Purgatorio
Canto XXII
Mounting the rocky stair, at which an angel has erased another P from Dante’s forehead, the three reach the sixth terrace, where Gluttony is punished. Virgil asks Statius how it was he could be guilty of avarice; and Statius explains that his was the opposite sin of prodigality, for both are expiated in the same circle; and he further explains how he became a Christian. He then asks Virgil about the fate of the ancient poets, and Virgil tells him that they are in Limbo, and some of the people of Statius’ Thebaid are with them. Their talk is interrupted at sight of a tree, full of fruit, on which a fountain sprays. A voice coming out of it recites examples of temperance.
BY now we had left the angel in his place,
Him who had turned us to the sixth circle,
Having first razed a scar from off my face,
And had proclaimed those spirits blessed who dwell
In longing after righteousness (and this
With sitiunt only his words effected well);[i]6. “Sitiunt”: Matt. 5:6, “Blessed are they which . . . thirst after righteousness.”
And lighter than through the other passages
I found my body move, so that untired
I followed the swift spirits up with ease,
When Virgil: “Love, that is by virtue fired, [10]
To fire another love did never fail,
If but it have shown forth the flame desired;
Wherefore from that first hour when Juvenal[ii]13. The Latin poet Juvenal was a contemporary of Statius.
Who of thy affection brought to me report
Came down into Hell’s border among us all,
My good will toward thee hath been of such sort
As never yet to one unseen did bind,
So that to me now these stairs will seem short.
But tell me, and let me a friend’s forgiveness find
If my rein slacken in too great confidence, [20]
And talk with me henceforth in friendly kind,
How could thy breast find room for the offence
Of avarice, when so much wisdom throve
In thee by virtue of thy diligence?”
These words made Statius a little move
Toward laughter at the first; then he replied:
“Each word of thine is a dear token of love,
But often are things apparent that provide
For doubting false material, because
Of the true reasons that beneath them hide. [30]
Thy asking shows me that thou didst suppose
Me avaricious yonder; it may be
By reason of that circle where I was.
Know then that avarice was removed from me
Too far; and for a thousand moons the wage
Of this excess I have paid in penalty.
And had I not set straight my pilgrimage
When I had pondered what thou criest out,
As if at human nature thou didst rage,
‘O hallowed hunger of gold, why dost thou not [40][iii]40-41. Cf, Aeneid III, 56-57: “Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?”
The appetite of mortal men control?”
To turn in the sad jousts had been my lot.
Then knew I how too far flights can cajole
The hands to squander, and I repented then
Of this and other evils in my soul.
How many with shorn hair will rise again[iv]46. “With shorn hair”: a symbol of prodigality.
Through the ignorance forbidding them to win
Repentance in their life or life’s last pain!
Know that the fault that meeteth any sin[v]49. Prodigality is a sin, as well as avarice.
By direct opposition, is with it [50]
Condemned, and drieth here its fulsome green.
Wherefore if I among the folk was set
Who wail their avarice, so to cleanse my stain,
It hath befallen me for its opposite.”
“Then too when thou didst sing the strife insane
Of the twin Sorrows that Jocasta bore,”[vi]56. By the “twin Sorrows” of Jocasta are meant her two sons, Eteocles and Polynices.
Spoke on the singer of the rustic strain,
“That chant of thine sustained by Clio’s lore,[vii]58. “Clio”: the Muse of history.
Argues that faith, without which good works fail
Of their effect, had not yet taught thee more. [60]
If so, what sun, what candle did avail
To annul thy darkness, so that thou didst steer
Behind the Fisher afterwards thy sail?”[viii]63. The “Fisher” is St. Peter.
And he to him: “Thou first didst to the clear
Springs of Parnassus in its caves invite;[ix]65. Parnassus is the mountain sacred to the Muses.
Then thy light brought me to God’s presence near.
Thou didst as he who travels in the night,
Who bears a lamp behind him, nor befriends
Himself, but those who follow leads aright,
When thou didst say, “The world itself amends; [70][x]70. “When thou didst say”: in Virgil’s Bucolics, IV, 4.
Justice returns and the first age of man,
And a new progeny from Heaven descends.’
