Dante's Purgatorio Cantos VI - XI, Summary

Canto VI

The pilgrims continue on in the region of those who repented short of violent death, Dante naming a number of them, all from his recent time in Italy.  Dante questions Virgil on the efficacy of prayer, and Virgil confesses that he was wrong when in his day he had written that prayer had no power to effect change.  He had been a pagan then and had not known the truth and he promises Dante that eventually Beatrice, who he will meet at the top of the mountain, will explain it further.  Wondering what would be the fastest route toward the top, the two stop a solitary figure.  Virgil asks, and the soul only asks of their birth place.  Virgil says Mantua, and the soul jumps up in excitement, embracing Virgil, and says he too is from Mantua, and his name is Sordello.  This embrace of two citizens of the same Italian city albeit separated some 1400 years provides Dante the author a digression on the dismal state of Italian politics, with its infighting, religious intrusion into the secular life, and interference and weakness of the Holy Roman emperor who is not even Italian but German.  Dante had a similar rant in Inferno. 

Canto VII

Continuing with the encounter with Sordello, the lonely soul asks Virgil who he was.  Virgil tells him he is the Roman poet who because he was born a pagan before Christ, he resides in Limbo section of Hell.  Sordello doing a double take suddenly realizes he is before the great Roman, Virgil, and bowed and grasped him again in reverence.  Sordello too is a poet and honored to be before the greatest of the Latin tongue.  Sordello offers himself as guide and explains that there can be no movement in Purgatory at night, so it best to find a spot to sleep.  Sordello takes them to a valley in the mountain where the souls are singing the Salve Regina.  This is a section where those who were too busy for God in their lifetimes reside, delayed from moving up because they did not have the time to fully worship God.  These are mostly kings and princes, who were occupied with their duties as heads of state.

Canto VIII

In one of the most beautiful scenes in all of the Divine Comedy, the threesome settle down to the darkening evening when a soul stands up and sings “Te lucis ante,” a hymn that requests protection from the evil forces let loose during the night, and he is then joined by the rest of the penitents, all looking up to heaven as they sing.  Dante notices that in the evening sky the four stars representing the cardinal virtues have been replaced by three stars now representing the Christian virtues.  Suddenly two angels with flaming swords fly down from heaven and take protective positions.  As the three start into the valley, upon them comes them Judge Nino Visconti, an old friend to Dante, and when he realizes Dante is still alive he asks to bring back word to his family to pray for him.  Suddenly a snake enters the valley but scrambles away when the sentinel angels swoop about, chasing him away.  Dante next has an exchange with Currado Malispina, from a family of rulers of a north Italian region.  Dante praises him and his family as the ideal rulers.

Canto IX

The pilgrims lay down to sleep in the valley and Dante has one of his several dreams while in purgatory.  He dreams that an eagle has swooped down and lifted him up into a sphere of fire where both he and the eagle were set aflame.  When he awakes he finds himself up the mountain overlooking the sea with only Virgil by his side and it is morning.  Virgil explains that they have arrived at purgatory proper now, and that while he was asleep Santa Lucia came and took him up to the main gate while Virgil followed.  They turn toward the gate, where stood an angel with a sword.  He questions them and is satisfied when told a saintly lady brought them up.  There are three steps to climb to get to the gate, and on reaching the third Virgil exhorts Dante to plead to be let in.  Dante falls to the angel’s feet and humbly asks where the angel traces seven “P’s” on Dante’s forehead.  The P’s stand for peccata, Italian for sin.  The angel uses a set of keys entrusted to him by St. Peter to open the door, and the large portal opens, squeaking on its linchpins.  Inside there is the sweet song of “Te Deum laudemus” accompanied by an organ.

Canto X

After climbing up a difficult path and squeezing through a crevice that was in the shape of a needle’s eye, the two pilgrims reach the first terrace, that of the prideful.  The mountainside is made of smooth marble and on it are three relief sculptures, one scene from the New Testament, one scene from the Old Testament, and one scene from classical Rome, all three accentuating the virtue of humility.  First is the scene of the Annunciation, with the words “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord” etched beneath.  The second relief was of King David in humility bringing the sacred ark on a cart pulled by oxen.  The third from the life of the Emperor Trajan, who just setting off on campaign is stopped by a little widow requesting that justice be done to the murder of her son.  Trajan, who is Dante’s ideal secular ruler, stops his massive endeavor to satisfy this poor woman before continuing on.  After passing the artwork, Dante suddenly sees a group of souls walking hunched over with boulders on their backs and their heads down almost to the ground. 

Canto XI

As the penitent souls approach, Dante hears they are chanting a paraphrased version of the Our Father.  Virgil stops the penitents to ask for the shortest route up the mountain.  The soul who steps up to help is Omberto Aldobrandesco, a Tuscan nobleman, who took overwhelming pride in the history of his aristocratic family.  While listening to Omberto, another soul recognizes Dante and calls out to him.  Dante hunching down and getting a good look recognizes him as Odirisi, a great artist of manuscript illumination.  In what is now a newly gained humility he says that Franco of Bologna is the greater illuminator.  He then reflects on how fleeting how such pride of place lasts citing how Giotto has now overtaken Cimabue as the greatest artist.  He mentions how one Guido (Guinnizelli) has been replaced by another Guido (Cavalcanti) as the greatest Italian poet.  What’s even a thousand years of fame, he ponders, in that it takes that long to reach heaven once dead.  Dante is struck to humility—he knows these poets and thought himself better.  Odirisi points out politician, Provenzan Salvani, who would have been much further back in purgatory but he had humbled himself in an act to save a friend.