Dante Inferno

Cato – Cato the Younger killed himself on earth rather than obey Caesar at Utica. The souls in Purgatory are striving for free will, thus, it is apt that Cato is the custodian of Purgatory “Near me an old man solitary I saw, / In his aspect so much to be revered / That no son owes a father more of awe” (Dante 2.1.31-33). We see a few lines later that Cato was released from Limbus (Limbo) by Christ. This allowed no one to move the blessed by the fate of the damned “The evil stream she swells, by the decree / Made when I was delivered from that bond” (Dante 2.1.88-90). We will find out more about free will from Cato and Marco Lombardo.

Time Telling – In Hell, time is static and atemporal. However, where Hell represents hopelessness, Purgatory represents hope. The souls in Purgatory are on the move, so-to-speak, even if it may take some of them a 1,000 years to ascend to Paradise. Because of this, time still has meaning in purgatory. Further, in Hell time can never eradicate sin, but in Purgatory the course of time is reversed because the divine image may still be restored once enough time in Purgatory erases sin. Time is also the main component of Purgatory because, until one cleanses themselves of all evil dispositions (the seven venal sins), they cannot rise through Purgatory to Paradise.

Lethe - We see a reference to the waters of Lethe in Canto XXXI. The waters of Lethe are

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ion is mirrored by the structure of the work as well. For example, we see that celestial bodies were not visible in Hell, but upon looking skyward, the pilgrim sees the stars. All three canticles end with the word “stars”, which reinforces this symbolic motion upward. We also see examples of physical locomotion. In Canto II, we see that in contrast to the souls of Hell which were weightless but concrete, Dante cannot touch a shade even though two spirits can interact on the lower levels of Purgatory “O Shades, in all but aspect, void and vain! / Behind it thrice my hands did I enlace, / And thrice they cam back to my breast again” (Dante 2.2.79-81). This less concrete or intangible nature of the souls in Purgatory implies they are becoming more “spirit” and Divine than “physical” and earthly. Statius – Publius Papinius Statius was a Latin poet. He appears as a character in Purgatory. At one point we see Dante tell us that Statius is instructed to walk differently than he had been. In Canto XXVII, Dante has been told he no longer needs a guide or instructor. Alone, he now gives us an account of this change of position of the Latin poet known primarily for his works dealing with Achilles, “He smiled then / As on a child by
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Approximate Word count = 2505
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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