Our pilgrim must move beyond the mystical tree on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory. So he sets off behind Virgil and Statius, only to overtaken by a group of cadaverous, skeletal penitents, whose hollow eyes watch the pilgrim's slower journey.

This passage is an interesting set of problems: low stylists which end up with Ovidian references, all tied up in the very real medieval problem of starvation.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through this passage of camaraderie, mentorship, and growing affection on the terrace of gluttony.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:13] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 1 - 27. If you'd like to read along or start a conversation with me and others about this passage, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:19] Camaraderie and mentorship in a lower style with a final salvo at avarice.

[11:34] A psalm fragment in Latin and a possible quibble about Virgil's character.

[16:26] Pensive pilgrims, right out of the VITA NUOVA, Dante's earlier work.

[20:05] Ovid's METAMORPHOSES as a source for hunger: cited thoroughly and then overwritten beyond its ending.

[25:04] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, lines 1 - 27.