hBjcDQfnMguRXVnjTNgM Mark Scarbrough's WALKING WITH DANTE: Love Maps Purgatory in PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 106 - 126 - Walking With Dante

Episode 137

Love Maps Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, Lines 106 - 126

Published on: 13th November, 2024

Virgil continues his discourse about love, the central discourse in all of COMEDY. It's a tour de force of scholastic reasoning . . . that may leave something to be desired after INFERNO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore Virgil's scholastic understanding of all human action and his vision of love as the seed of all that we do.

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

[01:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 106 - 126. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:08] Virgil's scholastic background in the text.

[08:01] Virgil's two premises: no one can hate their own self or the first cause (that is, God).

[11:33] Virgil's understanding of the three terraces of Purgatory below us.

[16:12] Can Virgil be a scholastic thinker? What do we make of this very oracular Virgil?

[20:39] Virgil's argument is less a celebration of Aquinas and more one of Aristotle.

[22:48] Love may move the fence, but love doesn't tear down the fence.

[26:46] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVII, lines 106 - 126.

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About the Podcast

Walking With Dante
A passage-by-passage stroll through Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY with Mark Scarbrough
Ever wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
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Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!