So we have a two-part lecture series to finish Divine Comedy.
So today we start Part 1 and then next Wednesday we do Part
2. So Divine Comedy is the most
influential work of literature in European history.
Why? Because Dante's comedy will give
rise to the part of Reformation as well as the set of
revolution, the Enlightenment, Renaissance, basically modernity
itself. OK, so the question is how did
Dante accomplish this? He accomplished this basically
by responding to Virgil. OK, so for the longest time, for
about 1000 years, Virgil was the most dominant thinker in
European history. And Virgil's in the AD, which we
read becomes the basis for Augustine.
He wrote two major books, Confessions and City of God, and
this will become the basis of the Catholic Church.
All right, so how did Virgil come to become the soul of the
Catholic Church with the He came up with the idea of human
nature. OK, so Augustine will emphasize
the idea of original sin. OK, so the original sin was an
act of disobedience when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the
fruit, sorry, the the tree of knowledge.
OK, they eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge and that's an
act of disobedience because God explicitly said you can do
whatever you want in this Garden of Eden, but don't eat that
fruit. And they disobeyed God.
And Augustine points out that what compelled this original sin
is pride. We humans cannot bear to serve
God, to be humble before God. We seek to overthrow God, and so
God had no choice but to punish us.
OK, So what drives this original sin?
What drives this original sin is that yes, it is true that God,
he breathed life into us. OK, He breathed life into us so
that our soul is the divine spark.
That is true. The problem though is that our
bodies are made from dust. OK, dust.
And as a result, because we are dust, we strive for dirty things
such as lust, pride, gluttony, sloth.
There's some deadly sins, OK? And we can't, we can't help
ourselves. And the only way to repair the
world, the only way for us to seek salvation and redemption,
the only path to heaven, is obedience, OK?
What Virgil will call piety. And so as long as we are loyal
to the Catholic Church, we'll be fine.
The Catholic Church will guide us like a shepherd guides his
flock to heaven. But what's really important to
understand is that our nature is dirty.
We are sinful by nature, and therefore we can't trust our own
intuition. OK.
And maybe this becomes a framework for medieval Europe,
which lasts about 1000 years. And this is what led to
something called the Dark Ages, when basically the entire world
surpassed Europe in terms of innovation, wealth, and
intellectual creativity. So what Don is going to do is
he's going to assert the power and the truth of individual
intuition. OK, So the major argument that
Don is going to make is that yes, it is true that we are made
of dust. It is true that with bodies we
seek pleasures. But that divine spark in us, it
never went away. And much more importantly, that
divine spark still connects us to God.
OK. So as long as we're able to
activate this divine spark, we can be imaginative.
We can seek true for ourselves. We don't need the Catholic
Church. All right, so Dante, what he's
doing is he's asserting the primacy of love.
We don't need to obey others. We don't need the church because
love if we just activate the love with within us, this will
connect us back to God and this connection will drive our
imagination, which will make us creative and creativity is the
ultimate purpose of the universe.
OK, So what I what I will do in this Part 2 part lecture series
is the first part look at Virgil, what the argument he's
making. OK.
And then on Wednesday, I will conclude with Dante.
All right, So any questions so far about this framework?
OK, So again, the argument, the debate, it's very simple.
Is human nature fundamentally good or bad?
OK, If you think it's bad, then you need to create a hierarchy
to control human behavior. But if you like daunted, you're
optimistic, then you don't need to control human behavior.
In fact, you want to encourage individual intuition as much as
possible. OK, so that's a fundamental
debate. All right, so let's look at the
basic structure of the Divine Comedy.
OK, so we've read the entirety of Infernal.
OK, And from Infernal, Virgil and Dante will go to Purgatory.
Where souls will cleanse themselves of sins so that they
are ready to go to paradise. OK, so we're going to look at
purgatory today, and then next class we'll look at paradise.
All right, so Purgatory is modeled very much in a very
similar way as the Infernal. OK.
So the wonderful thing about the Divine Comedy is it's
structured, it's very visual. So in purgatory, what you do is,
first of all, you enter purgatory, OK, you enter
purgatory. But the moment you enter
purgatory, what an Angel who guards the purgatory will do is
stamp 7 PS onto you, OK? Each P represents a sin, and So
what you do is you climb each terrace of this mountain, and
each terrace has a particular sin.
OK, so terrace one is pride, terrace 2 is envy, terrace 3 is
anger, terrace 4 is laziness, terrace 5 is covetousness,
terrace 6 is gluttony, and terrace 7 is lust.
OK, so it's almost like the inverse of Infernal.
And so each time you clear a terrorist by absolving yourself,
by clenching yourself, a particular sin AP is removed
from your forehead. And once you remove all PS, you
climb up to essentially the Garden of Eden up here.
And then up here, what's going to happen is that Beatrice is
going to descend from Heaven and pick Dante up so that they can
ascend to heaven to gather. OK, So Virtual is going to guide
Dante through the process of Purgatory and then leave Dante
to Beatrice. OK, That's the basic structure
of Purgatory. Any questions so far?
All right, all right, so we're going to start reading.
OK. All right.
So again, remember that the fundamental difference between
Dante and Virtual is that virtue is ultimately sceptical about
human nature, whereas Dante is optimistic.
OK, so we're we're first going to figure out what Virgil's
argument is. OK, so Ivory can you replaced?
And even as I turned towards him, I asked what did the spirit
of Vermont mean when he said sharing cannot have a part in
his reply? He knows the harm that lies in
his worst life. If he chastises it to ease his
expiation, do not wonder. For when your lying center on
things such as sharing, then then proportions less to each,
then envy serves the bows of your size.
