Previous
Canto 32
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
Weeping softly, the Virtues and Graces chant the Psalm, “O God, the heathen are come.” Then Beatrice speaks in Latin, quoting from the Gospel of John “a little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me.”
This Canto, like the previous one, focuses largely on the Church’s enslavement to worldly influences. The ladies’ chant refers to the worldly infiltration of the Church, and Beatrice’s quotation probably refers to the successive removal and restoration of the papal see.
Themes
Then the whole group continues on their way, but after a little while, Beatrice gives Dante a piercing glance, knowing he has questions. Finally, Dante pulls himself together to ask Beatrice about what he’s just been shown. Beatrice explains that the feathered chariot which was shown to be “monster then […] prey” will not lack an heir forever. Soon, she says, an hour is coming when “five hundred ten and five” is coming to slay both the whore and giant. She urges Dante to communicate this to those still living.
Beatrice prophesies to Dante that the Church will someday have an heir to Constantine, who will presumably restore the church to purity from its worldly captivity. However, there is no scholarly consensus regarding the “515.” The significance of this numerological symbol was probably known only to Dante himself.
Themes
They approach two diverging streams in the distance, and Matilda explains that this is Eunoe. She draws both Dante and Statius toward the water. Dante takes an inexpressibly sweet drink and withdraws from the stream feeling “remade […] pure and prepared to rise towards the stars.”
Just as Dante drank from the river Lethe in order to forget his sin, he now drinks from the river Eunoe, which enables him to remember he past, including his sin, without shame—that is, he’s accepted forgiveness for his sins. Thus renewed, he’s now prepared to continue his heavenward journey, which Dante will pick up in Paradiso.
Themes
