Purgatorio (96 page)

16–24.
   The figured pavement upon which the travelers walk is compared in simile to the gravestones set into church floors bearing the indications of the dead person’s profession, family, or other identifying trait, as well as his or her likeness.
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22–24.
   As was the case with God’s art found in the intaglios upon the mountainside, here too divine art knows no human equal (cf.
Purg
. X.32–33).
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25–63.
   Reading down the left-hand margin of the verses, we find a series of repeated letters beginning a series of tercets. They spell out a word. Lia Baldelli, “acrostico” (
ED
I [1970], p. 44), points out that perception of Dante’s deployment of this technique escaped the attention of the early commentators; it was only in 1898 that Antonio Medin noticed the presence of the acrostic in these lines, the word VOM [or UOM,
uomo
, or “man”], while the presence of a similar acrostic, found at
Paradiso
XIX.115–141, yielding LVE [or LUE, “plague”], was only noted by Francesco Flamini in 1903. Most now accept the fact, despite a perhaps understandable modern distaste for such contrivance, that these two acrostics were deliberately constructed by the author (see, for more on Dante’s acrostic proclivities, Scott [Scot.2001.1], p. 176 and n.). For a discussion of negative critical reactions to the acrostic on aesthetic grounds, as well as of its function in its context here, see Aurigemma (Auri.1970.1), pp. 113–19.
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25–27.
   Naturally, the first exemplar of the sin of pride is Satan, its avatar (see note to
Inf
. XXXI.28–33 for his association with those other emblems of Pride, the giants who stormed Olympus). He is intrinsically opposed to the first exemplar of humility, the Virgin Mary, as is evident. When Dante drew near to the end of his poem (
Par
. XXXIII.2), he underlined this with a verse in description of Mary, “umile e alta più che creatura” (humble and exalted more than any creature), reflecting his description of (the unnamed) Lucifer here, who was more noble when he was created than any other creature. Trucchi (1936) observes Dante’s borrowing from the Bible, his “folgoreggiando scender” (fall like lightning from the sky) echoing the similar phrase in Luke 10:18: “Satanam, sicut fulgur de coelo cadentem” ([I beheld] Satan as lightning fall from heaven).
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28–30.
   We finally catch a glimpse of Briareus, so important an absence in the amusing business that occupies Dante and Virgil in
Inferno
XXXI.97–105 (and see the corresponding note), when Virgil denies Dante the sight of this giant, whom he has described, in his
Aeneid
, as having fifty heads and one hundred arms. Dante makes him, from what we can see, an “ordinary” giant, a pagan version of Lucifer for his presumption in challenging Jove. Briareus is mentioned in the three major martial epics that Dante knew and used,
Aeneid
X.565,
Thebaid
II.596,
Pharsalia
IV.596.
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31–33.
   Uniquely among the twelve sets of exemplars, the nonexemplary figures are the ones named (Apollo by his epithet Thymbraeus, Minerva by her second name [Pallas], and Mars), those who witnessed the defeat of the unnamed, exemplary giants (including Briareus), undone by the thunderbolts of Jove, their father. These exemplars are, in a wonderfully appropriate “punishment,” present only as
disiecta membra
, the scattered remains of the outsized human creatures they once were.
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34–36.
   For Nimrod see the note to
Inferno
XXXI.70–81. He is accompanied by those who helped build the Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar. See Genesis 10:8–10; 11:1–4.
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37–39.
   Niobe was the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, and mother of seven sons and seven daughters. When she boasted that she was a better mother than Latona, who had but two offspring (even though these were Apollo and Diana), in the Ovidian world it is clear what will happen next: the two arrow-shooting siblings wipe out the children of Niobe who, turned to stone, nonetheless bewails their loss with eternal tears that flow perpetually as mountain streams (
Metam
. VI.148–312).
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40–42.
   Niobe’s biblical counterpart is King Saul. Relieved of his kingship by Samuel for failing to keep God’s commands, Saul fought against the Philistines at Gilboa. Mortally wounded and fearful of being captured by the enemy, he fell upon his sword (I Samuel 31:1–4). David’s subsequent curse on the surrounding mountains, the witnesses of this scene (II Samuel 1:21), asks that neither rain nor dew reach this place in Samaria.

