Purgatorio (112 page)

97–102.
   To answer Dante’s second question, caused by his sense that only one penitent seemed to be crying out the names of the generous, Hugh is equally contorted and long-winded, only clearing up Dante’s miscomprehension at vv. 118–123. When he uttered the name of Mary (verse 19) he did what he and his companions do during the day, i.e., name the exemplars of generous lives; at night they turn from names that serve as “goads” to those that serve as “bridles,” those of the avaricious.

For Mary as “bride of the Holy Spirit,” Singleton (1973) cites Matthew 1:20: “For that which is begotten of her is of the Holy Spirit.”
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103–117.
   This is Dante’s most “crowded” group of exemplary figures in
Purgatorio
, eight of them presented in fifteen lines. Once again he divides his cast into biblical and pagan personages, here not in parallel pairings (as in
Purg
. XII.25–60) but chiastically:

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103–105.
   Virgil’s tale of Pygmalion’s avarice (
Aen
. I.340–364) is narrated by Venus to Aeneas. Pygmalion was king of Tyre and brother of Dido, married to wealthy Sychaeus. Pygmalion secretly murdered Sychaeus, whose shade then appeared to reveal everything in a dream to Dido, who consequently made off, with Sychaeus’s hidden stores of wealth, to her new life in Carthage, thus depriving Pygmalion of the gold he sought.
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106–108.
   Two back-to-back Ovidian narratives involving Midas (
Metam
. XI.100–193) may here be condensed into a tercet. In the first Bacchus allows Midas his famous “touch,” turning all to gold with disastrous results once he realizes he can no longer eat nor drink, and has to ask to have his gift withdrawn; in the second, Apollo metamorphoses Midas’s ears into the enormous ears of an ass because Midas, alone among the listeners, insisted on his opinion that Pan’s piping was more beautiful than Apollo’s playing of his lyre. Dante refers to this scene in his second
Eclogue
(
Egl
. II.50–53). It is not clear whether Midas is laughable only for his foolish avarice or for his ass’s ears as well.
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109–111.
   Achan’s theft of the treasure of the Israelites and its result (his being stoned to death by command of Joshua) is the subject of the entire seventh chapter of Joshua (7:1–26).
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112.
   Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, having sold some of their land to make a donation in support of the young Church, kept back part of the price for themselves. Peter, reading their hearts, tells first Ananias and then his wife that he realizes they have lied; as a result, each drops dead before him from shame (Acts 5:1–11).
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113.
   Heliodorus was sent by his king, Seleucus IV of Syria, whom he served as treasurer, to take possession of the treasure in the temple in Jerusalem. Entering the sacred precinct for such purpose, he is assaulted by a terrifying figure on horseback and by two young men who beat him (II Maccabees 3:7–40).
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114–115.
   Polymnestor murdered Polydorus for the gold of Troy that the young son of Priam was sent with, while supposedly under the protection of the Thracian king (see
Inf
. XIII.31–39 and note;
Inf
. XXX.18–19). Dante’s sources include Virgil (
Aen
. III.22–48) and Ovid (
Metam
. XIII.429–438).
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116–117.
   Marcus Licinius Crassus, known as “Dives” (the rich man), the name reflecting his reputation for avarice. He had a successful political career, becoming triumvir with Caesar and Pompey in 60
B
.
C
. (all three were reconfirmed in 56). In 55 he became proconsul in Syria. Trapped in an ambush by the warring Parthians, he was killed, and his severed head and one hand were sent back to the Parthian king, Orodes, who then had his mouth filled with molten gold. There is unresolved discussion of Dante’s likely source for this tale, with candidates being Paulus Orosius,
Historiae adversus paganos
; Lucius Annaeus Florus,
Epitome de Tito Livio
; Cicero,
De officiis
. The Latin phrasing most cited is “aurum sitisti, aurum bibe” (you thirsted for gold, now drink it) used to refer to the Parthian king’s treatment of Crassus’s head. For the importance of Florus as source for much of Dante’s Roman history, see Antonio Martina, “Floro,”
ED
II (1970), pp. 948–52. For Dante’s earlier readings in
De officiis
see Marchesi (Marc.2001.1).
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118–123.
   Hugh finally explains the reasons for his seeming to have spoken alone when Dante first observed him. What can we deduce from the fact that he, of all the penitents, is the most moved to call upon the positive examples of generosity? Perhaps we are meant to understand that he, burdened by his thoughts of the terrible avarice of his French descendants, is the one most moved at this particular moment.
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124–126.
   In contrast to his unenthusiastic departure from Pope Adrian, Dante’s leaving of Hugh Capet is quick and purposive. Perhaps the difference in the two interviews is that this one has come to a sense of completion, while Dante still longed to know more of Adrian’s life at the end of his discourse.
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127–129.
   The sudden shift in focus to Dante’s fearful condition in response to this earthquake opens an entirely new chapter in the narrative, a unique one. As Philip B. Miller observed in conversation many years ago, Statius’s completion of penance is the only genuine event that occurs involving a damned or a saved soul in the entire
Commedia
. (Discussion of Statius awaits the next canto.) All else in the poem that passes for narrative action pertains to demons or angels interacting with Dante, Virgil, or the souls whom they help to punish or serve, to Dante’s own difficulties or successes in moving on, or else represents some form of ritual performance by the souls in the afterworld for the benefit of onlooking Dante. Dante, still a stranger on this magic mountain, responds by feeling like a man in fear of death. We shortly learn that he is witness to a moment of completion, of resurrection. It takes a while for this to become clear.
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130–132.
   Benvenuto (1380) understands the simile as having the following meaning: “Just as that most renowned island, Delos, once sent forth the two most famous luminaries into the sky [Apollo and Diana, the sun and the moon], so now this most renowned mount of Purgatory was sending into the heavens two very famous poets, one ancient, i.e., Statius, and one modern, i.e., Dante. I speak not of Virgil, for he did not go to heaven.” The commentary tradition is, nonetheless, a seedbed of confusion for interpreters of these verses. The following things are among those variously said: (1) Delos was made stable by Jove so that Latona, pursued by jealous Juno, could give birth in peace; (2) before Latona gave birth, Delos suffered no such quaking; (3) the island became stable only when Latona arrived to give birth on it; (4) Apollo later made the wandering island stable out of
pietas
(the version sponsored by
Aeneid
III.73–77). Either the third or this last, partly because of its Virgilian authority, seems the best to follow. The mountain’s wild quaking reminds the poet of the agitated condition of the floating island, which welcomed Latona for her parturition, before it was made fast, either by her arrival or, later, by Apollo.

