Purgatory: Canto XII -- The Proud: The Rein of Pride

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Dante spends too much time with Od'risi, who reflects most appropriately his own venial sin of pride, and on which he'll reflect for some time yet. "Ah, what a difference between these trails/ and those of Hell: here every entrace fills with joyous song, and there with savage wails!" (112-14) he exclaims as he is released by the angel of humility to continue his ascent. The reason for the song, of course, lies in the fact that venial sins are being purged and the disposition that leads to them is being overcome. Our purging of our greatest sin, which is pride, is the very thing that makes our journey up these steps lighter. To do this, we have to understand our place in relation to the rest of creation and remain content in that place as Pope stresses to us in exhorting, "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;/ The proper study of mankind is man" (1-2). Were we to strip ourselves of pride, vanity, and luxury, we'd be far better able to fulfill our purpose on earth.



Would that Dante could find such well-sought release in La Vita Nuova at this time, for he briefly entertains a thought that he just give it up and resolve to no longer be attracted by Beatrice. He is unable to do so, however, and casts the blame on others who witness his pain and offer no support. He writes, "He sins who witnesses my transformation and will not comfort my tormented soul, at least by showing that he shares my grief for pity's sake - which by your mocking dies, once it is brought to life by my dying face, whose yearning eyes beg death to take me now" (XV, 6). His affectation here is one of vanity, and vanity, as the cornice on which the matured Dante has just left demonstrates, is the hallmark of pride.

This demonstration of the various manifestations of pride is provided as an added measure to ensure the souls of this cornice understand its oppression (as though the ton of rock each is toting is not sufficient). Dante finds on the floor of the ledge, where the penitent souls would be most likely to see them as they trample over them with their burdens, these reins of pride -- images that depict extreme acts of pride beginning with Satan's fall from heaven (see the classical images section of this canto) through the fall of the Titans and of others who challenged the gods and concluding (at least for Dante) with the fall of Troy, which had seized Helen as Aphrodite's payment for Paris' judgment. Modern images would include wars, and humble counterparts to such pride of country over humanity (whips against the walls these penitent pass) would include those ministers of God, like the Blessed Daniel Brottier, who walked the trenches as unscathed as angels in their strengthening the faith of men who by necessity of circumstance found themselves killing other men -- such is the value of the military chaplain.

Dante ascends to the second cornice faster than he had to the first for two reasons: one has to do with the fact that stairs have been cut into the mountain at this point, and the other has to do with the fact that the angel of humility had struck one of the P's from his forehead in bidding the poets to continue their climb. Such is the grace of angels in facilitating Dante's rhyme.

S.