e but in the case of Dante they appear to be taking a while to work. The waters of Lethe are found all over the place in Purgatory.
Muses – As Dante and Virgil enter the realm of Purgatory, it is the realm where man’s spirit will become purified and ascend closer to Paradise. Because of this, Dante invokes the Muses in a reference to their conflict with the Magpies “Here let dead Poesy from her grave up-spring, / O sacred Muses, whom I serve and haunt, / And sound, Calliope, a louder string / To accompany my song with that high chant / Which smote the Magpies’ miserable choir” (Dante 2.1.7-11). The Magpies refer to the nine daughters of King Pieros, who challenged the Muses in a contest. When one of them beat Calliope, she was so incensed she turned them into magpies. Thus, Dante wants equipped with some powerful stuff before he tries to encounter and chronicle this realm.
Colors Symbolism – There is a great deal of colors symbolism throughout Purgatory. In Canto II, when the sky is changing colors, we see Dante use these colors to symbolize the face of Aurora. Aurora is the goddess of dawn “That from her [Night] hand fall as she grows in might; / So that the fair cheeks of Aurora, there / Where I was, gave their red and white away, / Sallowing, as if old age had turned them sere” (Dante 2.2.7-9). We see color symbolism use often in Purgatory but another notable example is when the travelers encounter Thisbe and Pyramus “As Pyramus at the sound of Thisbe’s name / Opened his dying eyes and gazed at her / Then, when the crimson on the mulberry came,” (Dante 2.27.37-39). The mulberry turning crimson is meant to be symbolic of the fact that Pyramus, thinking his beloved Thisbes was killed by a lion, stabbed himself to death.
Sins – Like Hell, Purgatory is broken into nine separate layers. Each one is purer than the one below it, in opposite contrast to the structure of the layers of Hell with each ...