Walking With Dante1 Jun 2025

You Are What You Eat . . . And Read: PURGATORIO, Canto XXII, Lines 130 - 145

Virgil and Statius begin to trek around the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory but are stopped by an upside-down tree . . . that causes more questions than it provides answers.

A voice in the tree warns them off and offers examples of temperance, of moderate appetites, all of which are strange interpretations of Biblical stories that don't necessarily have to do with gluttony.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at some of the final misreadings and misinterpretations in PURGATORIO, Canto XXII. It's a wild end to one of the most profound cantos of the second canticle of COMEDY.

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

[01:31] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXII, lines 130 - 145. If you'd like to read along or if you'd like to talk more about this passage or this episode, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:02] The first temptation among the penances: ripe, tasty fruit.

[05:41] Questions about this upside-down tree: how does it grow, what does the dripping liquid do for it, and what does it all mean?

[11:47] This tree and the two trees in the Garden of Eden.

[14:25] Three examplars against gluttony: the Virgin Mary, Roman women, and the prophet Daniel.

[19:00] The classical age in the Christian age, with its precursor, John the Baptist (or perhaps Virgil).

[25:03] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXII, lines 130 - 145.

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