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We begin PURGATORIO, Canto IX, with a mess of classical imagery that's befuddled scholars for centuries. We won't come to any conclusions about it, other than to say that such misdirection may be the heart of the matter.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this difficult opening to a central canto for PURGATORIO: the gate into the main matter of the canticle, the cornices where souls are purged (or purge themselves--but more on that to come!).

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

[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12. If you'd like to read along or continue this difficult discussion, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:42] Sleeping, being human, and journeying in COMEDY.

[06:53] The first mess in the passage: Tithonus, his wife, and his concubine.

[10:48] The second mess in the passage: the signs of the zodiac.

[13:03] The third mess in the passage: the three steps of the night.

[15:56] The first common solution to the mess: European time v. Purgatorial time.

[18:08] The second common solution to the mess: the concubine and the moon.

[19:28] My solution: poetic play and classical imagery, not classical control of that imagery.

[26:42] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 1 - 12.