Sound The Retreat In Eden: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 1 - 27

Face to face with Beatrice, the pilgrim Dante is ready for more revelation. Problem is, even after Lethe he's still doing things wrong and must be corrected by the women around the griffin's chariot.

But what is he doing wrong? And why does the entire parade of revelation go into retreat? What indeed does that griffin symbolize? And how did we get from the intensely personal experience of Dante's confession and contrition to this much more global view of the allegories on the march?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin to walk slowly through one of the most complex cantos (and certainly the longest canto) in all of COMEDY.

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

[01:17] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, Lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me about this canto, please find the entry for this podcast episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:31] A brief introduction to PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII.

[05:19] Notes for the first nine lines (or three tercets) of the canto.

[10:40] Dante's forgotten failings and Beatrice's on-going attraction.

[12:04] Dante's intense gaze . . . but for or at what?

[16:23] Beatrice and the problem of the "lesser thing" of revelation.

[21:28] The parade of revelation (or of the church militant) in retreat with its "precious cargo."

[25:01] The griffin's feathers, which prompt further questions about the griffin's allegorical meaning.

[28:08] Bridging the personal and the universal.

[31:04] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXII, lines 1- 27.