Comments to Dante's Purgatorio, Cantos XVIII to XXIII

Some discourse on the character of Statius is required.  Not only is he in the three last cantos that I summarized but he goes all the way through to the end of Purgatorio with Dante.  That’s more than a third of the cantica, which is more than any other character in the entire Divine Comedy except for Virgil or Beatrice.  That’s significant and requires some understanding.

To emphasize the importance of Statius, Dante (the author) has Statius complete a purgatorial terrace with the customary earthquake that occurs on such completions, the only character that we see complete one as Virgil and Dante (the character) pass through.  When Statius is asked who he is, he responds with this:

'My name is Statius. On earth men often speak it.

I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles,

but fell along the way with the second burden.

'The sparks that kindled the fire in me

came from the holy flame

from which more than a thousand have been lit—

'I mean the Aeneid. When I wrote poetry

it was my mamma and my nurse.

Without it, I would not have weighed a dram.

'To have lived on earth when Virgil lived

I would have stayed one year's sun longer than I owed

before I came forth from my exile.'  (Purg. XXI. 91-102)

Statiuswas a first century Roman poet who wrote much in the style of Virgil, including an epic like the Aeneid.  In this passage he does not yet realize he is speaking to Virgil himself, the man “that kindled a fire in me” but more importantly calls his predecessor a “holy flame.”  So Virgil was his poetic forefather, or more accurately here, his “mamma and nurse.”  How many times has Dante called Virgil his father?  Countless.  Dante the author then has set up a situation where Statius stands in parallel with Dante the character, both poets who not only revered Virgil but was a poetic guide and parent.  I don’t quite know what to make of Statius feminizing Virgil with “mamma” while Dante looks at him as a father but it is noteworthy.  In literary construction, Statius is Dante the character’s doppelgänger,a double.  

But a doppelgänger is not usually a complete double.  There is something different that allows the author to make a particular point.  The second of Virgil’s questions concerns how Statius came to the terrace of avarice, and while this is interesting I don’t believe this contrasts with Dante in any important way. The third question that Virgil asks Statius is most interesting and I think leads to a discriminator.  He asks how Statius became a baptized Christian, since that is the only way to being saved in purgatory. 

'But, when you sang the cruel warfare

between the twofold sorrows of Jocasta,'

said the singer of the Eclogues,

'it does not seem, from what you wrote with Clio's help,

that you had found as yet the faith,

that faith without which good works fail.

'If that is so, what sun, what candles

dispelled your darkness so that afterwards

you hoisted sail, following the fisherman?' (Purg. XXII. 55-63)

The singer of the Eclogues is Virgil, Eclogues being another of his major works.  Notice the metaphor Virgil uses to describe those in faith and those not.  The light of both the sun and of candles describes those who follow “the fisherman,” which would be St. Peter or perhaps Christ Himself.  Statius replies,

And the other answered him: 'It was you who first

set me toward Parnassus to drink in its grottoes,

and you who first lit my way toward God.

'You were as one who goes by night, carrying

the light behind him--it is no help to him,

but instructs all those who follow—

'when you said: "The centuries turn new again.

Justice returns with the first age of man,

new progeny descends from Heaven."

'Through you I was a poet, through you a Christian.

But, that you may see better what I outline,

I will set my hand to fill the colors in.

'Already all the world was pregnant

with the true faith, inseminated

by the messengers of the eternal kingdom,

'and the words of yours I have just recited

did so accord with the new preachers

            that I began to visit them.

            'More and more they seemed to me so holy

            that when Domitian started with his persecutions

            their weeping did not lack my tears.

'While I remained on earth,

I gave them comfort. Their upright ways

made me despise all other sects.

'I was baptized before, in my verses,

I had led the Greeks to the rivers of Thebes,

but, from fear, I stayed a secret Christian,

'long pretending I was still a pagan.

More than four centuries, because I was lukewarm,

did I circle the fourth terrace.  (Pur. XXII. 64-93)

So it was Virgil again that showed Statius the light of the true faith in the darkness of false faith.  Statius read the famous Eclogues 4, where Virgil wrote “The great line of the centuries is born again; now the Virgin of justice returns, and the golden reign of Saturn; now a newborn child is sent down from the heavens on high” (ll. 5-7).  Virgin, Saturn as supreme deity, newborn child from heaven, it’s not surprising how all the intellects of the middle ages believed that Virgil somehow had prophesied the coming of Christ with those lines.  Dante the author is saying that Statius, reading those lines and coming across the first century church fathers who preached of an incarnate God who was born as a child from a virgin, led to his conversion to Christianity, was secretly baptized, and hid his Christianity for fear of martyrdom.  That reluctance of coming out as a Christian cost him four hundred years in ante-purgatory.

Now this is all made up by Dante the author.  There is no evidence that Statius converted or was even aware of Christianity.  Dante is creating this fiction to make a point, to discriminate Statius from Dante the character.

Now what point could that be?  Dante is clearly a Christian already, already baptized, and except for some mortal sin would be on his way to heaven.  Remember that Dante at the beginning of this work is in a midlife crises having lost “the one true way” (Inf. I. 12).  What is the “one true way?”  He lost his faith.  This will become more fleshed out when Dante the character meets Beatrice in a few more cantos.  But for now, let it suffice that Statius followed both lights that shined in the darkness, that of poetry and that of Christian truth, though Virgil was unaware in his prophesy.  But Dante only followed the light of poetry and as we will see that of pagan philosophy, but somehow had lost sight of the light of faith.

&&&

Some random thoughts on other issues in these cantos.

