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Dante Final
Final Exam set. (Purgatory and Paradise)
179
Literature
Undergraduate 3
05/12/2012

Additional Literature Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Judas Machabeus
Definition
Honoring the custom of offering prayers for those who died in God's grace, proclaims that it is "a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins"
Term
trial by fire
Definition
Another important conceptual component of Purgatory, figures prominently in the Bible: "Thou hast proved my heart," sings the psalmist, "and visited it by night, thou hast tried me by fire: and iniquity had not been found in
Term
Definition
Based on these and other passages, medieval theologians introduced the idea of 'purging fires' as a way to imagine the purification of souls who died in God's grace but bore the stains and habits of sin.
Term
"Drythelm's Vision"
Definition
(7th century) speaks of "consuming flames and cutting cold" that punish certain souls; helped by prayers, alms, fasting, and masses, "they will all be received into the Kingdom of Heaven at the Day of Judgment"
Term
"St. Patrick's Purgatory"
Definition
(mid 12th century) describes harsh punishments to purge souls of their repented sins and thus enable their return to the same terrestrial paradise from which humanity was banished (144).
Term
The "Monk of Evesham"
Definition
(end of 12th century) also describes harsh, cruel torments; nonetheless, "[b]y atoning for their crimes or by the intercession of others, in that place of exile and punishment, they might earn admission to the heavenly country" (204).
Term
"Thurkill's Vision"
Definition
(dated 1206), the souls pass through a "large purgatorial fire" and are immersed in a lake "incomparably salty and cold" (222).
Term
Of particular conceptual originality is Dante's Ante-Purgatory
Definition
The region rising from the shore at the mountain's base to the gate of Purgatory proper at the limit of the earth's atmosphere. This area is populated by souls who were excommunicated by the Church or who for various reasons delayed repentance to the end of their lives.
Term
DOLCEZZA
Definition
(sweetness; )
kindness;
gentleness
v.13
Term
Then I turned to the right, setting my mind upon the other pole, and saw four stars not seen before except by the first people. (Purg. I, vv. 22-24)
Definition
Cardinal virtues:
Prudence
Justice
Temperance (restraint)
Courage (fortitude)
Term
Theological virtues:
Definition
Faith
Hope
Love (charity)
Term

Cato

 

Definition

A stern, father-like figure, Cato of Utica (95-46 B.C.E.) was a Roman military leader and statesman.

•As the warden or guardian of the mountain of Purgatory, Cato performs a role somewhat similar to that of Charon in Hell.


•Dante seems to have assigned this prominent role to Cato because he so valued freedom that he gave his life for it (1.71-2): the historical Cato chose suicide over submission to tyranny after he was defeated (along with Pompey) in the civil war against Julius Caesar.


• Classical authors, including Cicero, Seneca, and Lucan, considered Cato the embodiment of moral and political rectitude.


•Virgil, for instance, presents Cato as one who gives laws to the righteous (Aen. 8.670). Based on this reputation, Cato was thought to possess in full the four cardinal (moral) virtues, symbolized here by the four "holy" stars lighting his face (1.37-9)


•Dante follows this legacy of praise for Cato, despite his status as a pagan suicide who opposed Caesar, by calling him in an earlier work the human being best suited to represent God (Convivio 4.28.15) and by now imagining his spiritual salvation (freed from Limbo at Christ's Harrowing of Hell) and divinely-ordained function in the afterlife.

Term
Angel Canto II.13-51
Definition

•A beautiful white angel ("divine bird") pilots a boat carrying the souls to the island-mountain of Purgatory.


•The angel stands toward the back of the boat (a low vessel swiftly cutting through the water) with his bright white wings, powering the boat, rising up toward heaven.


•The angel's overwhelming luminosity renders invisible his other features.


• The appearance and actions of this angel, typical of other "officials" whom the travelers will meet in Purgatory (II.30), invite comparison with the characteristics and roles of Charon and Phlegyas, both assigned to water transport in Hell, as well as the heavenly messenger who assists Dante and Virgil at the gates of Dis.

Term
As the souls arrive at the shores of Purgatory they are singing Psalm 114 (113 in the Vulgate), which begins "In exitu Isräel de Aegypto" [When Israel went out of Egypt] (2.46-8).
Definition

The letter alone, what is signified to us is the departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt during the time of Moses

 

if at the allegory, what is signified to us is our redemption through Christ

 

if at the moral sense, what is signified to us is the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace

 

if at the anagogical, what is signified to us is the departure of the sanctified soul from bondage to the corruption of this world into the freedom of eternal glory.

 

And although these mystical senses are called by various names, they may all be called allegorical, since they are all different from the literal or historical.

Term
Four-Fold Method
Definition
The literal sense teaches what happened, The allegorical what you believe. The moral what you should do, The anagogical where you are going. (spiritual or mystical sense)
Term
Definition

Casella

 

A dear friend of Dante, Casella was a singer and composer from Florence (or perhaps the nearby town of Pistoia).


•He set lyric poems to music and performed these arrangements, as he does here on the shores of Purgatory with Dante's canzone, "Love that speaks within my mind" (2.112).


•Casella died sometime before Easter Sunday 1300 (when Dante arrives in Purgatory) and after July 13, 1282, the date of a document from Siena reporting that he was fined for wandering about the city at night.


•Casella's own arrival now, after having previously been refused passage to Purgatory, is a result of the plenary indulgence granted by Pope Boniface VIII on Christmas 1299 for the Jubilee year (1300).


•He smiles, showing both affection and bemusement, when Dante tries futilely to embrace his soul-body (2.76-84), a scene recalling how Aeneas sought to clasp the shade of his father, Anchises, in the underworld of Virgil's Aeneid (6.700-2).

Term
Manfred
Definition

illegitimate son of the emperor Frederick II, who is listed among the heretics in Inferno 10

 

Noble, Refined Character

 

King of Sicily-alleged to murder father, brother...

 

Excommunicated from the church twice

 

Shows Dante Battle Scars

 

The excommunicates, Manfred informs Dante, must wait in Ante-Purgatory thirty times the length of their period of excommunication, unless the sentence is shortened by prayers of the living (3.136-41).

Term
Belacqua
Definition
Belacqua epitomizes the lazy spirits who waited until the last minute before repenting and turning to God.
Term
Buonconte da Montefeltro
Definition

Buonconte, mortally wounded in the throat, fled the plain and arrived at the bank of a river (Archiano), where he died with Mary's name on his lips. The subsequent struggle for Buonconte's soul then repeats, with opposite results, the tussle between Saint Francis and the devil for the soul of Buonconte's father (Inf. 27.112-23).

 

Here the good angel "wins" the soul for heaven, thus leaving the evil angel to punish Buonconte's corpse by bringing flooding rains that sweep the body downstream into the Arno, where it is buried in the riverbed (5.109-29). The slain soldier now appears in Ante-Purgatory among those who sinned right up until the moment they died a violent death; only then did they repent and forgive, thereby leaving the world in peace with God (5.52-7).

Term
La Pia
Definition

killed in 1295 on the orders of her husband, Paganello de' Pannocchieschi. "Nello," a Tuscan leader of the guelphs, owned a castle in the Maremma (the coastal region near Siena).


•While some say the murder took place with such secrecy that its manner was never known, others claim Nello ordered a servant to take Pia by the feet and drop her from the castle window. A motive for the murder may have been Nello's desire to marry his neighbor, a widowed countess.


•Pia's concern for Dante's well being and her request to be remembered perhaps recall the courtesy displayed by another woman, Francesca, in the fifth canto of the Inferno.

