Folgen
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Dante the pilgrim worked up the courage (or the flattery) to get one of the envious to speak up on the second terrace of Purgatory proper. She does . . . and gives him both more and exactly what (or perhaps a bit less) than he asked for.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I work our first sight of one of the most intricate souls in COMEDY: Sapía. She's a lot more than Dante bargained for.
Donate what you can or a small monthly contribution to help me cover the many fees associated with this podcast. You can do so by clicking this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:18] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 94 - 111. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please go to the page about this podcast on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:02] The penitent envious soul schools Dante the pilgrim by reassessing their relationship, both by family and by politics.
[05:53] Pilgrims choose to be other, to be strangers in a foreign land.
[09:19] Dante the poet focuses on the naturalistic details in an otherwise hyper-moral passage.
[11:35] Dante the pilgrim is apparently not teachable at the moment . . . . except he does understand the work of the will in Purgatory.
[14:30] The penitent soul identifies herself reticently . . . only by name and city.
[19:38] Her reticence is found in a generous canto full of explanations.
[20:55] One generosity: Sapía offers a succinct definition of envy.
[24:49] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 94 - 111.
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Dante has finally come among the envious on the bare, bleak, blue-gray second terrace of Mount Purgatory. We've seen their condition: eyes stitched shut. Now for Dante's reaction. And Virgil's reaction to Dante's reaction. And Dante's ham-handed attempt to flatter someone to speak up.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we approach on of the most significant and curious figures in all of COMEDY. Dante the pilgrim will call for her in this passage . . . and she'll make her appearance in the next passage/episode.
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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:57] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Lines 73 - 93. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[04:05] Does Dante think he makes a social gaffe?
[07:40] Is Virgil irritated at Dante's reaction?
[09:48] Is this an allegorical passage or a naturalistic one? Are we being played?
[14:45] Is Dante's flattery misplaced?
[19:19] Is Dante's flattery predictive of the poem ahead?
[22:41] How much irony textures this passage?
[25:28] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 73 - 93.
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Fehlende Folgen?
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The second terrace of PURGATORIO proves a wild ride into interiority, into the complicated sin of envy, and back into INFERNO.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first moments in which Dante sees the penitents ahead . . . and delays until the last moment revealing their fate: eyelids stitched shut with wires.
Thank you for supporting this podcast through your donations. If you'd like to help our (or continue to help out) with all the fees associated with websites, hosting, streaming, editing, and sound effects, please visit this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 46 - 72. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[03:28] Dante the pilgrim, the livid shades of the envious, and fragmentary prayers in the vernacular.
[05:52] Compassion: apparently a virtue of enforced scarcity.
[07:51] Envy, interiority, and externality.
[09:42] The tried-and-true answers to envy: love, yes; but also uniformity.
[13:25] The long wind-up to the revelation of the penitents' pain.
[17:30] Dante's (false) etymology of envy and a folkloric explanation of the sin.
[21:51] Two callbacks: 1) Provenzan Salvani and 2) the allegorical and/or naturalistic sun.
[23:51] The biggest callback of all: to Pier della Vigna and Frederick II in INFERNO XIII.
[25:21] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 46 - 72.
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Dante and Virgil make haste across the second terrace of Purgatory before they're accosted by disembodied voices, calling them to the banquet of love.
Sounds great, right? Except there's so much alienation in the landscape and even in the poetry.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take our first steps onto the second terrace of PURGATORIO with Dante and Virgil.
Please consider helping to support this podcast with a donation to cover all the various fees associated with streaming, licensing, recording, editing, and hosting. You can do so at this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 22 - 45. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation, please visit my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:54] Three disembodied voices on the second terrace of PURGATORIO: quotes from the Virgin Mary, Orestes (maybe?), and Jesus.
[13:25] Voices moving from the left, not right!
[15:26] Envy: a root sin, sometimes seen as the primary sin, even by Dante.
[18:59] The schematics of Purgatory, as intuited by Virgil.
[22:03] Disembodied voices and the problem of alienation.
[26:28] The distance (and alienation) between Dante and Virgil.
[32:36] A rereading of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 22 - 45.
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Dante the pilgrim and his guide, Virgil, have arrived at the second terrace of Purgatory proper. As readers, we're not even sure what this terrace is about, although we can infer there must be more penitents ahead.
Instead, Dante the poet offers us rather straightforward, naturalistic details, a complex neologism (a new word he coined), a crazy line that has many interpretations possible, and then a pagan prayer in the afterlife of the redeemed.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we walk into the second terrace and immediately stumble over what at first glance looks like a fairly simple passage. That's why we're slow-walking across Dante's known universe!
