The lady in Eden says she's come to answer the pilgrim's questions. And he's got one. It just might not be the first question on our minds.

But it's one that reveals the hall of mirrors that the poet has created in COMEDY, in which the poem itself justifies its own fictional if scientific answers to questions that lead the fictional pilgrim (and the very real reader) to a position of faith, based on the imagined landscape.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first of the lady's speech with our pilgrim (as well as Virgil and Statius) in the Garden of Eden at the top of Mount Purgatory.

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

[01:27] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 85 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:06] The lady's six-line theological explanation for the Garden of Eden and the fall of mankind.

[07:31] The lady's six-line scientific explanation for the breeze on the top of Mount Purgatory.

[11:04] The lady's six-line glimpse of Paradise above.

[12:54] The pilgrim's question of faith is built off the fictional landscape and its "scientific" answers found in the poem itself.

[21:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, lines 85 - 108.