Term
Of particular conceptual originality is Dante's Ante-Purgatory
Definition

The region rising from the shore at the mountain's base to the gate of Purgatory proper at the limit of the earth's atmosphere.


This area is populated by souls who:


–were excommunicated by the Church;
–who for various reasons delayed repentance to the end of their lives

 

Term
Sordello (canto VI)
Definition

a poet from Mantua (a city in northern Italy) from the Middle Ages (13th century, a generation or two before Dante).

 

Sordello wrote poems in Provençal, including one on courtly virtue and another contrasting the good qualities of a dead nobleman with the deficiencies of contemporary European rulers.

 

Virgil and Dante see Sordello seated off by himself, like a lion at rest attentively eyeing the travelers as they approach.


He is proud and dignified but very affectionate with Virgil when he learns they are from the same city.


•The love shown between Sordello and Virgil because of their common homeland triggers a long authorial diatribe against the violence, corruption, and lack of effective leadership up and down the Italian peninsula in Dante's time (6.76-151)


• Sordello accompanies Dante and Virgil to the Valley of Rulers in the Ante-Purgatory

Term
Dream of Eagle and Ganymede
Definition
As he is carried in his sleep by St. Lucy to the threshold of Purgatory proper (9.49-63), Dante identifies with Ganymede and dreams he is hunted by a powerful eagle that snatches him up to the heavenly sphere of fire.

•Ganymede was a young Trojan prince, known for his beauty, abducted by Jupiter--in the form of an eagle--to serve forever as the god's cupbearer in Olympus.

•Virgil provides an animated depiction of the scene: "The royal boy, with javelin gives keen chase--he is panting--tiring running stags; and Jove's swift armor-bearer sweeps him up from Ida in his talons; and the boy's old guardians in vain implore the stars; the savage barking of the dogs disturbs the skies" (Aen. 5.252-7).
Term
Ovid's version (Met. 10.155-61), presented by Orpheus as an example of Jupiter's power, highlights an erotic dimension to the story often contained in Greek and Roman accounts
Definition

Ganymede was thus viewed as a symbol of male sexual love, particularly between a boy and a mature man, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The word catamite, derived from a Latin form of Ganymede, indicates a boy who has a sexual relationship with a man.
Term
Angel at the Gate
Definition

This angel, overwhelmingly bright, is seated above three steps leading to the entrance-way (a gate) to the first terrace of Purgatory proper.


•His role is similar to that often associated with Saint Peter in the popular imagination.


•In one hand the angel holds a sword, which he uses to carve seven P's--one for each of the seven deadly sins, peccatum (or possibly the punishments, poenae, for these sins)--in Dante's forehead.


•The angel wears an ash-colored robe, from which he draws the two keys, one gold and one silver, he received from Peter to unlock the gate.


•These are the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" given to Peter by Jesus (Matt. 16:18-19).

Term

 three stages of penance:


•recognition of one's sins
•heartfelt contrition
•satisfaction

Definition

The angel's feet are planted on the top step, which is bright red (like blood)


the middle step is cracked and dark in color


the bottom step is made of white marble, so pure that it reflects images.

 

Term
Proud Penitents
Definition

Dante singles out three individuals among the proud penitents carrying heavy rocks on their backs.
The weight forces them to walk slowly, their bodies bent low to the ground.


Dante compares the suffering, hunched souls to the human figures (with knees to their chest and pained expressions) used in architecture to support a ceiling or roof (10.130-5).

Term
Whips and Bridles
Definition

On the next terrace, of envy, (13.37-42; 14.143-4), Virgil describes the role of these instructive examples in equestrian terms:


–the virtuous examples are "whips" meant to guide the penitent to moral righteousness


– the examples of the vice are the "bridle" (or "bit") used to curb the spirit's sinful tendencies.

Term
Examples of Humility and Pride
Definition

Carved into the side of the mountain on the first terrace are exemplary images of humility.


•So real to life are the sculpted scenes that Dante wonders if he doesn't actually hear the words and smell the odors suggested in what he sees (10.40, 59-63).


•The first scene depicted (10.34-45) is drawn from the Gospels (Luke 1:26-38). The angel Gabriel (sent by God to Nazareth) announces to Mary, a young woman engaged to Joseph, that she will give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, who "shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32). When Mary asks how she, a virgin, will conceive, Gabriel explains: the "Holy Ghost shall come upon thee" (Luke 1:35). Declaring herself the "handmaid of the Lord" (10.44; Luke 1:38), Mary humbly accepts her role.

 

•This "annunciation" scene is a favorite subject of medieval and early modern art, as seen in works by, among many others, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Giotto, Simone Martini, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli.

Term
Second Scene
Definition
The next scene of humility, drawn from the Hebrew Bible (2 Kings 6:1-23), portrays David, king of Israel and "humble psalmist," dancing uninhibitedly before the ark of God as it is brought into Jerusalem (10.55-69). Michol accuses David of sullying his regal status by celebrating uncovered before even the "handmaids of his servants," to which David responds: "And I will be little in my own eyes: and with the handmaids of whom thou speakest, I shall appear more glorious" (2 Kings 6:20-22).
Term
The third and final example of great humility
Definition

honors the Roman emperor Trajan (10.73-93), who fulfilled the duties of justice and mercy by delaying a military campaign to avenge the murder of a poor widow's son


•Rather than delegating the woman's request to a subordinate or successor, Trajan decided that the responsibility of his high office compelled him to attend personally to this seemingly low-level matter.

Term
Cimabue Giotto Guido Guinizzelli Guido Cavalcanti
Definition

Giotto, the most renowned artist of the so-called Proto-Renaissance

 

Breaking with the iconographic conventions of Byzantine painting, Giotto created scenes with a heightened sense of naturalness and physical reality (through the illusion of weight and three-dimensional space).

 

When, in the field of literature, Oderisi says that one "Guido" has supplanted another (11.97-9), he alludes to the poets Guido Cavalcanti and Guido Guinizzelli.

Term
Notorious examples of pride, serving to rein in the sinful disposition of the shades, are carved into the floor of the terrace (12.13-69), similar in appearance to figures sculpted in the stone covers of tombs rising slightly above the ground.
Definition
Beginning with Lucifer and the giant Briareus, the terrace artwork combines biblical and classical figures, including (from the Bible) Nimrod, Saul, Rehoboam, Sennacherib, and Holofernes; and (from classical sources) other giants, Niobe, Arachne, Eriphyle, and Cyrus of Persia. The entire series concludes with an image of Troy, the ancient city which Dante, echoing Virgil (Aen. 3.2-3), elsewhere calls "proud Ilium" (Inf. 1.75).
Term
Omberto Aldobrandeschi
Definition

laments the arrogance that was common in his family, powerful ghibellines who controlled territory in the coastal region of Tuscany (11.58-69).

 

The Aldobrandeschi boasted, according to early commentators, that their holdings were so vast they could spend each day of the year in a different castle. Omberto's pride caught up with him in 1259 when he took on a large contingent of Sienese troops.

Term
Oderisi da Gubbio
Definition
was a talented miniaturist and illuminator, an artist who painted colorful images in the margins of manuscripts. Born around 1240 in Gubbio (in the central Italian region of Umbria), Oderisi worked for a time in Bologna and was brought to Rome in 1295 by Pope Boniface VIII to illuminate manuscripts in the papal library. Franco Bolognese (11.82-4), according to Vasari, also worked in the library at this time and was a better artist than Oderisi, who died in Rome in 1299.
Term
Provenzan Salvani (11.109-42),
Definition

a prominent ghibelline general from Siena who helped lead his forces to victory over the Florentine guelphs at Montaperti in 1260.


