PURGATORIO CANTO 10 Synopsis and Analysis

[@ItsJayceChandler]

Tom, this should be an award-winning video. Your insights and explanations were so through and clear, and your incredible connections are simply gold for the adoring student of Dante. When I read this Canto, I immediately recognized it's beauty, innovation, and creativity. It is now one of my favorite Cantos of the Commedia.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Wow, thanks so much Jayce, it's really comments like yours that make all the difference for me and give me the energy to keep going with this project. I'm almost at the end! (8 more videos)

[@fmfm9846]

This series is such a wonderful gift, there's no way to thank you enough!

[@tomlabooks3263]

For me it’s a reward in itself. 🙏🏻 I’m so glad you’re enjoying Purgatorio.

[@Paul9443]

1:12 It's so true. It is the same with most things, there is Christian understanding and a worldly understanding. In my experience the world will seek to deter us from seeking, seeing and knowing Christ's truths. I had seen a truly humble person in my childhood, although at the time I didn't knew the depths of his virtues. I now learn about these things and see much, much more, and especially their source!

[@hesterdunlop7948]

I like the way Dante talks to us ....and those dynamics between himself and Virgil keep grounding me. ...I loved the first and last parts of this Canto and could really see the prideful shades with their burdens

[@tomlabooks3263]

10, 11 and 12 are among of my favorite cantos of the Comedy!

[@knittingbooksetc.2810]

Great lesson as always. Thank you! I started INTERIOR CASTLE as well, and noticed there are also 7 levels of mansions. It reminded me of Dante.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thanks Christina - really excited about Theresa, I will dive in this coming weekend. You’re right she sounds like someone with a great visual imagination, like Dante.

[@avvGiuseppeTodesca]

you are as clear and comprehensive as ever. Thanks for your effort to share the Comedy with us.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thanks Giuseppe 😉 Try and read the beginning of Canto 11, it’s amazing.

[@TootightLautrec]

This was a particularly beautiful canto with all the ekphrastic sections. I was struck by the middle scene with David, as I just read that section in Samuel and Kings in the KJV. It's a very confusing section with David actually getting angry at God for his treatment of Uzzah. When I read about David Dancing when the Ark is brought back, it seemed like pride and arrogance at having retrieved the Ark rather than humility, so the appearance of that scene here complicates the pride/humility axis. "So like and unlike a king" is a perfect description. In my mind David's section helps sets up Dante's speech about humility at the end. As always, there's so much to think about here. Thanks again for the intelligent guidance.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thank you for making me reflect on this episode a bit more. I just went to read the text and I see what you mean (not fully clear where the pride ends and humility begins) but maybe there is a hint in this portion where David mentions to his wife that he “humiliated himself”? “She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”. David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!”

[@TootightLautrec]

@@tomlabooks3263 Musa's take on the episode is that David was being humble, and I can see that David SAID he was being humble, but also in your intro you spoke about how our own self-assessments about our own humility is often faulty. When I read 2 Samuel and Kings David's erratic behavior confused me, but also made me feel like perhaps this was his youth. The section (or perhaps it was just a sentence) where he actually gets angry with God, but he's not punished for his anger also struck me as odd (especially since God was so severe with Uzzah. Anyway, Dante and you have done your duty if I now spend some time contemplating Pride & Humility.

[@tomlabooks3263]

@@TootightLautrec Haha Yes fully agree about the difference between David saying “hey I’m humble!” and what the reality might have been.

[@Ursulas_Odds_and_Sods]

I love the imagery of humans being worms yet destined to turn into butterflies. The lines about worms remind me of the Jewish teaching that we should carry a note in each pocket, "I am but dust and ashes" and "For my sake was the world created." When feeling low, we should pull out and read the second note, and when we're feeling too proud, high, and mighty, we should read the first note. Do you mind if I include a link to your channel in a blog post I'm writing for next week? It's about helpful extratextual sources for studying the Commedia (books, websites, vlogs, etc.) Since this is Dante's 700th death anniversary year, I've done a lot of posts about him, his works, and his world this year.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thank you and please go ahead, I would love that. Where can I find your blog? (I know that sometimes including links here doesn’t work)

[@Ursulas_Odds_and_Sods]

@@tomlabooks3263 I'm carrieannebrownian at wordpress dot com. My Dantean posts are collected in an index linked to under "Index of posts by topic" on my header.

[@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711]

I am turning into a Tom about Dante, as I keep finding myself saying this canto is special and particularly good or beautiful or moving. The description of the relief sculptures in the marble rock face of the mountain that seem to sing, to smell, to speak has to be one of my favourite sections so far in the whole poem. I was intrigued by the little reassurance Dante gives us, not to dwell too much on the sufferings we are about to see as they are not infinite like in Inferno and will end by judgement day if not sooner.

[@tomlabooks3263]

😄😄 I think it’s the effect of Purgatory… It’s as if his imagination, already off the charts, actually grew in power with every canto he was writing. Very glad you’re enjoying it.

[@HeyYallListenUp]

I really like how the punishment for the prideful fits the crime. Dante also takes pains to remind us that those in Purgatory do not have to suffer for eternity, unlike those in Inferno.

[@tomlabooks3263]

In some way Purgatorio seems more real than Inferno (at least to me!)

[@curioushmm9027]

ah..i read that line a couple of times about fearing jobs that aren't ours and never made the connection but as soon as you pointed out i remember being terrified by that incident in the bible...and feeling just that fear.

[@bighardbooks770]

Such an epic canto. "The Needles Eye is also in Luke xvii, 25. The Waning Moon had been full in the night before Good Friday (Inferno XX 127) It is now four and a half days later. In two & a half more days it will be a half moon." from Ciardi. _Ave!_ Thanks, too, for showing the illustrations, painting's, et al.

[@tomlabooks3263]

10, 11 and 12 are just spectacular…. 🤩

[@attention5638]

I was trying to remember where I had a conversation about pride in this regard, and it stuck me, it was in a previous video from the Inferno. 😅 I was a little lost near the end of this one, but that metaphor of the butterfly, coupled with that quote from Benedict is really great.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thanks for your comments Pae. You’re on the East Coast, right? Do you ever get some sleep? 😉 Hope you’re well.

[@attention5638]

@@tomlabooks3263 Haha, 2 or 3 hours a night. But every now and then, a good five hours sneak in haha. 😅 I just looked up The Digital Donte. That looks like it is a wonderfully informative site!

[@bighardbooks770]

@@tomlabooks3263 Pae's above us, lol, in Canada.

[@GoreVidalComicbooks]

Good day, Tom. I think it was at this point that it became clear to me that reading only The Inferno without Purgatory and Paradise diminish the significance of the Inferno events. It was impossible not to think about Niobe when Mary is referenced here. Niobe, turned to stone due to her grief by the murder of her children by Artemis and Apollo, Leto's children, the mother of human kind in some mythologies and personification of a human suffering in others. Mary and Niobe's destinies are endlessly fascinating when juxtaposed, especially given that Apollo is often compared to Christ.

[@tomlabooks3263]

Thanks for the great comment, Gore. 100% Inferno by itself is not sufficient, not only to convey the Comedy’s beauty, but to understand what Dante is doing - which is, guiding himself and us towards happiness.