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Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we listen to the angel at the very gate of Purgatory and witness his strange interchange with our pilgrim Dante.

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

[01:21] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with a comment, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:39] The colorful beauty of the scene vs. the angel's ashy robes.

[05:52] Virgil's effort to get the pilgrim Dante into Purgatory.

[09:44] The two keys: gold and silver.

[13:28] God's forgiveness vs. humanity's capacity to forgive.

[17:20] The seven Ps on Dante's forehead: an essential strangeness.

[19:34] Writing on the forehead in Biblical traditions and in COMEDY.

[22:46] Erring on the side of opening, rather than closing--with an important caveat.

[26:19] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 106 - 129.