Following this battle, Provenzan's desire (and that of other ghibelline leaders) to see Florence completely destroyed was magnanimously opposed by Farinata degli Uberti.


Some years later, Provenzan was taken prisoner and killed by the Florentines, who raised his severed head high in the air in fulfillment of the misleading prophecy that this head would be held highest on the battlefield.

 

Here in Purgatory the proud man has avoided a life-sentence in Ante-Purgatory for late repentance by virtue of a single act of humility: he literally begged his fellow citizens for ransom money to win the life of an imprisoned friend; Dante, Oderisi prophesies, will soon come to understand such humiliation first hand (11.127-42).

Term
Dante's Pride
Definition

On the terrace of envy, Dante admits that he already feels the weight of rocks used to flatten the pride of penitents on the first terrace (13.138), and he perhaps confirms the likely realization of this fear when he remarks that his name is not yet well known (14.21).

 

Such frank self-awareness encourages us to consider possible illustrations of Dante's pride thus far in the poem / journey:

 

his self-inclusion among the great poets in Limbo, "so that I was sixth among such intellect" (4.102);

 

his claim to superiority over the classical authors Lucan and Ovid in the presentation of the thieves;

 

his close identification with the Greek hero Ulysses.

Term
Examples of Love and Envy
Definition
Disembodied voices shout the examples of love and envy on the second terrace.
Term
In the first of three manifestations of loving concern for others
Definition
 Mary informs her son Jesus, present with his disciples at a wedding celebration in Cana, that there is no wine for the guests, vinum non habent ("they have no wine") (13.28-30). Performing his first miracle, Jesus then changes into wine the water contained in six large pots (John 2:1-11).
Term
The second echoing voice, "I am Orestes" (13.31-3),
Definition
alludes to a double act of love from the classical tradition: condemned to death for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra (who had killed his father, Agamemnon), Orestes insists on revealing his true identity (and accepting the consequences) after Pylades tried to spare Orestes' life by dying in his place; each friend proclaimed "I am Orestes" to save the life of the other (Cicero, On Friendship 7.24).
Term
"Love those who have done harm to you," the third example of love (13.34-6),
Definition
encapsulates one of Jesus' lessons to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you" (Matt. 5:44).
Term
Examples of Gentleness and Wrath
Definition
The instructive cases of the virtue contrary to wrath (gentleness, forbearance) and the vice itself are experienced by the spirits--and now by Dante--as "ecstatic visions" (15.85-6), "non false errors" (15.117) insofar as they convey truth even though they occur only in the mind of the person seeing them.
Term
In the first example of gentleness (15.85-93)
Definition
, Mary displays remarkable restraint upon finding Jesus, her twelve-year old son, in the temple of Jerusalem conversing with learned adults. Jesus had come to Jerusalem with his parents for the Passover celebration, but he stayed behind when Mary and Joseph returned home (unbeknownst to them) and it took them three days to find him (Luke 2:41-8). In response to Mary's gentle rebuke, cited verbatim by Dante ("Why have you done this to us?"), the young Jesus asks, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?" (Luke 2:49).
Term
Dante's second case of gentleness (15.94-105)
Definition
From the classical tradition, is recounted by Valerius Maximus (Factorum et dictorum memorabilium 5.1.2): Pisistratus, a tyrannical ruler of ancient Athens (560-527 B.C.E.), counters his wife's wish for vengeance with a calm, accepting attitude toward the young man who, in love, had kissed their daughter in public. If they kill those who love them, Pisistratus asks, what should they do to their enemies?
Term
Procne, Dante's Third example of wrath (17.19-21)
Definition

, kills her small son Itys and feeds his cooked flesh to her husband Tereus, King of Thrace, upon learning that he raped Philomela (Procne's sister) and cut out her tongue to prevent her from telling what had happened. Philomela ingeniously managed to inform Procne of the crime by weaving a tapestry that told the story in pictures.


Dante here singles out the cruel vengeance wrought by Procne (with help from her sister). Made aware that he has eaten his son, an enraged Tereus, his sword drawn, chases the two sisters but before he can catch them all three are transformed into birds: Tereus into a hoopoe (a crested bird with a long beak), Procne into a nightingale, and Philomela into a swallow (in some versions Philomela is the nightingale and Procne the swallow). The gruesome story is told by Ovid (Met. 6.424-674).

Term
Free Will
Definition

Dante's placement of a discussion of free will at the center of the Purgatorio, and therefore at the center of the entire Divine Comedy, accords with the importance of this notion not only for medieval theological debate but for Dante's fundamental premise of the poem: as stated in the Letter to Can Grande, an individual becomes "liable to the rewards or punishments of justice" through the exercise of free will.

 

Marco Lombardo explains that while the heavens exert influence over human desires, individuals (because they have free will) are responsible for their actions (16.67-78). He focuses on the socio-political implications of human responsibility insofar as guidance--in the form of laws and leadership--is required to direct individual souls to proper ends.

Term
misrule
Definition
Marco concludes that misrule, due primarily to the Church's illegitimate claim to temporal authority, is the reason the world has fallen into corrupt ways and virtue is so rarely seen (16.103-29).
Term
Virgil
Definition

On the next terrace, discusses free will in relation to love and the process of making judgments for which the individual is fully accountable.

 

Human will is an "inborn freedom," a "noble power" that counsels the individual to actions subject to praise or blame (18.61-75).

 

Free will for Dante, as for the theologian Thomas Aquinas, amounts to freedom of judgment, the choice of pursuing or avoiding what is apprehended and then judged to be good or bad according to the dictates of reason.

Term
Two Suns Theory
Definition

Marco Lombardo articulates Dante's view of the Empire and Papacy as separate, autonomous institutions.

 

Rome used to possess "two suns," he says, one showing the world's path and the other God's path; but over time these two lights have extinguished one another, and, switching metaphors, the sword and the shepherd's staff are now joined, much to the detriment of humanity (16.106-11).

 

challenges the medieval Christian notion of the pope as "sun" and the emperor as "moon"

Term
From Monarchia
Definition

Dante states that even the sun-moon analogy fails to prove papal dominion over temporal matters because the two spheres possess their own powers, including (Dante believed) their own light (3.16).

 

Although he concedes that the emperor must show reverence to the pope, like a son to a father, Dante believes strongly in their independence as divinely sanctioned guides for humanity: "one is the Supreme Pontiff, to lead humankind to eternal life, according to the things revealed to us; and the other is the Emperor, to guide humankind to happiness in this world, in accordance with the teaching of philosophy" (Monarchia 3.16).

Term
Marco's condemnation of the Church's
Definition
claim to both worldly and spiritual authority as a modern confirmation of the biblical injunction to Levi's sons (16.130-2): God instructs Aaron that he and his descendents (of the tribe of Levi), chosen to perform priestly functions in the tabernacle, have rights to only what is required "for their uses and necessities" and "shall not possess any other thing" (Numbers 18:20-4).
Term
Moral Structure of Purgatory
Definition
After they have climbed to the terrace of sloth, the central location within Purgatory proper, Virgil explains to Dante the moral structure of the mountain, the rationale for arranging and distinguishing among the seven capital sins.
Term
Love
Definition

Virgil says, is the "seed" of all human acts, both sinful and virtuous (17.103-5):

 

 

Term

insufficient or lax love of the good

 

Definition

defines the sin of sloth purged on the current terrace;

 

 

Term

love directed toward an evil object or goal

 

Definition

explains the suffering of spirits on the three terraces below (pride, envy, wrath)

 

 

Term
excessive love of what is inherently good
Definition
underpins the sins of the final three terraces, soon to be visited (17.97-102, 112-39).
Term
Dante's structure here in Purgatory, as it was for circles 2-5 of Hell, is based on the capital sins
Definition
Spirits will purge themselves of avarice, gluttony, and lust on the remaining three terraces.
Term
Dante's order
Definition

Follows the model established by Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604) and made canonical in the later Middle Ages by such authorities as Hugh of St. Victor and Thomas Aquinas.


