Purgatorio

During the 19th century a lasting – and politically charged – myth was propagated, insisting that doctrinal thought during the Middle Ages held the earth to be flat. This odd mixture of American exceptionalism (contending that Columbus discovered that the earth was spherical) and of conflict thesis (the notion that science and religion are inherently opposed, meaning Columbus had to disprove Church dogma in order to demonstrate scientific truth) was far from the case. Most medieval scholars knew the earth to be spherical, Dante among them. The Purgatorio demonstrates this: having journeyed through the centre of the earth by clambering down the Devil’s hairy legs, Dante and Virgil emerge on the other side of the world.

Unlike the Inferno, the Purgatorio synthesizes less material from other sources, and is largely a product of Dante’s invention. Purgatory is a mountain, formed by the rock displaced (or which ‘recoiled in horror’) when Lucifer fell. It rises in seven terraces, each devoted to one of the classical deadly sins, much like the circles of the Inferno. While contrapasson punishements prevail here too, the souls who labour in Purgatory understand that they have sinned and seek redemption; the damned either believe their sin to be justified, or revelled in it. The penitent must tortuously climb the mountain and endure its hardships as an act of contrition.

As Dante ascends, the Purgatorio muses on the power of prayer and the nature of sin, theorizing that the latter occurs when love is excessive or warped, causing people to harm themselves or others.

At the summit of Purgatory is the Earthly Paradise, or the Garden of Eden, where, having returned to a state of innocence, souls can forget their troubles and prepare themselves to enter Heaven. This in in keeping with the medieval trope of the locus amoenus – an idyllic place of physical and spiritual comfort and safety.