Purgatorio

Dante slowly crosses through the holy forest, aching to search it. He describes the harmony of scents, sights, and a gentle but unchanging breeze. When Dante has traveled so deeply into the forest that he can no longer see from where he entered, he encounters a river that prevents him from proceeding further. Its waters are pure but dark, “no ray of sun or moonlight” (290) passing through them. He looks across the brook and sees a “donna” (woman) singing and picking flowers.

Dante addresses her warmly, comparing her to Proserpina. She moves closer to the river so that he can better hear her song. When she raises her eyes, the light that shines in them is brighter than in Venus’s when Cupid pierced her with his arrows. The woman laughs and notes that Dante’s group is new to the place, which is the Garden of Eden.

Dante asks her how wind and water can exist in Eden, which he thought exempt from nature’s cycles. She replies that God created Eden for humans, but their sin caused their expulsion. The world below is subject to naturally occurring processes, but Eden exists within its own perfectly harmonious sphere, a product of heavenly, rather than earthly, cycles. Here, every fruit and plant exists. God’s will—rather than “ice condens[ing] mist” (282)—also created a stream that flows into two parts, one of which is the Lethe, before which Dante now stands and which washes away memory of sin. The second part is Eunoe, which restores memories of one’s good deeds.

Though she has answered Dante’s question, the woman provides him with another piece of information. The ancient poets who sang of an “Age of Gold” may have been dreaming of this place, where humans were innocent and “there is always spring and every fruit” (293). She adds, “This is the ‘nectar they all speak about’” (293). Dante turns to look back at Virgil and Statius. Both smile back at him, and Dante turns back to “that lovely girl” (293).

The woman sings, “Beati quorum testa sunt peccata” (Blessed are those whose sins are taken away) (294), as she walks upstream. Dante follows her. As a bright light pierces the forest, she tells Dante to look and listen. Dante hears a melody so beautiful that it provokes him to lament “the recklessness of Eve,” who was “not content to stay beneath the veil” (294). He invokes the Muses to help him put into words “things hardly thinkable” (295).

Seven “candle-bearing staves” (295) flame brighter than the moon. Dante turns in wonder to Virgil and sees that he is also “weighed down by heavy awe” (295). Dante looks back at the lights, which are moving slower than “new-wed brides” (295). The woman instructs Dante to pay attention to what follows.

The flames stream back like pennants in the seven colors of the rainbow and guide white-robed figures. At the head of the procession are 24 elders crowned with lilies, walking in pairs, and singing the benediction that the Angel Gabriel sang to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. Behind them come four animals, each of which has six wings made of “peacock-eyed” feathers, like the eyes of Argus. At the center of the four animals, a Gryphon draws a two-wheeled chariot, finer than any Roman one and brighter than the sun itself. The Gryphon’s wings stretch up to the sky, without disrupting the pennants of light. Alongside the right-hand wheel, three ladies sing and dance in a ring: one white, one red, and one green. Alongside the left-hand wheel are four ladies, all clothed in purple garments. One of them has three eyes, and the other three ladies follow her melody.

Also within this knot are two elders, one dressed like Hippocrates, while the second holds a sword. Next come four men with “humble looks,” followed by “an old man all alone” (298). These seven wear crowns with roses and vermilion. Their brows appear to bear “searing fire” (298). The chariot stops before Dante, and a crack of thunder rings out