What It Is
At the end of the day, the souls in the flowery valley of Ante-Purgatory rise to sing, and at the hour when night draws near a serpent enters by the one unprotected side of the little ditch. It comes between the grass and the flowers, turning its head from time to time and licking its back like an animal that sleeks itself. Sordello draws Virgil to himself and points it out as our adversary, in front of Dante, and the poem adds that it may be the one that gave Eve the bitter food. Two angels descend from on high, in garments green as newborn leaves and with green feathers fluttering behind, with two flaming swords that have no point. One stops above the pilgrim and the other descends to the opposite bank, so that the people are held in between. The serpent flees on hearing the air cleave on the green wings, and the angels return, equal, to their positions. Sordello explains that both come from Mary's bosom, to guard the valley.
Where It Appears
The scene is in Purgatory, Canto VIII, but it is prepared in Purgatory, Canto VII, in which Sordello draws a line on the ground and says what night does to the will of one who climbs:
E ’l buon Sordello in terra fregò ’l dito, / dicendo: «Vedi? sola questa riga / non varcheresti dopo ’l sol partito: / non però ch’altra cosa desse briga, / che la notturna tenebra, ad ir suso; / quella col nonpoder la voglia intriga, you see? this line alone you would not cross after the sun has gone: not that anything else would hinder going up, but the darkness of night; it, with the inability, entangles the will.
The valley itself is described in Purgatory, Canto VII, with the souls of the princes seated on the grass, and the hour of the song, the Te lucis ante, is the one that prepares the danger. Between the hour and the serpent, the poet turns to the reader:
Aguzza qui, lettor, ben li occhi al vero, / ché ’l velo è ora ben tanto sottile, / certo che ’l trapassar dentro è leggero, sharpen your eyes here, reader, well upon the truth, for the veil is now indeed so thin that passing through it is surely easy.
Dante confesses what he did not see in the midst of the canto's swiftest movement:
Io non vidi, e però dicer non posso, / come mosser li astor celestïali; / ma vidi bene e l’uno e l’altro mosso, I did not see, and so I cannot say, how the heavenly hawks moved; but I saw well both the one and the other in motion.
What It Means
The serpent is temptation that returns at the hour when the will is weakest, and the flowery valley is the place where the souls wait, protected, but not by themselves. Tradition identifies it with the serpent of Eden, and the text says so hesitantly, perhaps the one that gave Eve the bitter food. The angels with pointless swords are the defense the place has: they guard the valley, they do not kill the serpent, and they drive it off by the sound of their wings.
The scene shows the limit of the place. There is defense, but the vigil falls to those who wait, and the canto begins with a bell that seems to mourn the dying day and a soul that raises its hands and sings a hymn. The serpent appears when the hymn has ended. Two readings: the vigil is the remedy, and whoever sings is safe, or temptation returns precisely because the wait is long. The poet, who warns the reader that the veil is thin, leaves both open.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Redemption, Politics.
- Themes in the work: Redemption, Politics.
- Characters: Sordello, Dante, Virgil.
- Neighboring symbols: the wall of fire, the other trial the poem places at the end of the day, on the road to Eden.