This exemplar of a prideful suicide throws into sharp relief the far different suicide of Cato the Younger, with reference to which
Purgatorio
opens.
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43–45.
   Arachne’s presumption took the form of a challenge to Minerva in weaving. She (in this like Ovid himself? [
Metam
. VI.5–145]) produced a brilliant representation of the love affairs of the gods. Minerva, sensing herself unable to better this work of art, destroyed it, and Arachne determined to do away with herself. Minerva saved her life and turned the rope by which she was hanging herself into filament for this weaver turned spider.
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46–48.
   Rehoboam, a son of Solomon, was chosen to become king of Israel. His pride was manifest in the way he scornfully refused to lessen the tribute demanded of his people, at which ten of the twelve tribes of Israel rebelled. When his representative, Aduram, was slain by the rebellious Israelites, Rehoboam ran away with unseemly haste, even though he was not being pursued (see I Kings 12:1–18).
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49–51.
   In Statius’s
Thebaid
(IV.187–213), Alcmaeon, son of Amphiaraus, the seer (who is, in a certain sense, a stand-in for Statius himself [see note to
Inf
. XX.31–39]), is left with the task of avenging his father’s death. This came about after his wife, the mother of Alcmaeon, Eriphyle, betrayed his whereabouts to Polynices for the price of a necklace, with the result that Amphiaraus (see
Inf
. XX.31–36), who had foreseen the dreadful end of the civil war in Thebes and had hidden himself in order to escape his own death in it, ended up fighting and dying in the war. He pledged his son to avenge him, which indeed he did do by slaying his own mother. That the necklace, made by no less an artisan than Vulcan, had belonged to the goddess Harmonia marked Eriphyle’s pride in thinking herself worthy of wearing it. As was the case for Lucifer, the first exemplary figure in this listing, Eriphyle is not named.
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52–54.
   “Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
B
.
C
. 705–681; after a reign of twenty-four years, in the course of which he twice ‘went up against’ Hezekiah, king of Judah, and besieged Jerusalem, he was assassinated, while at worship, by his two sons (I[V] Reg. 19:37)”
(T)
. The Vulgate (IV Regum 19:28) associates his anti-Jewish behavior with
superbia
(pride).
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55–57.
   In Paulus Orosius’s
Historiae adversus paganos
(II.vii.6), Dante could have read of Cyrus the Elder, founder and king of the Persian Empire ca. 560
B
.
C
. He died in battle against the Massagetae, in Scythia (529
B
.
C
.), when he was ambushed by the queen of his enemies, Tomyris, who not only killed him, but had his decapitated head put into a vessel containing human blood and, according to Orosius, uttered words that closely resemble what Dante reports she said.
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58–60.
   The Assyrian general, Holofernes, was the victim of decapitation by the hand of Judith (see Iudith 13:1–13). “The leavings of that slaughter” are evidently the members of his decapitated body.

This last pair of classical/biblical parallels is painfully exact, with vainglorious military males opposed by skillful women who cut their heads off.
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61–63.
   The final example serves as a sort of summary for the entire acrostic. For the medieval tradition that Troy was indeed prideful see Scott (Scot.2001.1), pp. 182–83. Dante’s phrasing probably reflects
Aeneid
III.2–3, “superbum / Ilium,” with the phrase to be read in a moralizing (“proud Troy”) rather than an architectural (“lofty-towered Troy”) manner. See note to
Inferno
I.75, discussing an earlier incidence of the same phenomenon.
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64–69.
   Once again, concluding an ekphrastic presentation of some length (cf.
Purg
. X.94–99), the poet intervenes, now to praise the extraordinary mimetic quality of God’s art, so precise in its representation that even an eyewitness of the original events saw them no more clearly than did Dante as he walked the terrace of Pride.
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70–72.
   In
Purgatorio
X.121–129, in the wake of ekphrastic poetry, Dante addresses the prideful sinners among his readers; he now does a similar turn here, using the rhetorical trope of
antiphrasis
, i.e., expressing the opposite of what one says by means of a sarcastic tone of voice.
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77.
   The phrase “Drizza la testa” was last heard, addressed to Dante by Virgil as it is here, in
Inferno
XX.31, when the guide wanted his pupil to take cognizance of Amphiaraus (see note to vv. 49–51).
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78.
   Tommaseo (1837) was perhaps the first to cite the similar incitement, offered by the Sibyl to Aeneas, found at
Aeneid
VI.37 (“non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit” [this hour demands other sights than these]).
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79–80.
   Singleton suggests that, since this is the only angel actually to move toward Dante, his gesture is meant to suggest humility. However, as Simone Marchesi has pointed out, responding to a draft of these notes, the Angel of Mercy even more certainly seems to approach Dante (
Purg
. XV.27–30).
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81.
   The last signal of the time of day occurred at
Purgatorio
X.13–16, where we learned that it was sometime after 9
AM
. Here, in metaphoric language that presents the hours of the morning as the handmaids of the day, serving her highness one at a time and in succession, we learn that it is noon. Thus the time spent on this terrace is surprisingly short, a maximum of less than three hours and as little as two.
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90.
   That the angel comes as the morning star, Venus, otherwise known as Lucifer, sets him off in a polar relationship to Satan, the first exemplar of prideful behavior in the figured pavement.
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94–96.
   Who speaks these words, the Angel of Humility or the poet? The debate has been active for years. Aurigemma (Auri.1970.1), pp. 123–25, after reviewing various arguments, opts for the notion that it is Dante who speaks. The closeness of the sentiment expressed here to that found at X.121–129 (with its “angelic butterfly” at verse 125), which issues from the poet’s mouth, would seem to support the idea that it is the poet who speaks here as well. Nonetheless, we have followed Petrocchi’s punctuation, and it does not allow for the attribution of these lines to the poet. The main arguments for doing so are that for Dante to allude so clearly to his own special election is, even for him, a bit bold; further, the lack of indication of a second and new speaker and the abruptness that would result from such a shift both argue for Petrocchi’s view; still further, only the angel could state as a fact that so few are chosen to rise this far. On the other hand, no other angel makes comments about humankind that are as harsh as these, since the seven angels of purgatory are celebrating the continuing ascent of this special visitor to the mountain. Perhaps the fullest, fairest, and most helpful gloss to the passage is Poletto’s (1894) and he, after careful debate, comes down on the side of the attribution of these words to the angel.
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