The Middle Ages provides an (old) Italian acronym, siiaagl, for this arrangement of the seven sins: superbia (pride), invidia (envy), ira (wrath), accidia (sloth), avarizia (avarice), gola (gluttony), lussuria (lust).

Term
Examples of Zeal and Sloth
Definition
Exemplary cases of zeal are shouted by two weeping spirits out in front of their fellow penitents on the fourth terrace (18.97-102).
Term
EX. 1
Definition
Following the visit of the angel Gabriel (the "annunciation"), Mary rushes to the mountain village of Juda, home to Elizabeth and Zachary. Elizabeth is herself pregnant, this conception at an advanced age also having been announced by Gabriel, and her child, the future John the Baptist, leaps in his mother's womb as she is greeted by Mary (Luke 1:39-42).
Term
EX 2
Definition
Julius Caesar is the second figure praised here for his fervor: eager to move on to the next battle, Caesar accelerates his progress westward into Spain (Ilerda, today known as Lérida, in Catalonia) by leaving behind forces under Brutus' command to complete the military operations in Marseille (Lucan, Pharsalia 3.453-5). Lucan, whose poem recounts the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, compares Caesar to a thunderbolt (1.151-4). As seen in his damnation of Caesar's assassins, Dante clearly approves of Caesar's military campaigns and eventual dictatorship as part of providential history.
Term
The balancing examples of sloth, or insufficient commitment and determination, are announced by two penitents at the back of the pack (18.130-8).
Definition

They first lament that many of Moses' followers, beneficiaries of divine intervention in their exodus from Egypt (e.g., parting the waters of the Red Sea: Exodus 14:21-31), nonetheless later
perish at God's hand and thus fail to reach the promised land due to various manifestations of incredulity, resistance, and transgression (Exodus 32:7-35; Numbers 14, 16, 20-1). Moses, who summarizes many of these instances in Deuteronomy 1:26-46, is himself shown by God the final destination but also prevented from arriving there (Deut. 34:1-5).

 

(Aen. 5.751; Purg. 18.138).

Term
The second example of sloth
Definition
is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid (5.700-54): Trojans who stayed behind in Sicily, to settle there and found a city, rather than endure additional hardships with Aeneas on his fated voyage to Italy, where he will lay the foundation for the Roman empire. On the counsel of his aged friend Nautes and the spirit of Anchises, his dead father, Aeneas allows those who have lost their ships, men and women weary of the journey, and others weak and afraid of new dangers to put an end to their wandering (seven years since the fall of Troy). Dante here concurs with Virgil's judgment that these individuals lack the will and courage required to achieve fame and glory
Term
The souls on the fifth terrace
Definition
purify themselves of their vice (avarice or its sinful opposite, prodigality) by lying face-down on the hard rock floor. Weeping and praying, they themselves call out the examples of greed and its opposing virtue (generosity).
Term
Pope Adrian V,
Definition
lived only a little more than a month after his election to the papacy in 1276 (19.103-5), explains how this prostrate position is fitting punishment for their neglect of spiritual matters and excessive attachment to worldly goods. This pope, the first saved pope encountered by the journeying Dante, tells his visitor not to kneel because they are now equals before God (19.133-5).
Term
Statius
Definition

Dante and Virgil meet Statius soon after he has completed his time on the fifth terrace, an achievement that triggers the trembling of the mountain and the celebratory shouting of the spirits

 

Statius spent over five hundred years on the fifth terrace (not for avarice but for its symmetrical vice, prodigality), after having raced around the fourth terrace (sloth) for over four hundred years (22.92-3). The reverence Statius shows for Virgil reflects how much he owes to his Roman precursor: Statius drew poetic inspiration from Virgil's Aeneid (calling it a "divine flame" in 21.95), and he credits Virgil's fourth eclogue with his turn to Christianity (22.64-73); Statius also credits a line from the Aeneid with teaching him to curb his free spending ways, thus enabling him to avoid the eternal punishment of rolling boulders with the avaricious and prodigal sinners in Hell (22.37-45).
Freed of his purgatorial trials, Statius will accompany Dante and Virgil the rest of the way up the mountain.

Term
Virgil's "Messianic" Eclogue
Definition

By having Statius credit Virgil's fourth eclogue with his turn to Christianity (22.67-73), Dante follows the medieval tradition of creatively interpreting the Latin poem (written c. 42-39 B.C.E.) as a prophecy of the birth of Jesus.


While Virgil likely placed his prophetic hopes on the future child of one of Rome's leading couples (perhaps Antony and Octavia), the poem's theme of messianic renewal, combined with references to a virgin and child, well served the purposes of those, like Dante, who wished to view the great Roman poet as a prophet of Christianity.

Term
The appearance of the "messianic" eclogue at this point in the poem is part of a larger cluster of Christ-centered references in and around the presentation of Statius on the fifth terrace.
Definition
Term

Forese Donati

 

(Gluttony)

Definition

Forese was a childhood friend of Dante in Florence and a relative of Dante's wife (Gemma Donati).
He died in 1296.

 

Dante now encounters Forese on the terrace of gluttony, where the emaciated spirits (their eyes sunk so far back into their sockets the face resembles the letter M) suffer excruciating hunger and thirst.

 

In the purgatorial spirit of repentance, Forese (along with Dante) looks back on his wild past with sorrow, and he credits the prayers of his good wife Nella for enabling him to advance so far up the mountain in a relatively short time (less than 5 years since his death).

Term

Forese

 

 

Definition

Dante feels sorry for Forese's coughing wife (perpetually cold in bed)

 

1b. The morning after a coughing fit, Forese expects to find pearls and gold coins in a graveyard but instead comes upon an Alighieri--Dante's father?--tied in knots in a graveyard.

 

2a. Dante picks up on the knot motif to underscore Forese's dissolute ways and subsequent debt: "And mind you, even if you stopped your gluttony / it's now too late to pay back what you owe."

 

2b. Forese tosses back the poverty theme, countering that "if we're such beggars as you say, / why do you come back right here to beg?"

 

3a. To which Dante replies by linking Forese's gluttony with criminal behavior: "into your throat so much you have gulped down / you are now forced to steal what is not yours."

 

3b. Forese finally exploits the fact that Dante's father had financial problems of his own and may have been involved in some shady dealings. He knows Dante is Alighieri's son by the revenge Dante took "against the man who changed his money just the other night."

Term

Bonagiunta da Lucca

 

(Gluttony)

Definition

Not held in particularly high regard by Dante as a poet, Bonagiunta mumbles a word--"Gentucca"-- generally thought to be the name of the woman he prophesies will aid Dante in exile.


Bonagiunta also heaps praise on Dante, first by citing the opening to one of Dante's most famous lyric poems (the canzone, included in the Vita Nuova, "Ladies who have understanding of love"), and then by distinguishing Dante's poetry (and perhaps that of a few others) from the poetry of earlier literary leaders and their followers

Term
"Sweet New Style”- dolce stil novo Canto 24.49-62
Definition
When Bonagiunta da Lucca identifies a dolce stil novo ("sweet new style") as the defining difference between Dante and certain other Italian poets (including Bonagiunta himself: 24.55-62), he raises an issue that has challenged readers and scholars ever since.
Is this "sweet new style" attributed to Dante alone or does it apply to a select group of poets, including perhaps the two Guidos, Guinizzelli and Cavalcanti, in addition to Dante? And what, precisely, does Bonagiunta mean by dolce stil novo in the first place?
Term
Guido Guinizzelli
Definition

Dante considered Guido Guinizzelli (from Bologna) the founding father of the lyric poetry that Dante himself sought to emulate and perfect.
Inspired by an ennobling conception of love, such poetry--in Dante's view--was characterized by a beautiful, harmonious style worthy of its subject matter.

