Virgil's Inadequacy On Full Display: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, Lines 22 - 33

Our pilgrim, Dante, has asked a very pressing question: How can shades grow thin? How does the immaterial act like the material in the afterlife?

Virgil has given the pilgrim the confidence to ask this question. So Virgil takes the first crack at an answer. Problem is, he offers a whole unsatisfying answer and then turns the discussion over to Statius.

This passage is a curious introduction to Statius's coming discourse on embryology. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the emotional vibe established before we get to the intellectual and doctrinal answer ahead.

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

[02:42] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 22 - 33. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[04:19] Curiosities in the medieval Florentine in lines 22 - 27.

[06:33] Virgil's two inadequate answers to the pilgrim's question.

[13:11] The wound of the intellect and their relation to poetry.

[17:35] Statius and the limitations of Virgil.

[20:04] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXV, lines 22 - 33.