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Canto 22
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
As Dante idles behind Virgil and Statius, Virgil urges him onward, reminding him that their appointed time should be used wisely. They’re soon overtaken by a group of penitents singing, “Lord, open my lips.” These spirits appear to be gaunt and emaciated. Dante thinks that the “OMO” of the human face stands out starkly on these figures.
As ever in Purgatory, time is critical—it’s meant to be carefully used for spiritual purposes, not wasted. The hymn of the gluttonous suggests that their mouths now ought to be used for praise, not excessive consumption of food and drink. “OMO” refers to the Latin word homo, or “man.” There was a medieval belief that the words HOMO DEI (“man is of God”) could be discerned in the structure of the human face.
Themes
One of the figures addresses Dante, and though Dante doesn’t recognize the wasted face, the voice is familiar—it’s his old friend Forese. Forese explains that the fruit tree and water on this level of Purgatory have a special virtue which elicits cravings in the gluttonous. He describes a “yearning [that] leads us to the tree” like Christ’s yearning. Dante, in turn, explains what he's doing in Purgatory.
Whereas, on earth, gluttonous people craved food and drink, in Purgatory they’re trained to direct their yearnings toward God. The reference to the “tree” is a play on words. The cross of Christ is often figuratively described as a tree, on which Christ willingly died out of love for sinners. The gluttonous, similarly, yearn for the tree in Purgatory, even though it causes them pain, as it ultimately leads them to God.
Themes
