Dante has now crossed Lethe and is ready to face Beatrice head on. She has moved to get ready for this eye-to-eye conversation. She's positioned nearer the griffin, a complicated symbol that may have more than one interpretation.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore both Beatrice (particularly her emerald eyes) and this dual-natured beast that seems to become more difficult to interpret with its every move in the poem.

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

[01:19] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 112 - 126. 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.

[02:44] Beatrice has moved . . . but where?

[05:09] With her emerald eyes, Beatrice and Dante finally escape the Francesca episode.

[09:15] Dante is the Orpheus who can look into the eyes of his Eurydice.

[10:49] Here are at least two additional interpretations for the griffin.

[13:58] Beatrice's eyes are the methodology of revelation (and mystery).

[16:41] The passage drops the first hint about Jesus' transfiguration.

[18:50] Reflection is transfiguring, as in the craft of poetry.

[19:34] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 112 - 126.

Dante wakes up in the arms of the young woman who first welcomed him to the Garden of Eden. She's dragging him through Lethe before she forcefully pushes him underwater.

This scene is deeply symbolic and allegorical . . . although it raises many more questions than it answers. In fact, it seems to want to leave many things open-ended, a cue that Dante wants us in the poem, working on solutions to the many puzzles he has set.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we see the pilgrim Dante cleansed and ready to dance with the seven virtues around Beatrice's chariot.

To support this work, consider a one-time donation or a small monthly stipend. You can make either contribution at this PayPal link right here.

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

[01:29] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 91 - 111. 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.

[03:43] Two notes on the first nine lines: the heart and the shuttle.

[06:33] Is this a baptism?

[09:46] Three questions that surround the Latin line from the Psalms.

[13:43] Why is the dunking so forceful?

[15:45] What sign do the four women make over Dante?

[17:41] The seven women fill in the details from PURGATORIO, Cantos I and VIII.

[19:56] The four women are linked to the classical world; the three women, to the contemplative life.

[22:43] Does everything happen to Statius, too? And to other penitent souls?

[26:23] How do you express the inexpressible?

[28:28] Must our poet forget the CONVIVIO in Lethe?

[29:39] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 91 - 111.

Beatrice has finished her case against the pilgim Dante. All that's left is for him to find his way beyond confession and into confession . . . which he does with a major crack-up that leads him to faint for the third time in COMEDY.

Before he collapses, the poem begins a series of inversions or reversals that both increase the ironic valences of the passage and give its reader an almost vertigo-inducing sense of Dante's emotional landscape.

A difficult passage in the Garden of Eden, here Beatrice accomplishes what she came for. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the slow build-up to the final moment of contrition . . . which mimics the moment when Dante gives way in front of Francesca, back in INFERNO's circle of lust.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, Lines 64 - 90. 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.

[04:15] Dante, from boy to man.

[07:26] Recognition, the key to the passage, to contrition, and a possible node of irony.

[10:38] The "unbearded" oak and the final crack-up.

[13:49] Iarbas and Dido v. Dante and the new Dido.

[16:28] Beatrice's venom.

[17:27] Dante's beard.

[20:00] The angels' departure?

[21:16] The meaning of the beast's two natures.

[23:53] Glossing the end of the passage: lines 82 - 90.

[27:57] Francesca and her physical seduction v. Beatrice and her physical-theological seduction.

[33:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXI, lines 64 - 90.