Terms

Ante-Purgatory Ante-Purgatory is the base of the mountain, outside the gate, where wait those who converted late: the ones who turned to God only at the last instant under force, the negligent who postponed repentance, and those who died excommunicated by the Church. The... Ledge Each ledge is one of the seven terraces that surround the mountain, one for each vice it purges, linked by narrow stairways. The one for pride is three human bodies wide, with the rock wall on one side and the void on the other. On each one, examples of the... The seven P's The seven P's are the letters that the angel at the gate engraves, with the tip of his sword, on Dante's forehead, one for each vice that the mountain washes away; the common reading takes the P as the initial of the Italian word «peccato» (sin). With each... Disordered love Disordered love is Virgil's thesis in canto XVII: every act is born of love, natural love never errs, and the love of the soul errs in three ways: through a bad object, through too little vigor, or through too much vigor. From a bad object come pride, envy... Sloth Sloth is a loose love for the good, the vice of the fourth ledge: whoever has it wants the same good as the others, but without strength. Canto XVII calls it an oar struck late, and the souls purge it by running and shouting examples of zeal. Statius calls... Contumacy Contumacy, in canto III, is dying in disobedience to the Church, excommunicated. Whoever dies this way, even if they repent at the end, must wait outside the gate thirty times as long as the time they were presumptuous, unless good prayers shorten the term.... Lethe Lethe is the water of Eden that takes from whoever drinks it the memory of sin. It rises from a spring that opens into two channels, and Dante is dipped into it by Matelda, after the confession. She uses the forgetfulness the water causes as proof of guilt:... Eunoe Eunoe is the other water of Eden, the one that restores the memory of every good deed. It works only if Lethe has been tasted first, and the order is forgetting first, remembrance of the good afterward. Matelda leads Dante to it in the last canto, and it is... Earthly Paradise The Earthly Paradise is the summit of the mountain, Eden: a divine forest of air that never changes, which Matelda says was given to man as a pledge of eternal peace and lost through his own fault. It lies above the point where the gate closes, free of the... Dolce stil novo "Dolce stil novo," "sweet new style," is the name that Bonagiunta da Lucca gives, in canto XXIV, to Dante's manner of writing, and it came to designate the school. Dante defines it as that of one who takes notes when Love inspires him and goes on signifying... DXV DXV is the number with which Beatrice prophesies, in canto XXXIII, a "five hundred ten and five," a messenger sent by God who will kill the thief and the giant. The most widespread reading takes the letters as DUX, leader; others read them as a Christological...