Through thee became I poet and Christian:
But that my drawing may be better shown,
My hand shall colour what the sketch began.
Already the whole world was ripe to own
The true belief, that fruit whereof the seed
By the heralds of the eternal realm was sown.
And thy words, that I touched on, so agreed
With the new preachers, that upon me grew [80]
The custom to frequent them at my need.
They then became so holy in my view
That when Domitian persecuted them
Their lamentation my tears also drew.
And while I trod on yonder earth, I came
Oft to their succour, and their upright way
Caused me all other doctrines to contemn.
And ere my poem had brought the Greeks to stay[xi]88. This episode marks the middle of the Thebaid.
Upon the rivers of Thebes, baptised I was,
But dared not to the world my faith betray, [90]
Long time professing paganism: because
Of this lukewarmness must I the fourth ring
Circle until four hundred years should pass.
Thou therefore, who didst lift the covering
Which hid such great good from me, (and time to spare
The ascent allows us for our communing,)
Tell me now where is our old Terence, where[xii]97-101. Various Latin dramatists.—‘Persius”: the Latin satirist.— “The Greek” is Homer.
Caecilius, Plautus, Varius, if thou know’st,
And if they are damned, tell me what ward they share.”
“They, Persius, I and many another ghost,” [100]
Answered my Guide, “are with the Greek, that one
Whom with their milk the Muses suckled most,
In the first circle of the blind dungeon.
Oft of the mount we talk, whose haunted ground
Our nursing mothers keep their vigil on.[xiii]105. “Our nursing mothers”: the Muses.
Euripides with Antiphon is found[xiv]106-107. The Greek lyric poet, Simonides, is mentioned with the Greek tragic poets, Euripides, Antiphon, and Agathon.
There, Agathon also, and Simonides
And other Greeks whose brows the laurel crowned.
There, of thy people, Antigone one sees,[xv]109. By “thy people” Virgil means the characters in Statius’ poems.
Deiphile, and Argia, and the sad [110]
Ismene, living in past miseries.
She is there who showed Langia where it sprayed;[xvi]112-113. Hypsipyle who pointed out the fountain of Langia to Adrastus. “Tiresias’ daughter” was Manto (Inf. XX, 55)
There is Tiresias’ daughter, and there Thetis,
And with her sisters Deidamia’s shade.”
Now both the poets began to hold their peace
And round them eager looks afresh to turn,
Having from walls and climbing won release.
Already four handmaidens of the morn[xvii]118. Four hours of daylight.
Were left behind, and the fifth upward still
Steered at the chariot-pole its blazing horn, [120]
When said my Leader: “I think to the outer sill
‘Tis well that our right shoulders should be bent
And that we circle, as is our wont, the hill.”
Thus habit was our guidance there; we went
Forward, the less to misgiving inclined
Because that worthy spirit gave assent.[xviii]126. “That worthy spirit”: Statius.
They journeyed on in front, and I behind
Alone, and to their discourse listened well,
Which gained me knowledge of poetic mind.
But soon the pleasant converse broken fell [130]
Before a tree, which in the mid-road now
We found, with bounteous fruit, sweet to the smell.
As a pine narrows up from bough to bough
So did this taper downward stage by stage;
As I suppose, that none may up it go.
Upon the side where there was no passage
A crystal liquor from the cliff sprang free
And sprinkled all the upper foliage.
As the two poets drew near to the tree
A voice within it from the green leaves there, [140]
Cried: “Of this food ye shall have scarcity.”
Then: “Mary at the wedding had more care
That seemly and complete should be the feast[xix]143. The story of Mary at the wedding feast in Cana is an example of temperance.
Than of her own mouth, which now speaks your prayer.
Rome’s antique women were content with taste
Of water for their drink; Daniel of old[xx]146. Dan. 1:8-17.
Despised food and in wisdom was increased.
The first age was as beautiful as gold.
It made acorns with hunger savour sweet
And every brook with thirst a nectar hold. [150]
Honey and locusts were the only meat
That in the wilderness the Baptist knew,
And therefore is he glorious, and so great
As in the gospel is revealed to you.”