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Canto 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Purgatorio, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Purgatory and the Heavenward Journey
Love, Sin, and God
Free Will
Spiritual Power vs. Earthly Power
Time
Summary
Analysis
Before sunrise, Dante is approached by a cross-eyed, decrepit crone who begins to sing attractively—she’s a siren. Just as her song ends (recalling her distraction of Ulysses and other mariners), another woman, looking “holy and alert,” appears and silences the siren. When Virgil rips the siren’s guts open, Dante awakens, realizing it’s been a dream, and Virgil urges him onward. An angel erases another “P” and blesses Dante.
Before Dante and Virgil progress to the next level of Purgatory, the siren provides an illustration of Virgil’s words above regarding the attraction of an external object to the mind. The woman is herself ugly, but Dante instinctively perceives her song as beautiful and accordingly desires her. In this way, the soul is projecting an image that it loves—it’s not truly loving another person. The other woman symbolizes the proper action of free will in response to such attraction.
Themes
As the two continue their climb, Dante is distracted by the nightmare of the siren. Virgil says that the next level of Purgatory will help explain things. As they ascend, Dante sees figures stretched prostrate on the ground, sighing, “My soul cleaves to the dust.” After getting directions from one of these souls, Dante asks why the souls are positioned in this way. He’s surprised to learn that the man he’s speaking to is Pope Adrian.
The prayer of these penitents is from Psalm 119, and indeed they literally cleave to the dust—the penance for coveting, or an excessive desire for worldly things. Dante even uses a pope as an example, showing his readiness to criticize spiritual authorities whose actions he deplores.
Themes
Pope Adrian explains that the souls doing penance in this way—Purgatory’s harshest—are guilty of avarice, or covetousness. Because they never looked toward Heaven while living, these souls are forced to remain earthbound here. Pope Adrian warns Dante not to waste any time doing him honor—in the afterlife, they’re just co-servants of the same God. He asks Dante to request prayer from his family back on earth and then dismisses him.
The penance for avarice is another example of the logic of Dante’s purgatory—the penances are meant to instill the virtue opposite to the sin, in this case a failure to look heavenward. The soul that now desires heaven must endure a lengthy period of looking earthward. Again, Dante emphasizes that when it comes to sin, popes are no less susceptible than others.
Themes
