that it is capable of covering the order of the literal universe, Christian experience and morality all within a single model, outlined from the Inferno to the Paradiso. It deals with the physical understanding of the world, since (under the Ptolemaic system of the times) the Earth was the center of the universe, which meant that Hell was the origin point of the universe. It deals with Christianity, because it takes Readers through the recognition of sin (Inferno), its complete rejection (Purgatorio), and the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). It deals with morality, because it explores questions like what makes a bad man and what does it take to become a good man. Above all, the Commedia is comprehensive, since it manages to encompass so much of what it means to be human, regardless of whether these were born in antiquity, the Middle Ages, or the twenty-first century.

As they climb the two ledges and seven cornices to reach the Earthly Paradise, we yet again see all kinds of human faults, sometimes even on par with what was found in the flames below, except these sinners acknowledge, regret, and repent their mistakes, something which will ultimately guarantee them an entrance into Paradise, no matter how wicked their previous actions might have been. They suffer, but their suffering stems from purification, which is temporary, not damnation, which is eternal. Seeing all this pain, Dante (through Virgil) takes the time to explain his theory on the nature of sin, in which he theorizes all sin really stems from love: the Proud, Envious, and Wrathful have corrupted their love of themselves to hate of others; the Slothful have loved too little; and the Avaricious, Gluttonous, and Lustful have loved immoderately. To reject sin, then, is to love truly.

The first steps are always the hardest, but as Dante distances himself from the Earth and climbs the mountain by rejecting sin and taking in virtue, his steps become lighter and lighter, until he finally reaches the Earthly Paradise and prepares himself to rise towards the stars.

Thoughts

The second part to Dante's great allegory does not disappoint. By now most of the novelty has worn out and you're already accustomed to Dante's world, style, and exposition, but they don't really cease to be captivating. In the Purgatorio, through its characters, their philosophy, and the very design of Purgatory, Dante yet again demonstrates a side of pre-classical and medieval thought dearly missed today. It presents a moral commentary on what is wrong, like the Inferno, but it also emphasizes doing what is right. The Christian roots of the poem are also more emphasized, particularly through the virtue of the life of Mary, the Beatitudes sung by the Angels, and other allegorical devices that urge the souls unto good. All in all, the Purgatorio accomplishes its goal of being a bridge between the depravity of the Inferno and the beauty of the Paradiso.

The main dynamic here is similar to what is seen in the Inferno: the sinners suffer a punishment that relates to their sin. However, in the Inferno the punishment directly reflected the sin, whereas in the Purgatorio the punishment reverses the sin. For example, in the Inferno the Lustful were punished by being violently whirled through the air, symbolizing how they followed their impulses on a whim. In the Purgatorio though, their impulses are symbolized by burning flames, and they achieve penance by learning to stand calmly in them. Likewise, the filthy marshes of the Styx hindered the Slothful's movement in the Inferno, but here, they run around the cornice so vigorously that they won't even stop to speak to Dante. You must remember Dante has given symbolic meaning to nearly everything in the Divina Commedia, and these punishments are certainly no coincidence.

The Purgatorio also presents the dynamic of the whip and the rein. As he climbs each cornice to meet the sinners, Dante is presented first with a whip that urges the sinners unto emulation of virtue and then with a reign that deters them from their sin, both symbolizing the same tools utilized to control the behavior of a horse, respectively. These devices, though presented in various forms, consist of historical examples of great human virtue and fault particular to the sin of the cornice on which the Poets find themselves, and the first examples of great virtue always come from the life of Mary. For example, when the Poets reach the first cornice, that of the Proud, they are presented with three bas-reliefs carved in the perfect marble of the mountain's inner cliff, the first of which depicts Mary's humble reaction upon the Annunciation. After meeting the Proud and discovering their punishment, Dante notices that the floor is carved with thirteen examples of destruction through pride, notable among these the tale of Arachne and of Nimrod and his Tower of Babel. It is these devices which most distinguish the Purgatorio from the Inferno. Hell is a destination meant only to reflect the pain its inhabitants caused, but Purgatory is instead a transitory phase, meant to teach and prepare the souls for salvation.

A pleasant surprise within the Purgatorio is the fact that it contains many medieval scientific, philosophical, and metaphysical theories, and though at times they proved hard to follow to my modern mind, they were exceptionally insightful. The most important of these is Virgil's discourse on love, which as mentioned before is central to Dante's understanding of sin. However, there are many other tangential discourses that, though they aren't as crucial to the story and some are even scientifically irrelevant today, they are still quite thought-provoking. These are unfortunately too long to properly discuss here, but as a quick overview, the Poets discuss anything from the metaphysical faults of Averroism and Epicureanism to Aristotelian/Aquinian ideas on conception and the birth of the human soul. They greatly enrich the Purgatorio's historic and cultural content and yet again demonstrate how, perhaps contrary to popular belief, the ancients and medievals weren't all ignorant and backwards.

A note on Ciardi's translation

The Purgatorio proved to be a more difficult read than I had anticipated. It isn't incomprehensible by any means, but you do have to pay extra attention to ensure that you don't miss out on any of Dante's fine-carved details. The way in which the Poets utilize the stars relative to the southern hemisphere of the world to describe almost the exact hour of the day was particularly hard to grasp. Were it not for the help of Ciardi, I certainly wouldn't have understood these and other complexities presented in the canticle. Though I haven't checked out the other translations, I can definitely vouch for this one. Both it's notes and presentation are clear enough, but as with the Inferno, the tone of the poem takes precedence, something I'm personally fine with.

Who I recommend this to

Readers interested in morality: The Purgatorio will yet again enlighten those who are deeply interested in virtue. The whip is a most useful compilation of great virtue from all periods of history, and many other devices in the Purgatorio also work as a commentary on virtue. I invite you to ponder why Dante chose to place the suicide Cato as the protector of Purgatory, yet Pierre delle Vigne suffers in the seventh circle of Hell.

Readers interested in Christianity: As stated, the Christian influence is more clear in this canticle as opposed to the previous one. The Purgatorio has all sorts of metaphors and references that allude to Christianity (specifically Roman Catholicism, obviously) and the history of the Church, from the color of the three steps taken at the entrance of Purgatory to the Triumphal Chariot and the Heavenly Pageant.