65 pages • 2 hours read
Dante AlighieriPurgatorio
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1316A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Cantos 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Canto 6 Summary
Like the winner in a gambling contest fending off those who press in around him, Dante promises all the souls what they ask for in order to get away, leaving them to continue praying that others will pray for them. Among the souls are contemporary figures who died violent deaths. Dante asks Virgil whether prayer is effective since, in his works, Virgil denied “that prayers can ever bend what Heaven dictates” (184). Virgil explains that prayer was not then “linked or joined to God” (184).
As Virgil and Dante discuss how quickly to travel, they see a lone soul. Virgil asks him if he knows of a better route. Ignoring Virgil’s question, the soul asks where they are from. When Virgil says Mantua, the soul leaps up and identifies himself as Sordello, a fellow citizen. He and Virgil embrace.
The men’s warmth, inspired by their shared hometown, causes Dante to reflect on Italy’s fraught political situation. Comparing Italy to a wild horse, he wonders why Justinian bothered “form[ing] your reins,” complains that the saddle is “riderless,” and the “beast” has become “untamed and wild” due to neglect (185). He blames “German Albert” and his father for abandoning Italy to internal strife (185). Its cities are “full of petty despots” (186) who fancy themselves rebels against imperial authority. He notes that his native Florence is exempt from his critique because of its peace and wealth, but this does not negate the truth of his words.
Canto 7 Summary
When Virgil and Sordello break off their embrace, Sordello asks who he is. Virgil identifies himself, and Sordello again throws his arms around Virgil, calling him the “glory of the Latin race” (188). He asks Virgil whether he has come from Heaven or Hell. Virgil explains that because he was born before Christ, Limbo is his station, where people who were good but not “made free of human sin” (189) reside.
Virgil asks Sordello how to quickly find the entrance to Purgatory. Sordello agrees to guide them but explains that they can only travel by day since darkness saps souls of their will. Sordello offers to take them to a resting place at a vale, and Virgil agrees. Dante describes the scenery’s beauty. Its colors are richer than precious gems and scents sweeter than any perfume. He hears souls singing the Salve, Regina (Hail Mary) hymn. Sordello suggests waiting until the sun sets to continue down to the vale and points out the various princes seated below. The one seated the highest is Rudolph of Hapsburg, who is not singing the hymn with the rest. Rudolph faces chastisement for having failed to unite Italy when he had the chance. Comforting Rudolph is Ottakar II of Bohemia. As he points out further princes, Sordello laments that kings’ sons often turn out inferior to their fathers.
Canto 8 Summary
Dante reflects on “the dying of the day” (192). A soul asks the others to listen, brings his palms together, and sings the hymn, “Te lucid ante” (before the end of light) (192). The song’s beauty takes Dante “out of conscious thought” (192). Others join the singing. Dante instructs the reader to “fix a needle eye on truth” (192). The souls meekly gaze at the sky, from where two angels descend carrying swords with blunt and broken tips. Their garments and wings are as green as “the freshest newborn leaves” (193). They position themselves on either side of the vale. Sordello explains that Mary has sent them to protect the souls from a snake that will arrive shortly. Dante sidles closer to Virgil. Sordello suggests the three proceed to the vale to chat with “those famous shades” (193).
Dante is pleased to see the “[…] noble judge Nino” (193). Dante explains that he is alive, and Nino asks him to deliver a message to his daughter Giovanna to pray for her father. Nino laments that his wife no longer loves him and traded her widowhood for a new allegiance, which she will soon regret.
Dante notices stars in the sky unique to the southern hemisphere, which Virgil reminds him they saw at sunrise. Sordello draws attention to the snake that has appeared. The angels move forward, and it flees. Another soul known to Dante, Conrad Currado Malaspina, has been staring at him throughout the snake’s attack. He asks Dante for news from home. Dante assures him that his family continues to enjoy fame for its goodness.
Canto 9 Summary
Being mortal like Adam, Dante grows tired and falls asleep. He dreams of an eagle hovering in the sky with wings outstretched. Just as Dante wonders if it can only hunt in this spot, the eagle swoops down and snatches Dante, carrying him up toward a “sphere of fire” (198). The heat causes Dante to wake, as startled and dazed as Achilles when his mother spirited him to Skyros.
