A summary of the first chapter of Aldo Cazzullo’s book “the place of men” (Mondadori) which explores the second cantica of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”
Our enemies will end up in Hell; our mothers in Heaven; but no one takes a little bit of Purgatory from us. Dante himself thought of ending up dead in Purgatory, among the proud.
Purgatory is the place of “almost”, of the expectation of happiness; which is in itself a form of happiness. It is a world of nostalgia but also of relief, of regret but also of consolation. It is a borderland between man and God. It has the charm of a border town.
Yet – as incredible as it sounds – the place where most of us will end up, the place of men, precisely Purgatory, did not exist before Dante. Dante invented it; and this moving in the void and in the void exalted his art and his imagination to the maximum degree.
Of course, the Church Fathers wondered where the majority of human beings would go; which is not bad, but selfish. The bad ones exist, and among them also the sadists, who enjoy the unjust evil done to others; and they will end up in Hell. Then there are the saints, the good, the just, destined for Paradise; but, judging from what we see here on earth, they are also a minority. In between is humanity. There are women and men at the mercy of everyday life and history, tied to their loved ones and intimidated by their opponents, attentive to their interests but also capable of altruism, especially if it makes them feel better. That’s why, smiling but not too much, we think that Purgatory awaits us.
Yet its existence was established by the Church only in 1274, when Dante was nine years old. So Purgatory was already there, albeit for a very short time; but no one knew what it was like, or even where it was. Dante thinks of it as a mountain, which rises up to the sky of the Moon. It rises from the southern ocean, at the antipodes of Jerusalem, and at the top it has the Garden of Eden, symbol of innocence; where souls will return, after purifying themselves in the ascent. AND Purgatory is not a lightened Hell; it is the opposite of Hell.
There is no darkness; the sun shines. There are no torturing devils; the angels fly. You do not go down; you go up. We do not hear moans, groans, blasphemies, but songs, psalms, melodies. And if the damned asked the poet to be remembered, because fame was the only way not to die completely, here the souls ask that you pray for them., so that they can gain eternal life. The dead are not dead forever, they remain in relationship with the living; and we can do a lot for loved ones who have left us.
Purgatory is the world of colors: Hell is dark, Paradise is luminous; Purgatory is always changing. In Hell (as in Heaven) time does not exist. In Purgatory yes. The sun is the same one that illuminates the Earth. Dawn, midday and sunset alternate. Here time passes, parallel to history, waiting for the last day. But in Purgatory, time – unlike on Earth – does not approach death, but rather towards salvation.
At this point, dear readers, I think I know what thought is going through your mind. The same one that I cultivated by taking over Dante’s Purgatory after so many years. Blue skies, «gentle wind», «shy» sheep, «quiet» doves, meek goats, pacified souls… Where are the cursed stories of Hell? Where Paolo and Francesca, Ulysses, Count Ugolino? Isn’t Purgatory likely to turn out to be boring? I assure you that the opposite is true. Purgatory is wonderful. It is no coincidence that many Dante fans are convinced that it is the most beautiful canticle. While Hell gets darker and darker as you go down, Purgatory changes constantly. It’s unpredictable, like a day of thunderstorms and rainbows: poised between tragedy and a happy ending, sometimes announced by premonitory dreams. Dante uses all the registers, the dramatic and the comic, the lyricism and the irony. It surprises us and captivates us. Because the characters he meets are still sinners. And among them there are the most powerful men of the time, such as Manfredi – «he was blond and handsome and of kind appearance…» -, the greatest artists, such as Guinizzelli, and unforgettable female figures, such as Pia de ‘Tolomei. In addition to Beatrice, whom Dante will find in Eden – “I know the signs of the ancient flame” -, even more beautiful than he remembered her.
And it is in Purgatory the famous civil invective, which will inflame generations of our ancestors: “Ouch, servant Italy, of pain hostel / ship without helmsman in great storm / not woman of the provinces, but brothel …”. They are verses of extraordinary relevance. Cited, in every century, by Italians who, every time, found confirmation in their present to what seemed almost a curse hurled by Dante on his compatriots. Yet his bitter words mask a deep love, and a great hope.
September 5, 2021 (change September 5, 2021 | 14:38)
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