 

Guido, whose reputation was already noted by a penitent on the terrace of pride, appears here on the seventh and final terrace of Purgatory purging himself of lust within flames shooting out from the face of the mountain across the pathway.

Term
Arnaut Daniel
Definition

In Dante's poem, this "better" vernacular poet is Arnaut Daniel, a Provençal poet (12th-13th century) praised by Dante for his love poetry and known also for his technical virtuosity (he invented the sestina, in which the same six rhyme words are used in each stanza according to a precise formula).


Arnaut's high poetic standing is reflected in the Purgatorio not only through the courtly content of his words but also by the language he uses: this is the only instance in the entire Divine Comedy in which a non Italian character speaks in his "mother tongue" (26.140-7).

Term
Shades and Shadows
Definition

The Italian word ombra in Dante's lexicon means both "shadow" (as in the shadow cast by a body) and "shade" (a term for the form of the soul in the afterlife).


On the terrace of lust, as Dante's very real body prepares for its most challenging test, the poet shows--via a lecture by Statius--how the two meanings of ombra combine to encapsulate the fundamental relationship between life and afterlife. When the soul leaves the body, Statius explains, it "impresses" the body's form on the surrounding air (as saturated air is adorned with colors of a rainbow), and the resulting "virtual" body follows the spirit just as a flame follows fire.

 

This new form therefore goes by the name of "shade" / "shadow" (ombra): as a "shadow" follows--and repeats the form of--a real body, so the "shade" takes on all bodily parts and functions (25.85-108).

 

The word ombra, by exemplifying the relationship between real bodies and their virtual representation after death, points to a basic premise of the Divine Comedy, the reciprocal bond between this world and the hereafter: individuals, through their actions, determine the state of their souls for eternity, while Dante's vision of the afterlife reflects and potentially shapes the world of time and history.

Term

Please eat with sauce and glazed lemon

Definition
Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust
Term

CARDINAL VIRTUES

 


 

Definition
Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Courage
Term
Theological Virtues
Definition
Faith, Hope, Love
Term
CATO
Definition
Stern, Guardian of Purgator; known to have committed suicide after being defeated by Caesar. "Embodiment of virtue"
Term

ANGEL (boat)

 

Definition
Divine, birdlike, luminous.
Term

Souls arriving to Purgatory

Definition
Psalm 114-When isreal went out of Eqypt
Term
Letter to Congrande
Definition
4-fold method
Term
Literal
Definition

·         departure of Israel from Egypt during time of moses

 

Term

·         Allegorical

 

Definition
Redemption through Christ
Term

·         Moral

 

Definition
Conversion of soul from sorry of sin to grace
Term

·         Anagogical

 

Definition
Departure of sanctified soul from corruption of world to eternal glory
Term

Literally, Allegorically

 

Definition

Literally: the divine comedy tells of the state of souls after death

 

  Allegorically: free will of man, earning or becoming liable to receive the rewards or punishments of justice

 

Term
Casella
Definition
Friend of Dante. Sings on the shores of ante-purgatory; Dante tries to embrace him three times
Term
Ante-Purgatory
Definition
Unique to Dante's vision; for the excommunicates and the late-repentant
Term
Manfred
Definition
Obtained kingship after father Frederick II by questionable means; must wait in ante-purgatory for 30 times length of excommunication (unless prayed for)
Term
Belacqua
Definition
Indolent. Must wait in Ante-Purgatory length of time that he denied God.
Term
Montefeltro
Definition
Ghibelline leader who died violently with name of Mary on his lips; Struggle between angels upon his death
Term
La Pia
Definition
Wife who was thrown from balcony
Term
Sordello
Definition
Fellow Mantuan of Virgils, very affectionate. Dante learns from Sordello that the Cardinal vitues have been replaced by the theological virtues.
Term
Three steps
Definition

Three stages of repentace:

White-recognition of sins

Green-Remorse

Red (blood)-Satisfaction

Term
Angel at Purgatory Proper
Definition
Carves the Ps and holds the two keys (gold and silver)
Term
Dante's Dream
Definition
Dreamed of being carried by an eagle. Awoke to find himself at the gate of Purgatory Proper, having been carried by St. Lucy
Term
Whips
Definition
Virtues
Term
Bridles
Definition
Vices
Term
Prideful
Definition
Carry heavy stones on their backs
Term

·         Whips: humility

 


 

Definition

Annunciation of the immaculate conception to Mary (accepts humbly)

 

 


   David dancing before the ark of God

 

 

 


   Emperor Trajan:

 

 

 

  Avenged murder of a poor widow’s son rather than high official matters

 

 

 

  (Took task that was beneath him)

 

Term

·         Bridles: proud/arrogant

 

 

 

Definition

   Omberto Aldobandeschi: boast of riches

 

 

 


  Oderisi da Gubbio: artist

 

 

 

 (Shouldn’t strive for fame because it is transient  

 

 

 

  Brings up the guidos: think they’re so great and then get supplanted by the next gen. who’s better (ex. Of artists)

 

 

 


   Provenzan Salvani: taken prisoner and killed by florentines who raised his severed head high in the air in fulfillment of the misleading prophecy that his head would be held highest on the battlefield

 

 

 

  Avoided life sentence in ante-purgatory by begging fellow citizens for ransom money to win the life of an imprisoned friend.

 

Term
Envy
Definition

Eyes sewn shut with iron wire. Etymology of envy is "invidia" (to see)

 

Term

   Whips: Fraternal Love (envy’s opposite)

 

Definition

  Jesus turning water into wine (at disciple’s wedding in Cana)

 


  I am orestes: sacrifice for another

 


  Love those who have done harm to you: Jesus @ sermon on the mount

 

Term

·         Sapia

 

Definition

envy

 

 

 Took pleasure in the misfortune of others

 

 

 

  Eyes sown shut because it comes from the latin word meaning not to see

Term

Wrath (and gentleness)

 

·         

 

Definition
Black smoke; hallucinatory visions
Term

 

 

 

 

 Whips: gentleness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Definition

Mary: remarkable restraint when she finds Jesus in a cave conversing with adults at 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pisistratus: tyrannical ruler who counter his wife’s wish for vengance on a young boy who kissed their son saying: if they kill those who love them, what should they do to their enemises?

