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Dante now hears the first of the penitents of Purgatory proper. They're under their boulders, reciting the foundational of Christianity.

Except they're not. They're reciting Dante's rewrite of that prayer.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this curious passage that opens PURGATORIO, Canto XI, in which our poet has the sheer bravado to rewrite the most important prayer in the Christian tradition.

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

[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 1 - 24. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:06] Initial comments about the prayer from the prideful penitents on the first terrace of Purgatory proper.

[09:25] The original statement of the prayer from Matthew 6: 9 - 13 versus Dante's rewrite of it.

[12:55] Dante's additions to this foundational prayer.

[21:39] The controversies Dante writes into this foundational prayer.

[32:29] Two interpretive questions. One, why does Dante feel free to rewrite a ritualized prayer, part of the liturgy itself?

[35:45] Two, what is Dante's ultimate poetic theory? That sacred space creates metaphoric/poetic space which then creates actual/physical reality.