Dante, Purgatory and Paradise
Dante’s Mountain of Purgatory
The traveller enters through an angel’s gate and climbs a winding, divided path towards a level terrace. The route joins physical effort to the ordered correction of the soul’s affections. Statius explains that the mountain trembles when a spirit becomes purified and ready to rise. Release is recognised through a free change of will, answered by communal praise.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryThe traveller enters through an angel’s gate and climbs a winding, divided path towards a level terrace. The route joins physical effort to the ordered correction of the soul’s affections.
Further detail
LiteraryStatius explains that the mountain trembles when a spirit becomes purified and ready to rise. Release is recognised through a free change of will, answered by communal praise.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows Cary’s translation of Dante’s poem. The entry concerns the mountain as Dante organises it; it does not present all Christian accounts of purgatory as an identical geography. Its people and places are presented within the literary vision, with the historical or theological subject distinguished from the role Dante assigns it.
Original passages
Source 1
Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante
We mounted up the riven rockOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante, Purgatory and Paradise; active reader leaf 63
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0119-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0119-E001-P0063
- Original scan leaf
- 64
- Recorded leaf number
- 64
- Current Reader position
- 60
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante
Trembles, when any spirit feels itself So purifiedOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante, Purgatory and Paradise; active reader leaf 130
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0119-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0119-E001-P0130
- Original scan leaf
- 131
- Recorded leaf number
- 131
- Current Reader position
- 127
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Literary & Visionary Settings ↗
Dante’s Earthly Paradise
The fragrant forest at the mountain’s summit where memory is renewed.
Same subject and traditionEunoe
The companion stream that restores the memory of good.
Same subject and traditionLethe in Dante’s Garden
The stream that removes remembrance of offence.
Same subject and traditionThe Gate of Purgatory
The guarded threshold opened by two different keys.