 

Term

 Bridles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Definition

Procne: kills son and feeds it to husband (who raped her sister)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Term
Free Will
Definition
Placed in the center of the center. Discussion of its place in the determining of a person's afterlife
Term

MARCO LOMBARDO

Definition


·         Dante asks him about the cause of human corruption

o   Heavens exert influence over human desires: but individuals have free will and are responsible for their actions

o   Human will is an inborn freedom/ noble power

§  To pursue or avoid what are judged to be good or bad

o   Marco condemns the church occupying both worldly and spiritual authority

§  Levi’s sons (god instructs levi’s sons to perform priestly functions for their uses and necessities”

Term

Two Suns Theory

 

Definition

§  Both papacy and empire derive authority from God

 

ú  Rather than traditional idea of pop as sun and emperor as moon

 

·         Dante says still isn’t sufficient because both sun an moon posess their own powers, while the empire sould show reverence to papacy they are independent and divinely sanctioned guides for humanity

 

·         Boniface the 8th: papal infallibility: only God can judge the papacy if it errs

Lombardo says people are born innocent but need guidance from rulers (and need one for spiritual and one for worldly life)

Term

MORAL STRUCTURE OF PURGATORY

 

Definition

o   1. Love directed toward an evil object or goal à pride, envy, wrath (below)

 

o   2. Insufficient or lax love of good à sloth (middle)

 

o   3. Excessive love of what is inherently good à avarice, gluttony, lust (above)

 

Term

Sloth (and counter…zeal- whip)

 

· 

 

Definition

       Run without taking a break

 

 

o   Whips: zeal

 

 

 

§  Shouted by two weeping spirits

 

 

 

ú  Mary rushes to villiage of juda where Elizabeth is pregnant with john the Baptist (who leaps in mothers womb when greeted by mary)

 

 

 

ú  Julius Caesar (dante likes him)

 

 

 

o   Bridles:

 

Term

Avarice (and prodigality)

Definition

·         Dante dreams of the siren who tempts them: Virgil says that one must keep eye on heaven to avoid her allure (which caused the sins of the upper terraces)

 

o   Lay face down on the floor weeping, calling out the examples of greed and opp. generosity

 

o  

 

 

Term

 POPE ADRIAN V:

 

Definition

neglected spiritual matters and were excessively attached to worldly goods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  First saved pope

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  Tells dante not to kneel because in purgatory they are all equals beneath GOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

o   When one completes the fifth terrace the mountain quakes (celebration)

 

Term

STATIUS

 

Definition

·         Dante and virgil meet him after he completes cleansing at terrace 5 and the earth quakes

 

·         Inspired by Virgil

 

o   Credit’s his fourth eclogue to his turn to Christianity and the aneid to his changing his prodigal ways

 

o   à Christ-centered references in canto 20

 

·         accompanies them the rest of the way

 

Term

Gluttony:

 

·         

 

Definition

Voices reciting examples of whips: temperance

 

 

o   Tantalized in hunger by fruit trees

 

 

 

§  Mouth as conveyor of words and food

 

Term

ú  Forese Donati

 

·         

 

Definition

Dante’s old friend exchanged antagonistic sonnets called tenzone (glutton of words)

 

 

·         Spirits suffer from emaciation, hunger and thirst

 

 

 

·         Prayers from his wife helped him pass ante-purgatory so quickly

 

 

 

o   Prophesized that the person responsible for downfall of Florence will be killed violently and decend to hell shortly

 

Term

ú  Bonagiunta da Lucca ** Look at slides

 

·         

Definition

Played impt. Role in Italian lyric poetry

 

·         Praises dante saying he has a “dolce stil novo” sweet new style that distinguishes Dante from himself and other poets – praising women’s divine qualities without anything to do with physicallity

 

o   Says that Dante writes what is dictated by the God of Love

Demonstration of Dante’s pride

Term

Lust

 

·         Walk through flames (lustful shout examples of chastity)

 

 

 

Definition
Term

o   Guido Guinizzelli

 

 

 

 

Definition

Founding father of the lyric poetry that dante emulates

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  Purged by flames from the mountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Term

o   Arnaut Daniel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  

 

Definition

Better craftsman of the mother tongue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  Invented the sestina (same six rhyme words are used in each stanza)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

§  Only non-italian character who speaks in his “mother tongue”

 

Term

Shades and Shadows

 

·         

 

Definition

Explains how they can starve… Lecture by Statius shows how ombra (shade/shadow) signifies relationship between life and afterlife

 

 

o   When the soul leaves the body it impresses its form on the air… this then follows the spirit

 

 

 

§  Called a shadow because it repeats the form of a real body and a shade because it takes on bodily functions

 

 

 

ú  OMBRA demonstrates the reciprocal relationship between this world and the hereafter

 

 

 

·         Man’s actions determine eternal fate of souls

 

 

 

·         Divine comedy reflects and shapes the world of time and history

 

Term

Divine Forest: Terrestrial paradise


Definition
Dante and Statius enter the divine forest
Term

·         MATELDA: tells them that the fountain created of divine will has one source but flows in two directions

 

o   Baptized him and immerses him in the lethe (after he passes out and after Beatrice throws his sins at him)

 

 

 

Definition
Term

§  Lethe to the left

 

 

 

§  Eunoe to the right

 

 

 

ú  Confuses them with tigris and Euphrates

 

 

 

ú  

 

Definition

Drink lethe and forget guilty memories of sin, and drink from eunoe and retain only good memories and recollections of good deeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         After drinking both he is cleansed and ready to rise to the stars

 

Term

·         BEATRICE’s SPEECH

 


 

Definition

Theme: return of all things to god

 

 

§  Similes (1:103-141)** look up

 

 

 

ú  Imprint of god on the created

 

 

 

ú  Sea (ports) every being directed toward its own port?

 

 

 

ú  Bow and arrow (god is archer)

 

Term

Lunar Sphere: inconstant

 

 

 

Definition

Piccarda Donati

 

 

 

·         Sister of foresee donati

 

 

 

·         In the lunar sphere: for those who did not maintain their religious vows

 

 

 

o   Forced to leave the convent and marry for political reasons (died soon after so went to the lunar sphere)

 

 

 

 

Constance

 

 

 

·         Mother of Fredrick II (grandmother of Manfred)

 

 

 

o   Forced to leav convent and entrer political marriage

 

 

 

o   Good example of “poetry of names” “interpretatio nominis”

 

 

 

§  Planet of inconstancy and virgin diana : constanza (constance) and picarda (virgin sister)

 

 

 

·         Dante places political content in the 6th canto of each part of the comedia

 

Term

Mercury: ambitious

 

 

 

Definition

JUSTINIAN ** READ CANTO 6

 

 

 

·         Talented orator driven to worldly achievment by desire for honor and fame

 

 

 

o   MERCURY: driven to do good by desire for fame: AMBITIOUS

 

 

 

·         Intentions aren’t pure

 

 

 

·         Name suggests justice:

 

Term

Venus: The Passionate/Lovers

 

 

 

Definition

FOLCO: poet who was driven by intense amorous desire:

 

 

 

·         Compared with Dido in the infernal circle of Lust

 

 

 

·         Condemns failings of church leaders

 

 

 

·         His name from the latin “fulgo” meaing “I shine” reinforces idea of Venus as BURNING passion

 

Term

Earth’s shadow:

 

·         

 

Definition

Shadow cast into heaven by earth (Folco tells Dante) comes to a point in the sphere of venus

 

 

·         Envelops moon, mercury,venus

 

 

 

·         Separates the first three spheres of paradise showing them as somewhat inferior

 

 

 

o   Aligned with certain moral defects: unfulfilled vows

 

Term

Sun: the wise

 

·         

 

Definition

Here dante’s love for God surpasses his love for Beatrice

 

 

·         Cicled with dancers

 

Term

Mars: warriors of the faith

 

·         

 

Definition

Cacciaguida: grandfather figure (his great grandfather) (like brunetto latini and marco Lombardo)

 

 

o   Provides most detailed prophecy : of Dante’s impending exile

 

 

 

o   Theme of societal decline in Florence

 

Term

Jupiter: just rulers

 

 

 

Definition

·         Souls wheel through the air  like birds spelling out “love justice, o you who judge the earth”

 

 

 

·         Spirits form an emblem of an eagle and speak to dante about divine justice

 

Term

Saturn: contemplative

Definition
Term

fixed stars (faith, hope, love)

 

·       

 

Definition

Apostles on the three theological virtues:

 

o   Peter: Faith

 

§  Denied jesus? Spins around dante and Beatrice 3 times and gives a 3fold denunciation of pope Boniface 8th