If you'd like to help support this podcast by donating to cover hosting, streaming, website, licensing, and royalty fees, please consider visiting this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:09] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 1- 21. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:22] The naturalistic, straightforward details complete with a surprising neologism (or newly coined word).
[08:12] A deeply ambiguous line smack in the middle of rather simple details.
[12:02] Virgil's haste and his internalization of Cato's ethic, as well as Dante's increasingly complicated relationship with the old poet.
[15:29] Virgil's pagan prayer to the sun.
[23:40] My take: Virgil, the pagan, makes a full appearance here on the second terrace of Purgatory.
[29:02] Virgil, blinded.
[31:42] A rereading of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, lines 1 - 21.
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Before we step onto PURGATORIO's terrace of envy, the second ledge of Purgatory proper, let's pause a moment to talk about the relationship among Dante, Aquinas, and Aristotle.
We have to take this detour because Dante will increasingly incorporate scientific reasoning into his poem, changing its very nature, based on his understanding of Aristotle, which is in turn based on the work of Islamic and Jewish scholars from the Iberian caliphates.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this complicated history of thought and how it finally lands in COMEDY.
Please consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the licensing, hosting, domain, royalty, streaming, and editing fees of this podcast. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:46] The collapse of the Umayyad caliphate and the inception of the Iberian schools of learning.
[07:33] The discomfort with Aristotle at the University of Paris.
[14:33] Classical Greek leaning and the disruption and/or incorporation into medieval Christianity.
[17:30] If God is the author of all truth, then how does any truth whatsoever show up in the works of a pagan philosopher?
[21:10] How does inductive truth make any sense in a deductive religion?
[25:38] COMEDY is changing from an allegorical journey of a soul across the known universe to a poetic compendium of known truth.
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We've come with Dante the pilgrim and Virgil, his guide, to the second terrace of Purgatory, the terrace of envy.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this initial read-through of the terrace, beginning at the first line of PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, and extending to line 84 of PURGATORIO, Canto XV.
If you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating whatever you can to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and web fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:54] A read-through of the second terrace of Purgatory proper: PURGATORIO, Canto XIII, Line 1, through Canto XV, Line 84.
[24:37] Initial questions for the terrace of envy.
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Dante the pilgrim and Virgil have a little ways to go before they finally exit the terrace of pride. In fact, Dante has to come to a surprising revelation: It's getting easier. And Virgil has to explain why: Desire is being purified. How? By erasing what God has written.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the interpretive dilemmas and philosophical quagmires of the final moments on the terrace of pride, the first of the terraces of Purgatory proper in Dante's PURGATORIO.
If you'd like to help support this podcast and help cover its stream, licensing, web-hosting, and royalty fees, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:12] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 118 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:36] The climb in hell and in Purgatory both involve the notion of a throat.
[06:44] Pride is the primary sin and delight is the primary motivation forward. But has it always been this way in COMEDY?
[12:57] Canto XII ends on a light-hearted note . . . perhaps for poetic reasons.
[16:32] First hard question: Is Dante the pilgrim truly expunged of pride?
[19:51] Second hard question: Has Dante the poet moved the fence of his world to include himself in his own schematics?
[24:56] Third hard question: Why does God's writing have to be erased?
[30:53] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 118 - 139.
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Dante and Virgil begin their climb from the first to the second terrace of Purgatory but as they do, they climb up in an incredibly contorted and difficult simile that swaps around emotional landscapes before landing them in the song of Jesus's beatitudes as well as the screams of hell.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the climb out in this most difficult simile.
Please consider contributing to underwrite the many fees associated with this otherwise unsponsored podcast. To do so, visit this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 100 - 117. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[03:18] The giant simile about the staircase up to San Miniato al Monte and to the second terrace of Purgatory.
[08:50] Four reasons why this simile is so difficult (and perhaps contorted).
[13:29] The body/soul problem once again that ends with the first of the beatitudes.
[15:50] The inescapable landscape of hell.
[19:23] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 100 - 117.
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Dante and Virgil begin their exit from the terrace of pride on Mount Purgtory. To do so, they must encounter and angel who implicitly calls back Lucifer (or Satan) into the text yet who welcomes them on their way up the less-steep ascent.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Virgil reassert this role as the guide and see another of the epic angels in Purgatory.
If you'd like to help out, please consider donating to keep this podcast afloat. You can do at this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[02:22] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:47] Virgil returns to being Virgil: a guide to the afterlife who quote himself.
[08:08] Virgil and the angel both seem to set the plot in motion again.
[11:19] Virgil seems more interested in what's ahead and less interested in the reliefs and carvings. In fact, he seems to mistake the lesson from those carvings: Some days, like Trajan's, happen again and again in an eternal art form.
