Purgatorio
Canto XII
Virgil bids Dante leave Oderisi, with whom he has been stepping, bowed in sympathy. They go on their way, and Dante is now admonished by Virgil to examine the pavement they are treading. On this are chiselled reliefs, showing examples of pride laid low. After they have gone some distance, they meet the angel who guards this terrace and who with a stroke of his wing erases one of the P’s from Dante’s forehead. They ascend a stair, like the one made to ease the ascent from Florence to San Miniato, and Dante is surprised to find that he now mounts more easily than he went on the level. This is because the P (the sin of pride) has been obliterated.
LIKE oxen in the yoke, pace matching pace,
That laden spirit I accompanied
So long as the sweet Teacher gave me grace;
But when he said: “Press on now and leave his side,
For here ’tis well that each one urge with all
His might his bark, and sail and oar be plied,”
Upright, as walking maketh natural,
I made again my body, although in thought
Bowed down I still remained and shrunken small.
I had moved me, and willingly my footsteps sought [10]
My Master’s, and we, stepping both as one,
Already showed how light we were of foot,
When he admonished me: “Turn thine eyes down.
Good will it be, the way to soothe the more,
To see the bed thy soles are treading on.”
As tombs over those buried in stone floor,
That after may be memory of them, bear
The portraiture of what they were before,
Wherefore men often-times weep for them there,
Because remembrance pricks them with the smart [20]
That only the compassionate doth spur,
So saw I, but more life-like, since the art
Did there of a diviner craftsman tell,
The road formed by the Mount'’s projecting part.
I saw on one side him, who to excel
All other creatures was created, flame
Down, like the lightning, as from heaven he fell.[i]27. Luke 10:18: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”
I saw Briareus, by celestial aim[ii]28-33. Briareus was one of the giants who fought against the gods. The carving represents the bodies of the defeated giants, upon which Apollo (“Thymbraeus”), Pallas, Mars, and Jove are gazing.
On the other side transfixed upon the ground,
Lying with mortal frost upon his frame. [30]
I saw Thrymbzus, Mars and Pallas round
Their father, still in arms and gazing o’er
The great limbs of the Giants strewn beyond.
I saw Nimrod under his mighty tower[iii]34. “Nimrod”: the builder of the tower of Babel in the land of Shinar.
As if bewildered and regarding those
Who in Shinar with him bragged of all their power.
O Niobe, into mine eyes arose[iv]37. Niobe, proud of her seven sons and seven daughters, disparaged Latona, whose two children, Apollo and Diana, avenged her by shooting all of Niobe’s offspring.
What grief, to see, carved on that floor, thy pain
Twixt seven and seven of children in death’s throes!
O Saul, how there upon thine own sword slain [40]
Didst thou appear, dead on Gilboa bare
That after felt not dew nor any rain.
O mad Arachne, so I saw thee stare,[v]43. “Arachne,” who had challenged Pallas to a trial of skill in weaving, was turned by her into a spider.
Half-spider already, mournful on the shred
Of what thou wovest to thine own despair.
O Rehoboam, here no threatening head[vi]46. “Rehoboam”: see 1 Kings 12:18.
Thine image showeth; but a chariot now
Hurries thee away, ere chase come, full of dread.
It showed further, the hard pavement, how[vii]49. Amphiaraus, to avoid going to the Theban war, hid himself, but was betrayed by his wife Eriphyle, who had been bribed by a golden necklace. Her son Alcmaeon killed her in vengeance for the loss of his father.
Dearly Alemaeon made his mother pay [50]
The unlucky necklace, to achieve his vow.
It showed how his sons rushed on him to slay[viii]52. Sennacherib, the haughty king of the Assyrians, was killed by his sons “as he was worshipping.”
Sennacherib; and how, their father killed,
They left him in the temple where he lay.
It showed the rout and cruel carnage willed
By Queen Tomyris who to Cyrus cried:[ix]56. “Tomyris,” queen of the Scythians, to avenge the defeat of her army, lured Cyrus and his men into an ambush and destroyed them.
“Blood thou didst crave, with blood shalt thou be filled.”
It showed how after Holofernes died
The Assyrians all fled headlong and dismayed;
The relic of the slaying it showed beside. [60]
I saw Troy gaping and in ashes laid.
O Ilion, thee how vile and desecrate
The witness of the sculpture there betrayed!
What master of brush or point were he so great,
Who line and shade could have so justly wed
For every subtle mind to wonder at?
The live appeared living, and dead the dead.
Not better he who saw the actual deed
Saw than I, stooping, all beneath my tread.
Wax proud now and with haughty front proceed, [70]
Children of Eve, nor gaze upon the ground,
So that your evil courses ye may heed.
More of the Mount by us was compassed round
Already, and of the sun’s path much more spent
Than the mind reckoned, being not yet unbound,
When he who, watchful without ceasing, went
In front of me, said: “Lift thy head upright!
’Tis no time now to walk so all-intent.
See, an angel cometh toward us into sight
There, and from service of the day withdrawn [80]
The sixth handmaiden homeward taketh flight.
Reverence over face and act put on,[x]82. The sixth hour of daylight.
So that to send us upward may him please.
Think, that this day never again shall dawn!”
To his monitions, ever the hour to seize,
Was I full well used, so that to my ears
In that matter he spoke no mysteries.
Onward to us the beauteous creature nears,
Clad in white raiment and in countenance
Like as at morn a trembling star appears. [90]
His arms he opened, then his wings’ expanse,
Saying: “Come; nigh to this spot is the stair,
And easy now will be the ascending hence.
To this inviting they who come are rare.
O human spirits, upward born to spring,
Why fall ye down at a brief blast of air?”
He led us where the rock was cleft; his wing
On me across the forehead did he beat,
Then pledged me a safe path for my journeying.
As, on the right, to climb the hill that, set [100]
O’er Rubaconte, by the church is topt[xi]101-102. “The church”: San Miniato. “Rubaconte”: the old name of the bridge, now called Ponte alle Grazie. “Well-ruled” is ironical.
Which has the well-ruled city under it,
There is a breach amid the ascent abrupt,
Hewn into steps made in the former time
When stave and ledger were yet uncorrupt,
Even so the slope is made less hard to climb
Which falls from the other cornice with steep face,
But on both sides close presses the rock’s rim.
While we were turning to the upward pass
Voices Beati pauperes spiritu [110]
Sang, beyond speech to tell, so sweet it was.
Ah, different verily this avenue
From Hell’s approaches; for through singing here
Is the entry, but down there fierce wails pursue.
Now mounting up the sacred steps we were,
And far more lightly it seemed that now I trod
Than earlier on the level did appear.
Wherefore I: “Master, say what is this load
Which has been taken from me, that scarce aught
Of toil seems now to oppress me upon the road?” [120]
He answered: “When the P’s thy brow has got,
Nigh cancelled on thee yet remaining still,
Shall, like the one, be utterly razed out,
Thou shalt be so surrendered to good-will
That not only shall toil not tire thy feet
But to mount up shall be delectable.”
Then did I like to those who walk the street
With something that they know not on their head
Save that they doubt the signs and stares they meet,
Wherefore, to make sure, the hand comes to aid [130]
And seeks and finds, that service to afford
For which the mere sight is not facultied;
And with the hand’s spread fingers I explored
And found but six the letters he of the keys
Had over both the temples on me scored;
Perceiving which my Leader smiled at ease.