 

o   James: Hope

 

o   John: Love

Term

·         ADAM:


Definition
Emphasizes the mutability of language
Term

·         Peter gets angry in canto 27

 

Definition

about the divisive nature of the popes

 

 

o   Papl power used for waging war on fellow Christians and selling false privledges

 

 

 

§  Calls popes of dante’s day “wolves in shepherds clothing”

 

 

 

§  Prophesizes high intervention and exhorts dante to give voice to the truths that are being revealed to him

 

Term

primum mobile:

 

Definition
the angels
Term

THE EMPYREAN:

 

 

 

Definition

BERNARD:

 

 

 

·         New guide: directs Dante to the occupants of the rose

 

 

 

o   White rose:

 

 

 

§  Home of all the blessed is with God in the empyrean

 

 

 

§  Pure light beyond time and space

 

 

 

ú  Formed from  a ray of light reflected off the primum mobile

 

 

 

§  Queen of the rose is virgin mary

 

 

 

ú  Half the rose for those who believed in Christ to come

 

 

 

ú  Other half for those who believed in Christ already come

 

 

 

·         Gendered halves

 

 

 

·         Souls of children lower: no free will so determined by predestination (blessed)

 

Term

·         EPHEMERA

 

Definition

: exceeds his power of recollection

 

 

o   Feels a pleasant sensation that it impressed on his heart

 

 

 

o   Like waking up from a pleasant dream and you can’t remember

 

 

 

 

Term

Trinitarian Circles

 

·         

 

Definition

Within the divine light, perceives a geometric image of the Holy Trinity

 

 

 

o   Three circles with distinct colors

 

 

 

§  One seems to be a reflection of the other (father and son) and the third looks like fire breathed equally by the two (spirit)

 

 

 

o   Flash of divine grace gives dante his final challenge

 

 

 

§  Comprehend the per paradox of human and divine in a single person (Christ)

 

 

 

ú  Perfect fit between a human and the second circle in which it appears?

 

 

 

ú  Trying to square a circle (you can’t do it)

 

Term
First Sphere
Definition
The Moon: The Inconstant
Term
Second Sphere
Definition
Mercury: The Ambitious - did good out of a desire for fame
Term
Third Sphere

Definition
Venus: The Lovers
Term
Fourth Sphere
Definition
The Sun: The Wise
Term
Fifth Sphere
Definition
Mars: The Warriors of the Faith
Term
Sixth Sphere
Definition
Jupiter: The Just Rulers
Term
Seventh Sphere

Definition
Saturn: The Contemplatives
Term
Eighth Sphere

Definition
The Fixed Stars: Faith, Hope, and Love
Term
Ninth Sphere

Definition
The Primum Mobile: The Angels
Term
The Empyrean
Definition
Term
Classical Invocations
Definition

Apollo (associated with Laurel), Minerva (Roman goddess of wisdom), and all nine Muses are behind him for his audacious attempt to sail uncharted poetic waters (2.7-9).

 

He predicts that the wonder experienced by his readers during this journey will exceed the wonder felt by the Argonauts when they saw their leader Jason, aided by Medea's potent magic, yoke fire-breathing oxen to a plow (2.16-18), thereby overcoming one of the obstacles to gaining possession of the Golden Fleece

Term
Trasumanar (neologism)
Definition
Claiming that his ascent from the Terrestrial Paradise to the celestial realm of the blessed cannot be expressed adequately in words, Dante invents the word trasumanar ("to transhumanize, to pass beyond the human"), the first of many neologisms in the Paradiso.
Term
Glaucus
Definition

 a fisherman-turned-god

 

Glaucus chewed several blades of the grass; seized with an irresistible longing for the sea, he bid the earth farewell and dove into the water, where he was received by the sea gods and "deemed worthy to join their company."


Glaucus was then purified of his mortal elements and cleansed of sin (after reciting a charm nine times and immersing himself in one hundred rivers), thus becoming immortal himself

Term
Piccarda Donati
Definition

 

Sister of Forese Donati, Dante's Florentine friend expiating the vice of gluttony in purgatory, and the wicked Corso Donati, who (according to Forese in Purgatory) will suffer eternal damnation in hell (Purg. 24.82-7).


As a leader of the black guelphs, Corso is one of the political enemies responsible for Dante's exile from Florence. Forese also told Dante that Piccarda resides in Paradise.


Corso forced Piccarda to leave the convent of Santa Chiara at Monticelli (near Florence) and marry his henchman, RossellinodellaTosa, for self-serving political reasons

 

Term
Costanza
Definition

This "great Constance" (Costanza) was the empress Constance (1152-98), wife of Henry VI, mother of Frederick II (the last dominant Holy Roman Emperor of the Middle Ages), and grandmother of Manfred.

 

 

Ñinterpretationominis, which is based on an illuminating resonance between a person's name and his or her fate (or character) .


Here Dante exploits the traditional conception of the Moon as both the planet of Diana, the virgin goddess, and the planet of mutability or inconstancy. Piccarda, who was a "virgin sister" in the world (Par. 3.46), insists that though Costanza nominally broke her vows when she was forced to leave the convent, she nevertheless remained true to her promise--and thus to her name ("Constance")--in her heart

Term
Beatrice's Speech
Definition

 

 

 

Beatrice tells Dante of the layout of Paradise.. the concrete things they will see.
The theme: The return of all the things to God => their port, homeland (this is also Dante’s journey in the poem);

 

 

 

 

 

 

Term
Beatrice and Dante
Definition

As they ascend into the heavens she stares at the sun. Dante is fixated on Beatrice and sees her get increasingly beautiful, signifying their entrance into a new level.

 

Term
Three similes

 

 

 


 

Definition

Imprint (106): of God on the created, the seal that makes the universe understandable, and I a way it makes God visible, too;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea (113): with its ports as points of arrival => universe is a great, infinite sea, in which every being is directed towards its own port;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bow and arrow (118): God represented as archer;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Term
Neoplatonism
Definition
(in European philisophy): the idea of the universe that emanates from God and returns to him; theme accepted by Christian theology
Term
Dante’s marvelous invention
Definition
He adopts this philosophy, but puts at its center a specific, historical human being (himself) and his youthful love (Beatrice)
Term

Political 666

 

Definition

Dante places political commentary in the 6th canto of each Canticle.

 

 

Florentine politics in Inferno 6,

 

Italian regional politics in Purgatorio 6, and
politics of the Roman Empire in Paradiso 6
Term
Justinian
Definition

name suggests giustizia (justice), held an important place in the late medieval imagination not only as an illustrious bearer of the Roman empire's "sacred standard" (Par. 6.32) but also as one inspired by God to undertake a "high task" (6.23-4), the monumental codification of Roman law (Corpus IurisCivilis) in the early sixth century


his supposed belief that Christ was fully divine but not also fully human, and his subsequent turn to "true faith" through the intervention of Pope Agapetus I

Term
Folco
Definition

 

 

Folco of Marseilleswas a Provençalpoetwholaterbecame a Cistercianmonk and finallyservedas Bishop of Toulouse (France).

 

Dante praises Folco in hisDe vulgarieloquentia (2.6.6) as an accomplishedpoet.

 

Folco wasdriven by intense amorous desire

 

What he doescondemn-consistentwith hisreligiouscalling--are the failings of current Church leaders, the pope in particular.
Folco'sname, whichechoes the Latin fulgo ("I shine"), reinforcesDante'sconception of Venus as the sphere of burningpassion
Term

 

Earth's Shadow
 

 

Definition

 

The shadow cast into the heavens by the earth, Folco of Marseille informs Dante, comes to a point in the sphere of Venus (Par. 9.118-19).