[14:08] The strength of COMEDY is that the complex always resolves into the simple.
[16:17] Irony: Virgil's "simple" ethic contains a Dantean neologism.
[17:20] The beautiful angel contains an implicit and perhaps redemptive reference to Lucifer (or Satan).
[21:11] Who speaks the condemnation against humanity? The angel or Dante the poet?
[25:54] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 73 - 99.
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Dante the poet adds a coda to his (fake) ekphrastic poetry on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. He steps back and explains the very nature of the art to us: realer than real, as it were. Then he moves the passage out from its narrative base and into a moral lesson based on an allegorical (and anagogical) reading of his masterwork, COMEDY.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the last passage on the theory of art for this terrace of PURGATORIO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 64 - 72.
[02:40] Dante seems to double down on the artistic claims of the terrace of pride.
[05:52] Dante reminds us that we're reading an allegorical (and anagogical) poem.
[10:16] Humans create their moral truths by telling lies.
[16:21] Rereading the passage: Purgatorio, Canto XII, lines 64 - 72.
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We've spent three episodes going over the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. Now let's step back and look at the whole passage. Yes, its sweet. But also its curiously crafted problems. And the way it leaves us with more questions than answers, even though we're supposed to take away a very distinct moral lesson.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we run through this entire complicated passage in PURGATORIO.
If you'd like to help out with the many costs associated with this podcast, please consider donating through this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:12] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 22 - 63. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[04:18] Biblical, classical, and historical figures flatten the interpretive landscape. Is Ovid of an equal weight to the Bible?
[06:33] The passage is an acrostic poem: each tercet starts with a specific letter, here to spell out "man." But does that rhetorical technique actually work for this passage? Are these all "men"? Or even humans?
[10:05] The tercets are thematically in sets of four: the judgment of God, of the self, and of others. Again, doesn't that flatten the moral landscape?
[12:46] Do the penitents have to be this learned to glean the intended lesson? And is this the sum total of the reliefs on the terrace? Or are there more?
[15:13] How can you be guilty of pride against or toward a God you don't know?
[18:12] Where do these figures fit in hell? And while we're at it, where does pride fit in hell?
[21:29] Why does this passage end with Troy, the noble city?
[22:53] Why is this fake ekphrastic poetry?
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We've come to the last four reliefs in the paving stones of the terrace of pride. We're almost on our way to the next terrace of Purgatory . . . but not quite. Dante the pilgrim has to pay attention to these final moments, the final exemplars, some of whom are stated outright in the carvings and some of whom are strangely occluded.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through this last passage on the reliefs in the road bed. There are still plenty of surprises under our feet!
Please consider donating to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, web domain, and other fees associated with this unsponsored podcast. If you'd like to make a contribution, you can do so at this PayPal link.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:24] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 49 - 60. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please visit my website, markscarbrough.com.
[02:42] The final figures in the hard pavement: Alcmeon (and Eriphyle), Sennacherib, Tomyris (and Cyrus), and Holofernes (and Judith).
[11:16] The craft of the passage: children killing their parents v. women killing warlords, sacred spaces v. profane/political slaughter, occluded v. presented figures.
[15:41] Curiosities in the passage: the unnamed figures, the allegory of the hard pavement, the connection between Sennacherib and Satan, and the odd notion of Holofernes' "relics."
[21:24] Our final discussion on the virtue of humility: its possible evolutionary necessity for a communal animal.
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We're still walking on top of the reliefs of the prideful in the road bed of the first terrace of Mount Purgatory after the gate: the terrace of pride. Here, Dante the pilgrim sees four more figures: two from the classical age and two from the Biblical age. And the classical figures seem distinctly connected to art.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore another short passage on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride.
Would you like to help support this podcast? I have many fees--domain, licensing, streaming, hosting, and more--and I could use a little help covering them, since I remain otherwise unsupported. To help out and donate a little, please visit this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 37 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please visit my website: markscarbrough.com.
[02:39] The figures in the road bed in this passage: Niobe, Saul, Arachne, and Reheboam.
[10:06] The craft of this passage: Ovid's Metamorphosis v. the Bible; poetry and art v. politics and revolt.
[13:00] One curiosity in the passage: suicides.
[15:43] The second of three discussions on the difficulty of making humility a virtue.
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Virgil has directed Dante the pilgrim to look down at the road bed. Dante sees figures carved into the terrace . . . and he begins to walk on pride, the way one might walk over tombs in the floor of a church.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first four figures carved into road bed. Who are they? How is the passage crafted? And what can they tell us about the dualism of pride and humility?