For passages in the Old Testament anticipating Dante’s supernatural earthquake see Boyde (Boyd.1981.1), pp. 93–95.
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133–135.
   Once again a tercet is devoted to Dante’s apparent fear and now to Virgil’s miscomprehension of what is happening, since he, too, thinks that fearful thoughts now are understandable, if not welcome.
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136–141.
   The passage in Luke 2:13–14 presenting angelic praise of God at the birth of Jesus (“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will”) is cited first by Pietro di Dante (1340). By comparing himself and Virgil to the shepherds that first heard the angelic
Gloria
(Luke 3:15), Dante has underlined the connection between Jesus and Statius, which will be evident in the next canto as well. The birth of Jesus stands as a sign for the rebirth of this soul, who has finished his purgation and is prepared to ascend to the Father. All on the mountain apparently cease their own penitential activity to celebrate the event in this song, and do so until the quaking stops; we are led to imagine that this is true each time a soul arrives at this joyful moment of freedom from even the memory of sin, a condition that is formally completed with the passage through the waters of Lethe in the earthly paradise.
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142–144.
   At the cessation of the celebrative singing all return to their usual practice, including the two travelers.
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145–151.
   Dante for the first time underlines his unusual (even for him) curiosity to know the meaning of the things he has just felt and heard. Tommaseo (1837) noted the echo here of Wisdom 14:22, “in magno viventes inscientiae bello” (they live in a great war of ignorance).

The need to press on leaves Dante suspended—and the reader, as well.
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1.
   From at least the time of Tommaseo (1837), commentators dealing with this opening verse have cited the opening (and other passages) of Dante’s
Convivio
(I.i.1): “As the Philosopher [Aristotle] says in the beginning of the First Philosophy [
Metaphysics
I.i], all of humankind naturally desires to know.” Bosco/Reggio (1979), however, make an important distinction. Since here the protagonist is presented with a miracle, the moment in which a soul is finally prepared to rise to God, the following reference (vv. 2–3) to the waters of eternal life in the episode in John’s gospel “confirms the notion that the natural desire for knowledge cannot be satisfied except by Revelation, thus going beyond the affirmations found in
Convivio
(I.i.1; I.i.9; III.xv.4) normally cited by the commentators, which are limited to philosophical knowledge.”
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2–3.
   The obvious reference to the passage in John’s gospel (John 4:5–15) has not escaped many readers. The Samaritan woman who finds Jesus, unprepared for the task of drawing water, at her well, ends up being eager to taste the “water” that he offers as replacement for that which seems so necessary at noon of a warm day in the desert, for it “fiet in eo fons aquae
salientis
in vitam aeternam” ([italics added] shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting). In the Vulgate the present participle
salientis
may refer to the water or indeed to the drinker, rising up into eternal life. It is worth keeping this potential grammatical ambiguity in mind, for that second reading applies precisely to the condition of Statius, who has just now come to that moment in his posthumous existence: he is ready to take on the life of a soul in paradise; he himself is ready to
salire
(rise up). In most interpretations, the water that the Samaritan woman asks for is that of eternal life, which comes alone from the grace of God.

As some commentators have pointed out, John’s word for the Samaritan is
mulier
(woman), while Dante has used a diminutive
(femminetta)
. Giacalone (1968) thinks of the form more as a “commiserative” than as a “diminutive,” i.e., we are to think of this woman’s absolute ordinariness as an encouragement to our own need for exactly such satisfaction of our “thirst.”
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