Walking With Dante15 Okt 2023

Virgil Redefines Limbo And The Journey Across The Known Universe: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 16 - 36

If you'd like to donate to WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it afloat without sponsors, you can give some a little in any currency using this PayPal link.

Sordello stands amazed in the presence of the great poet Virgil. The pilgrim Dante? Seemingly forgotten.

Sordello wants to know how this classical poet got into Purgatory. So Virgil offers an explanation that reiterates what we know about Limbo but also redefines Limbo and perhaps causes Dante the poet to trip across the wires of his own thinking.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante renegotiate the presence of Virgil in COMEDY once again, ever trying to come to terms with a pagan poet in a Christian poem.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:43] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, lines 16 - 36. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:49] How is Virgil the "glory of the Latins" as Sordello claims? What does that mean to Sordello (and to Dante)?

[06:02] There are at least two ways to handle Sordello's claim: 1) Latin was Virgil's vernacular or 2) Virgil showed the capabilities of language itself.

[10:28] Apparently, Sordello isn't bothered by Virgil's eternal status.

[11:14] Virgil offers an overview of his journey. His. Is it his? What of Dante the pilgrim?

[15:22] Virgil seems both to reiterate and to redefine our understanding of Limbo.

[19:07] Dante wants the human will to be the mechanism of salvation but that notion runs contrary to the Christian doctrine of original sin.

[21:40] Dante is renovating Virgil because Virgil is the prime way Dante can renovate classical learning.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(509)

The Expanding Community of Women in the Moon: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 109 - 130

Piccarda Donati doesn’t stop her monologue with the cryptic line about her life after the convent. She turns to another figure in the lunar landscape: Constance I of Sicily, the Holy Roman Empress and...

23 Sep 23min

The Violent yet Elliptical End to Piccarda Donati's Story: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 88 - 108

Piccarda Donati finally answers the question about who she is. She's given her name but not much else about her. In twelve lines (or four tercets) she brings her personal story to its violent yet elli...

20 Sep 27min

Piccarda Donati's Apotheosis of the Will: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 58 - 87

Piccarda has confessed to her more humble place in the heavens. Our pilgrim Dante then wants to know if she wants more.Her answer leads her to an apotheosis of the will. Everything in the universe is ...

16 Sep 30min

The First Soul in Paradise, Piccarda Donati: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 34 - 57

At long last, the first soul--or "shade"--steps forward in Paradise. She's Piccarda Donati, a figure we've already encountered once (maybe even twice) in COMEDY.Dante flatters her to speak and she beg...

13 Sep 29min

Catching Feelings in the Sensual Sphere of the Moon: PARADISO, Canto III, Lines 1 - 33

Dante is about to meet the first souls in Paradise, emerging from the liquid light of the moon.The poetry is lush and sensuous. The metaphors are complex and compounded. And Beatrice is a bit chilly, ...

9 Sep 28min

The Souls of the Universe: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 127 - 148

Beatrice concludes her explanation for moon spots by veering away from them specifically to talk about the nature of the universe.Blessed movers turn the spheres. Or perhaps inhabit them. Or are bound...

6 Sep 27min

The Diversity of Being in a Universe of Light: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 106 - 126

Beatrice now launches into the true explanation for moon spots, found not in folklore, not in natural philosophy, but in metaphysics.Her explanation pushes her to disclose the parts of the universe we...

2 Sep 28min

Testing Theology With Optics: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 85 - 105

Beatrice continues in her scientific and Scholastic explanation for moon spots by taking apart a secondary argument . . . and proposing an optical experiment.She voices an objection Dante might have: ...

30 Aug 26min