Want to help support this otherwise unsupported podcast? You can donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, domain, and other fees by visiting this PayPal link right here.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[02:02] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 25 - 36. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[03:47] Who are these figures? Lucifer, Briareus, Apollo, Athena, Mars, Jupiter, and Nimrod.
[10:14] What are the rhetorical, thematic, and formal poetic structures used to describe this first set of four exemplars.
[14:45] One curiosity in the passage: Statius's THEBIAD may lie behind much of it.
[15:55] Another curiosity: One set of figures are NOT exemplars of pride.
[16:59] A final curiosity: Apollo's occluded presence in the passage.
[19:33] The first of three discussions on the difficulty of making humility a virtue.
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The opening of PURGATORIO, Canto XII, becomes even stranger as the poet Dante claims that the art he’s about to see beneath his feet is even clearer than the actual events when they happened.
All well and good, until we remember this isn’t God’s art, as Dante wants us to believe. It’s Dante’s. And audacious.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second half of the opening twenty-four lines of PURGATORIO, Canto XII.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:29] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.
[02:37] Virgil's call back to realism (or mimesis).
[04:30] Tombs and their signs (or symbolic language).
[09:56] Artifice as "realer" than real.
[21:00] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24.
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Dante is still hunched over, going along like a dumb ox, paired up with the souls on the terrace of pride. His pride has been lanced by their monologues.
Until Virgil tells him to be like the damned Ulysses. And then he straightens up and heads out.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the curious opening lines to PURGATORIO, Canto XII. Dante seems to want to have it both ways at once. But all cakes spoil, no matter how careful you are.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:02] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or leave a comment and continue the conversation, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.
[02:24] Did Dante really create a problem with the redemption of Provenzan Salvani in PURGATORIO, Canto XI?
[05:19] Has Dante really morphed into the oxen pulling the cart with the ark, rather than being Uzzah who touches and steadies the ark?
[09:55] How is Virgil Dante's tutor?
[11:30] Why does Virgil prompt Dante to be Ulysses?
[13:05] How exactly is Dante "emptied out"?
[16:18] Does the passage include a mistake about Virgil?
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Some personal news . . . and not the sort I ever want to share . . . about future episodes of this podcast. I hope you'll understand.
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If you'd like to make a contribution to help me with hosting, licensing, streaming, editing, and royalty fees, please consider visiting this PayPal link right here.
We’ve come to the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XI . . . and the end of the artist Oderisi’s monologue. He finishes up, not with more about himself, but with the tale of the third penitent we see on the first terrace after the gate: Provenzan Salvani, a bad boy from Siena who plotted Florence's demise and who also perhaps foreshadows our poet's exile.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore some of the gorgeous poetry in this passage and try to come to terms with how Dante is constructing this very new bit of theology: Purgatory.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:30] Echoes in the opening lines of this passage: from the Bible, from INFERNO.
[08:59] Back to the Battle of Montaperti in 1260 CE.
[11:04] The kinds of pride on this first terrace of Purgatory.
[12:58] A gorgeous passage in the Florentine.
[15:36] Provenzan Salvani, a Ghibelline tyrant from Siena who plotted Florence's demise.
[18:09] "Contrapasso" or "debt"?
[20:24] The logistics of Dante's Purgatory.
[23:37] A murky repentance.
[26:52] Another prophecy of Dante's exile.
[28:50] The gloss life gives to art.
[31:09] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 109 - 139.
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I said we'd move on to the second half of Oderisi da Gubbio's speech . . . but there's no way we can. There are still so many unanswered questions about the way Dante cryptically inserts himself into the text, the way the art of miniaturization reflects the new style in poetry that Dante practices, and the very fact that Dante meets someone whose life is spent with manuscripts.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work our way through more questions about the first half of Oderisi's speech in PURGATORIO.
Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:57] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation (yes, please!), go to my website, markscarbrough.com.
[04:46] Oderisi and Franco are indeed mentioned by others but mostly centuries after Dante. And for what it's worth, is Dante even writing a history-based poem?
[06:48] Oderisi calls Dante the pilgrim "brother"--as in monastic brotherhood or as in the talk of artistic guilds?
[08:32] Dante puts the prophetic denunciation in the mouth of a character, rather than in the poet's interpolation.
[12:38] Dante meets a miniaturist, an illuminator . . . and the new style of poetry was mostly practiced in small poems like sonnets and canzone.
[17:34] In my interpretation, Dante the poet remains unnamed in the tercet about the Guidos. Should we see a psychological or artistic development here?
[22:13] Dante meets an illuminator, the sort who our poet might hope would someday work on COMEDY.
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