 

 

This implies that the earth's shadow is cone-shaped (for which it is called the "conical umbra") and envelopes the first three spheres: Moon, Mercury, and Venus.

 

 

Dante's use of the earth's shadow to separate the first three spheres from the rest of Paradise may suggest that the spirits appearing in the Moon, Mercury, and Venus are somehow inferior to their celestial counterparts in the upper heavens. Despite their admirable qualities and accomplishments, the shadowed spirits are grouped according to specific moral defects: unfulfilled vow.

 

 

Term

 

 


 

Cacciaguida (MARS)

 


 


Definition

 

By imagining a meeting with his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida in the central episode of the Paradiso, Dante elects a father-figure as his spokesman for several of the most significant ideas of the entire poem, much as he did with BrunettoLatini in the Inferno and Marco Lombardo in the Purgatorio.

 

 We calculate that he was born in 1091 (Par. 16.34-39), entered the Christian faith in the Florentine baptistery (Par. 15.134-35), lived in an old quarter of Florence when its population was a fifth of its size in 1300 (Par. 16.46-48), became a knight under the emperor Conrad III, and was killed in the disastrous Second Crusade (Par. 15.139-48), most likely in 1147 when Conrad lost the bulk of his army on the way to the Holy Land.


Cacciaguida not only provides the most detailed prophecy in the poem of Dante's impending exile and the difficult years to follow (Par. 17.46-99), but he also emphasizes the theme of societal decline by describing the pure and tranquil (if mythical) past of Florence (Par. 15.97-129) and then using this idealized past to lament the city's fall to its sordid state of affairs in the present (Par. 16.46-154)

 

 

 

Term
Peter, James, John
Definition

 

 

The apostles Peter, James, and John appear before Dante in the sphere of the twelve constellations of the zodiac (known in Ptolemaic astronomy as the "fixed stars"), where they test the celestial traveler on the three theological virtues:

Peter on faith (canto 24)

James on hope (canto 25)

John on love (canto 26)

 

Dante's three sons were named after these apostles.

 

 

Term
Peter
Definition

 

—Peter, who famously denied knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crowed (Matt. 26:33-5; 26:69-75), first whirls around Beatrice three times (24.22-3) and then around Dante three times (24.152-3), and his final speech contains a three-fold denunciation--in the harshest terms--of the current pope, Boniface VIII (27.22-7).

 

—Despite Peter's cowardice--not to mention his temper (he hacked off the ear of the high priest's servant: John 18:10)--he is entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:19), and thus serves as the first Bishop of Rome (in effect, the first pope).

 

—His name-- Petrus--was interpreted to mean "rock" (petra), that is, the "foundation" of the Church (Matt. 16:18).

 

Term
James
Definition

 

—Biblical commentators associated James, brother of the apostle John and thought to be the author of a biblical epistle, with the virtue of hope, the topic of Dante's second examination.

 

—According to tradition, James taught the Christian gospels in Spain; after he died as a martyr in Jerusalem, his body was brought to Santiago de Campostela in Galicia (northwest Spain), which later became a favorite pilgrimage destination (after Jerusalem and Rome) in the Middle Ages.

 

Term
John
Definition

 

—John, the disciple most loved by Jesus (who, on the cross, told John to look after Mary: John 19:26-7), was believed in Dante's time to be the author of both the fourth gospel ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God") and the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), the final book of the Christian Bible.

 

—Dante uses his encounter with John to lay to rest the idea that this apostle's body ascended to heaven along with his soul, a privilege granted only to Mary and Jesus (25.118-29).

 

—Peter, James, and John perhaps appear together here in Dante's paradise because they were alone with Jesus at dramatic moments--as when they imagined seeing a "transfigured" Jesus together with Moses and the prophet Elijah (Matt. 17:1-8).

 

Term
Adam
Definition

 

—The soul of Adam, the first man created, joins the three apostles--including the first pope (Peter)--surrounding Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the fixed stars: specifically, in the constellation of Gemini, Dante's birth stars.

 

—Adam's creation and life in the earthly paradise (Eden) are recounted in Genesis (2:7 to 5:5): he is made of the "slime of the earth" and endowed with a living soul, and then given free reign in the "paradise of pleasure" with the warning not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; Adam names the creatures of the earth and is given a female companion (fashioned by God from Adam's rib); deceived by the serpent, Eve eats the forbidden fruit, as does Adam, for which they lose their innocence and are cast out of paradise to live out their days.

 


 

Term
The four questions on Dante's mind (26.109-14): 1) 

 

Definition

1)when Adam was created (and placed in Eden), that is, how old he is

2) how long he was allowed to enjoy Eden

3) the reason for God's anger

4) the specific language Adam made and used.

Term
Adam Continued
Definition

 

—Adam quickly, and vaguely, dispatches with the third question: in terms similar to those used by Ulysses in hell, he says that his fault was not that he ate from the forbidden tree but that he was wrong "only for passing beyond the sign" (26.117; see Inf. 26.106-9).

 

—He next provides the numbers required to answer the first question, his current "age": having spent 930 years on earth and 4,302 years in Limbo, Adam has passed another 1266 years in heaven (Christ "freed" him from Limbo in the year 34 and the current year is 1300). Adam is therefore 6,498 years old.

 

—In his long response to the fourth question, Adam emphasizes the mutability and variability of language: his original tongue was already extinct by the time Nimrod attempted the presumptuous task of constructing a tower to heaven (Genesis 11:1-9), a view in direct contradiction with Dante's earlier theory that humankind shared a single, original language until the construction of the tower of Babel (De vulgarieloquentia 1.6.4-7).

 

—The brevity of Adam's final response, to the question of the length of his stay in Eden, is shockingly appropriate: he and Eve lived in paradise for somewhere between six and seven hours. Here, from among the various theological opinions available (one as long as 34 years), Dante chooses the shortest possible time frame for Adam and Eve's fall from innocence.

 

Term
Peter's Anger
Definition

 

 

—Peter glows red with anger--and the entire sphere takes on this color--as he comments on the low level to which the papacy has sunk.

 

—Peter and several of his early successors--Linus (ca. 67-76 or 79), Anacletus (ca. 79-ca. 91), Sixtus I (ca. 115-ca. 125), Pius I (ca. 140-55), Calixtus I (ca. 217-22), and Urban I (222-30)--shed their blood to guide the church not toward the acquisition of wealth but toward the attainment of eternal blessedness (Par. 27.40-45).

 

—They didn't want future popes to be divisive figures, with part of the Christian population on the pope's right side (Guelphs) and part on the left side (Ghibellines), nor did they intend for papal power to be used for waging wars on fellow Christians or for selling false privileges and benefices.

—The popes of Dante's day, in Peter's view, are wolves in shepherds' clothing (Par. 27.55-56; see Matthew 7:15).
—
—Following up on his earlier denunciation of Boniface VIII, whom he accused of turning his burial place into a blood-filled sewer (Peter was thought to have been martyred in Rome) (Par. 27.25-26), Peter singles out two French popes who are now preparing to drink the blood of their martyred predecessors (Par. 27.58-60): Clement V (1305-14), the Gascon pope responsible for the "Babylonian captivity" (Circle 8, pouch 3), and John XXII (1316-34), whose reputation for greed well suited the association of Cahors, his native city, with the sin of usury.
—
Peter concludes his denunciation by prophesying the intervention of the same high providence that once helped Rome preserve its glory (when the army, led by Scipio Africanus the Elder, defeated Hannibal in the Second Punic War in 202 BCE) and by exhorting Dante to give voice to the truths that are being revealed to him (Par. 27.61-66).

 

 

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