Dante's Divine Comedy

• 1. Compare Inferno I.22-24 to Purgatorio I:1-3. What is the meaning of “the water(s)” in each case?

In the first example, the water posed danger; it is Inferno. In the second, the “better waters” identify Purgatory, clearing better than the pitiless sea of Inferno.

What is the theology expressed in lines 4-6?

Purgatory is where the human spirit becomes fit for heaven. There is no possibility that anyone here will incur damnation.

Lines 7-12 constitute the third invocation. What is the “dead poetry” the poet bid to “rise to life again”?

All beauty, except the terrible beauty of God’s justice, is banished from Hell; thus, poetry is dead there.

The themes of forgiveness and rebirth are announced by resurrecting poetry itself, whose nature is a major theme of this canticle.

The earliest commentators interpreted the phrase as poetry concerned with the souls of the damned, while some pre-humanists of the Renaissance interpreted it to mean poetry that had died with the ancients and is now making a return under the pen of Dante.

Dante here calls the Muses “holy,” a qualifier he did not use in Inferno. Why does he specify the name of Calliope?

She is the Muse of epic poetry. In addition, Virgil calls on her in Aeneid 9:525 where the poet calls on her to “breathe into me as I sing.”

In calling her holy, Dante implies that his poetic art must now keep a more religious sense since its subject has shifted from damnation to salvation.

• 2. Lines 13-30 actually enact the rebirth of poetry with the evocation of the beauty of the heavens, whose changing color is the chief indicator of the passage of time. Dante and Virgil are emerging from the dark and gloom of Hell into the sunlit blue sky of Earth. Purgatory will be a brighter, happier place than was Hell. What is the significance of the poet’s choosing to use the word sapphire?

Both ancient and Medieval writers regarded the sapphire as having healing powers. Its (typically) blue color makes it a symbol of heaven. In Revelation, the second foundation of the new Jerusalem is made of sapphire. In Exodus, when Moses and the seventy elders look upon the pavement beneath the feet of God, it looks like sapphire. This is a radical change from descriptions of Hell.

According to lines 13-15, what is the time of day?

It is dawn

In lines 19-21, what kind of love is Venus, the supposed morning star, fostering?

It is the love of God, of God’s Creation, of God’s promises.

Esolen chooses the words “orient heavens” because an archaic meaning of “orient” means “rising from the horizon.”

How has Dante used the four stars he sees in lines 22-24?

They symbolize the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These four virtues were infused into Adam and Eve when they were created. We are now in a realm of virtue, no longer in the realm of vice.

Why has mankind, who dwells in life only in the Northern Hemisphere, been “deprived the sight of” these stars (lines 25-27)?

They/we have lost absolute virtue in the Fall and been banished from Eden.

Dante may imply a comparison to Lamentations 1:1 where he describes Jerusalem as widowed.

• 3. We now turn to lines 31-109 and Cato of Utica, the guardian of Purgatory. I hope you read Esolen’s notes on line 31.

How does Cato’s description in lines 31-39 support his selection as Purgatory’s guardian by Dante?

His age speaks to his wisdom. He appears exceedingly reverend. His long beard and hair are white, bespeaking his personal purity. Finally, the “rays of the four holy stars” adorn his face with the four cardinal virtues—but NOT the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love.

How do lines 67-72 explain how Virgil may guide Dante through Purgatory?

Virgil declares that his authority and power come “From on high,” leading Dante to Purgatory and to meeting Cato, the guardian of the place.

From what does Dante seek freedom?

He seeks freedom of the will from sin and its compulsions.

Perhaps recalling the words of Paul in his Letter to the Romans, he longs to be dead to sin and alive in God. He desires the freedom of obedience to God. Consider Romans 6:20-23.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Who “refused his life for” freedom? (lines 72-75)

Cato did so.

In those same lines, what do we learn Cato’s final destiny to be?

He will eventually be saved on Judgment Day.

What do Virgil’s words regarding Martia in lines 79-81 reveal about Virgil’s knowledge, especially in light of Cato’s response in lines 85-93?

Virgil’s appeal from the position of Martia’s love for her husband – and his supposed love for her – is an example of the appeal to the good will of the listener in classical rhetoric. Because Beatrice used it on him when she approached him in Limbo, he seems to assume it will work on Cato. However, he has failed to remember that Cato is under the New Law. Pity for those in Hell is not possible for him.

It may also be that Cato has Matthew 22:30 in mind where Christ says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.”

Though Martia’s name holds no sway with Cato, Beatrice’s does. Virgil has relied upon the power of the spiritually dead when he should have appealed to that of the saved.

What is the significance of Cato’s instructions to Virgil regarding Dante? (lines 94-99)

Girding Dante with a pliant reed marks the humility necessary to enter through the gate that ultimately leads to Paradise. Softness and flexibility are associated with humility, and the rush has many scriptural associations, especially in the infancy narrative of Moses.

The washing of his face is his purification so that he might be pure in sight when he stands before the admitting angel at the gate of Purgatory in Canto IX. Of course, this cleansing evokes baptism as well.

This cleansing recalls Aeneas’s own self-cleansing when he enters the Elysian fields in Aeneid VI.635-636.

Lines 100-105 point to the connection between the reed, its pliancy and resilience, and the symbolism of humility.

• 4. How do lines 118-120 connect to Canto I of Inferno?

Dante had lost the true way at the poem’s beginning, but now he is back on the path toward salvation. This information is expressed in an epic simile.

What do you make of lines 133-136?

The plucked reed’s instant renewal expresses the beginning of an inner renewal through which the poet, holding to the way of humility, opens himself to a new life.

Recall the reed’s evocation of Christ whose scepter given Him by the Roman soldiers was made of a reed. Further, a medieval source asserts that Christ’s crown of thorns was made from sea rushes.

Commentators have for centuries noted the parallel to Aeneid VI.143-144 where Aeneas takes a golden bough which is instantly replaced before he proceeds ultimately to the Elysian Fields.

In contrast, however, the golden bough is artificial and precious, while the Christian one is natural and of little worth.