The P’s on the forehead must only be for Dante.  I think I said somewhere all the penitents have P’s wiped off as they complete a terrace.  Apparently not because there is no mention of Statius having a “P” removed when he completes the terrace of avarice.  I guess an earthquake supersedes wiping a P off. 

The final part of Virgil’s discourse on love takes place in Canto XVIII.  Here he completes his thoughts by saying that though the soul moves toward what is pleasing she has the power through free will to reject that direction.  This works in two ways.  One can reject what is good, which stymies spiritual development but one has the power to reject sin, though the sin is pleasing.  Just because the soul moves toward what pleases her does not mean it is good.

 'Now you see how hidden is the truth

from those who hold that every love

is in itself deserving praise,

'perhaps because such love seems always good.

But every seal is not a good one,

even if imprinted in good wax.' (Purg. XVIII. 34-39)

All loves are not good, though they may seem so.  But Dante is actually more perplexed.  He asks:

'For if love is offered from outside us

and if the soul moves on no other foot,

it has no merit in going straight or crooked.'  (43-45)

Dante is asking if love comes from outside of us, how is the soul supposed to discern if she follows the straightway (good) instead of the crooked?  And on this Virgil cannot answer him.  “No other foot” refers to the twin feet of philosophy and faith.  Virgil is only able to explain love through the one foot of Greco-Roman philosophy.

And he to me: 'As far as reason may see in this,

I can tell you. To go farther you must look

to Beatrice, for it depends on faith alone.  (46-48)

The other foot is that of faith and revelation.  Virgil, being a pagan, can only go so far in his understanding.  Dante’s next guide, Beatrice, will have to fill in what he cannot.

This is quite fascinating.  This seems to echo the Cardinal virtues that came from Greek philosophers, and recall that the guardian of the island was Roman pagan Cato back in the first canto who was an exemplar of those four virtues.  But the four Cardinal virtues are incomplete for salvation.  The three Christian virtues are required, and here Cato and Virgil are lacking.

Notice too, that what saves Statius is not just the nobility of Virgil’s Aeneid, but the other foot, faith, that was hidden in Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, despite Virgil not even being aware of it. 

The passage with the dream of the siren in Canto XIX is I think demonstrative of Virgil’s philosophy.  The siren is attractive, and Dante the character is moved toward her.  She stands outside of him but his mind formulates her as a good, though the reality is she is not.  It takes divine intervention from what some think is St. Lucy to get Virgil to strip her bare and expose her hideous true self.

Another episode in this group of cantos that deserves some discussion is that with Forese Donati in Canto XXIII.  Actually the encounter spills over into the following canto, so Donati’s appearance is one of the longer encounters.  Donati, residing on the terrace of gluttony, is emaciated, so much so that Dante doesn’t even recognize him at first.  Donati is an old friend of Dante’s and the cousin of his wife, Gemma Donati.  This is about as close as we get for a family member to show up in the Divine Comedy.

Dante the author begins the passage through the terrace of gluttony in what I think is an ironic humor.  As they enter the chant they hear from the penitents is “Labia mea, Domine” or in English, “O Lord open my lips.”  The line is from Psalm 51 but those who pray the Divine Office will recognize it as the opening to the Morning Prayer.  The complete line goes, “O Lord, open my lips and I shall praise your name.”  It really doesn’t have anything to do with eating, so it rings with irony.  Hollander’s note does cite commentators who make the point that these gluttons are now making better use of their mouths.

When Forese discovers Dante is alive, like many souls we have seen he is taken aback.  Forese here cries out, “What grace is this for me!” or in the Italian, “"Qual grazia m'è questa?" (Purg. XXIII. 42).  The phrasing echoes a very similar situation where in the Inferno Dante meets his old teacher, Brunetto Latini, who when he discovers Dante cries out, "Qual maraviglia!" or “What a marvel!”  In Purgatory the surprise is seen as a “grace,” a gift from God, while in Hell it’s seen as some sort of empirical phenomena disconnected from God. 

Though the two friends speak of their past in round-about terms, we gather that in their youth the two were quite the party animals.  Forese speaks about renouncing their past lives, which given the context suggests an overindulgence of food and drink, and given he speaks of “the brazen ladies of Florence” who “flaunt their nipples with their breasts” (Pur. XXIII. 101-102) further suggests a time of dalliance with loose women.  I kind of have an image of young Disco Dante, partying it up. 

We learn that Forese has accelerated his penance because of his wife Nella has constantly prayed for him.  It is the faith and devotion of his wife that has aided his purgation.  In the following canto (unfortunately I cut off the grouping in between Forese’s episode) Dante asks his friend about Forese’s sister Piccarda.  Forese tells him that his “virtuous sister” is now in paradise “rejoicing in her crown.”  Actually Piccarda is one of the first souls Dante meets in Paradisio. 

I think it is quite intentional that we get a contrast between the devoted Nella and the virtuous Piccarda against the brazen ladies of Florence.  What are we to make of it?  There does seem to be less women in hell and purgatory than men.  When we get to Paradisio we do by my perception seem to encounter more female characters than in the previous canticas.  We have Beatrice, St. Lucy, the Blessed Mother and many other women as we will see as constant examples of virtue.  It’s a feminist complaint that much of literature portrays women as either saints or sluts.  It is not an unfounded complaint.  Women do seem to be closer to the divine in the Divine Comedy than men.  However, given the context of the times, women didn’t have the power to commit the variety of sins that men could.  Are women less inclined toward evil?  Perhaps a slight bit, though I think that may be controversial to say.