PURGATORIO, Episode 166. The Place Beyond Accidental Change: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, Lines 40 - 57

Virgil has asked two questions: why'd the mountain shake and why'd the shades all cry out with one voice?

The unknown shade on the fifth terrace of Mount Purgatory begins his answer by referring to Aristotle's notions of change . . . and offers the surprising conclusion that some change is impossible about the three steps to the gate of Purgatory proper.

And then he does something wilder: He begins to wrap the poetic imagery of Cantos XX and XXI back onto itself.

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

[02:20] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 40 - 57. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me via a comment, please scroll down this page.

[04:08] The mountain's meteorology and Aristotelian accidental change.

[09:09] Two translation issues early in the passage.

[12:45] Classical learning: Thaumus's daughter, Iris.

[15:41] Stable feet v. wet feet . . . and the search for a contemplative space.

[19:28] The refusal to answer "why?"

[21:16] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXI, lines 40 - 57.

And here’s my English translation of Purgatorio, Canto XXI, Lines 40 – 57

That [shade] began: “Nothing outside of order

Can exist within this mountain’s monastic rule—

And nothing can be beyond its custom.

“This place is also free from change.

Only what heaven receives into itself from itself

Can find its cause here—and nothing else.

“For that reason, no rain, no hail, no snow,

No dew, and no frost falls any farther up

Than the little staircase with its three short steps.

“Thick or wispy clouds don’t show up,

Nor lightning, nor the daughter of Thaumus,

Who often changes her locales down below.

“Dry vapors can’t rise above the level

Of the highest of the three steps that I just spoke about,

Where the vicar of Peter plants his feet.

“Great or smaller tremors can perhaps happen

Lower down, but up here the winds birthed in the earth

Have never shaken the mountain—and I don’t know why. . . .”