Virgil comforts him. He explains that they have arrived at Purgatory’s entrance. Saint Lucia carried up Dante, and Virgil followed “once the day shone clear” (198). Seeing that Dante understands, Virgil moves forward to reveal the gate to Purgatory. Three steps—one marble white, one “more dark than perse,” and one “porphyry”—lead to it. A guardian holding a sword sits “on the highest stair” (199).
The guardian asks Dante who guided him. Virgil replies, and the guardian invites them forward. Virgil draws Dante up the steps, and Dante asks the angel for entry. Using his sword point, the angel draws the letter P seven times on Dante’s brow and tells him to wash the marks away. He removes two keys, one silver and one gold. One is “more precious” while the other requires “much greater art and skill” (200) to turn, but both must work for the gate to open. Peter entrusted the guardian with the keys, instructing him to err on the side of allowing entry. Finally, the guardian warns Dante not to look back. Dante hears the hymn “Te Deum laudamus” (We praise thee, O God) (201).
Cantos 6-9 Analysis
Dante and Virgil continue their search for the entrance to Purgatory, eventually arriving at the gate in Canto 9. Along the way, they meet souls who have died violent deaths before having the opportunity to repent. Among the souls they meet are historical figures familiar in Dante’s day. The images of souls singing together and conversing with Dante and Virgil demonstrate the communal process of purification.
Dante’s verse is dense with allusions to numerous political figures, some named, others referred to obliquely by characteristics. Significant among the figures referenced are the poet Sordello, Emperor Rudolph, and King Ottakar II of Bohemia. Sordello was a poet who was born in Mantua but emigrated to Provence. He recognizes Virgil as a fellow poet and embraces him as a kinsman. Their lineage and profession bind them despite Virgil being pagan and Sordello Christian. Rudolph and Ottakar were opponents in life, but Dante shows them comforting each other as they await their opportunity to repent. Through their interaction, Dante shows that the first step to repentance is forsaking the earthly desires that broke communal bonds.
Dante’s interactions with penitents inspire him to meditate on the efficacy of prayer. Throughout the poem, penitents, when they realize Dante is alive and will return to the earth, ask him to pray for them or to bring messages to their loved ones requesting their prayers. This notion that prayer can help the dead achieve purification runs contrary to the Greco-Roman pagan belief of fixed and immutable fate. Because Virgil expresses this belief in his poetry, Dante questions him about it. Virgil explains that pagans didn’t link prayer to God, but Christ’s coming changed that. This is the first piece of a theological discussion that unfolds across the poem, engaging questions about free will, the nature of love and sin, the function of moral laws, and the provenance of the soul.
Cantos eight and nine feature symbolism that recurs significantly throughout the poem. In Canto 8, the angels that protect the vale wear green garments, have green wings, and carry swords with broken tips. The color green symbolizes hope and will become especially important in the poem’s final cantos. The angels’ broken swords are a reference to Adam and Eve, who fled out of the Garden of Eden from sword-wielding angels. The angels in Canto 8 are present to protect the souls, hence their broken-tipped swords.
In Canto 9, Dante dreams that an eagle carries him toward a “sphere of fire” (198). He describes the early hour by referring to swallows beginning their chant and himself as “the kin/of Ganymede” (197). Bird imagery repeats throughout the poem and was also a feature of vernacular poetry in Dante’s time. The swallow likely refers to the pagan myth of Procne, whom the gods transformed into a swallow. In the myth, Procne’s husband raped her sister, Philomela, then cut out her tongue so that she would not be able to tell. Robbed of speech, Philomela weaves a tapestry to communicate what happened to her sister. In revenge, Procne murders her son and serves him to her husband. Ganymede refers to a myth in which Zeus falls in love with the handsome youth and carries him to Mount Olympus to serve as cup bearer to the gods. These references demonstrate Dante’s depth of engagement with classical myths, which for him retain their resonance and relevance despite their pagan origins. The eagle likely represents justice, as it is associated both with Zeus/Jupiter in Greco-Roman myth and with the Roman empire.
The final stanzas of Canto 9 have symbolic resonance with church doctrine. The three steps represent the three stages of confession (recognizing one’s sins, repenting for them, and undergoing penance). The angel’s two keys represent two features necessary for atonement: the Church’s power to grant forgiveness of sins and individuals’ willingness to open their hearts to forgiveness. The seven Ps that the angel sears onto Dante’s forehead represent each of the seven deadly sins for which penitents atone on Mount Purgatory.
Related Titles
By Dante Alighieri