But if the love within the highest fear should turn your
lines heavenward, the fear inhabiting your breast would
disappear. For there the more there are who
would say ours, so much the greater is the good possessed by
each, so much more love burns in that cloister.
OK, stop. OK, all right.
So what? So that there are in the terrace
of envy and here people must expiate themselves of their envy
of others. And envy comes from misguidance,
OK, People are focused on the material world.
And in the material world things are finite, right?
So we struggle over food, over water, over wealth.
But if we focus on the spiritual world, if you focus on God, OK,
the spiritual, then resources are infinite, OK?
And in the spiritual world, the more you share with others, the
more wealth is created, OK? Because you're uplifting each
other's spirit. So that's the difference between
the mature world and the spiritual world, where in the
material world, sharing can be punished because it's a 0 sum
game. If someone has an apple, you
don't have it. If you have that apple, someone
else doesn't have it. But in the spiritual world,
which focus on love, generosity, forgiveness, the more you love,
the more generous you are, the more generosity creates in the
world, right? If you smile at someone, that
other person smiles back at you. You're kind of that person.
That person is kind to others. All right, So that is the
misconception. That's why people have envy,
because they are ignorant of the nature of the universe.
Envy is sort of a focus on the mature world.
And to expiate yourself of envy, you must focus on the spiritual
world. OK.
So here at Virgil and Dante, do not disagree.
Keep on going. I am more hungry now for
satisfaction, I said. Than I of course it's Dante,
right? Keep on going.
Then if I had held my tongue before I hosted you print out
within my mind, how can a good that's that's shared by more
possessors enable each to be more rich in it than if that
could have been possessed by few and he to me?
But if you still persist in letting your mind fix on earthly
things, then even from true light you gather darkness.
That good, ineffable and infinite, which is above directs
itself towards love, as light directs itself to polished
bodies. Where ours are is that good
gives of itself, and where more love is, where more love is
there, that good confers a greater measure of eternal
worth. And when there are more souls
above who love, there's more to love while there, and they love
more in mirror, like each soul reflects the other.
And if my speech is not peace or hunger, you will see Beatrice.
She will fulfill this and all of the longings that you feel now.
Only strive so that the other five wounds may be cancelled
quickly. As as you already are, the
wound's contrition heals. OK, All right.
So what he's saying here is that this spiritual world is the
good, right? God, basically.
And so the more kindness, the more love you generate to other
people, they reflect that. And that spreads love and
kindness all around the universe.
OK, So one way to visualize this is something called Indra's net,
and this is a concept from Hinduism and Buddhism.
OK, So what is the soul? Who are we?
Well, we are a Pearl in a universe of pearls.
OK? It's a net.
And the thing about a Pearl is that it reflects everything.
So within us, we've reflect the universe.
OK, so within us is a universe. OK, So do you guys see this?
And the idea here is that our souls are a fractal of the
universe, and therefore, what do we do?
It's reflected throughout the entire universe, OK.
If this pearls choose a smile, every other Pearl reflects that
smile. If this Pearl chooses to be
angry, that the other pearls become angry as well.
That's why being sinful or being good is so important, because
literally we have the entire fate of the universe in our
hearts, OK? So again, Dante and Virgil do
not disagree here. So you guys understand the
concept here. This is very important for
Dante, OK? And this concept is something
that we expanded on when we get to paradise, that we are just a
reflection of the entire universe.
All right. Can you continue, Ivory?
Tell me, my gentle father, what offence is purged within the
circle we have reached, although our feet must stop, your words
need not. And he to me precisely here the
love of good that is too typically pursued, is mended
here, delays the hour replies harder, but so that you may
understand more clearly. Now turn your mind to me and you
will gather some useful fruit from her.
Delaying here, my son. There's no creator and no
creature, whoever was without love, natural or mental, and you
know that. OK, so here the idea of love is
just a reflection of God. OK?
Remember God breathed his life into Adam and so we have the
aspect of God in US. OK, so everything has love in
it. The question is the degree of
love and the question is how impact is love in our lives?
OK, keep on going. Natural is always without error,
but mental love may choosing evil objects, or air throws too
much or too little bigger. As long as it's directed towards
the first good and tends towards secondary goods with measure, it
cannot be the cause of evil. Pleasure booted twists towards
evil or attends to good with more or less care than it
should. Those whom he made have worked
against their Maker. Wait, stop.
OK, so this idea of a duality, right, where you get the soul,
and the soul is pure love and it comes from the divine and it's
eternal, therefore it's always good.
The problem is that the soul is inside a body, OK?
The body is made of dust, and as a result it's constantly
striving towards evil. And so within us, it is
constantly caught between the soul and the body, which seeks
material pleasures, which basically seeks sin.
All right. And again, what Virgil will say
is, honestly, most of us basically cannot withstand the
temptation. And that's why we need the
church and authority and obedience.
OK, keep on going. From this you see that of
necessity love is a seed in you of every virtue, and of all acts
deserving punishment. Now, since love never turned
aside its eyes from the well-being of its subject,
things are surely free from hatred of themselves.
And since no being can be seen as self existing and divorced
from the first being, each creature is cut off from hating
him. Thus, if I have distinguished
properly, I'll love must mean to wish one's neighbor ill.
And this Love's foreign in three ways.
In your clay there's he who, through a basement of another,
hopes for supremacy. He only longs to see his
neighbor's excellence cast down. Then there is one who, when he's
outdone, fears his own loss of fame, power, honor, favor, whose
sadness loves misfortune for his neighbor.
And there is who? There is he who, over injury
received resentful for revenge, grows greedy and angrily seeks
out another's harm. OK, all right, so again, the
original sin is a sin of pride. OK, So what Virgil is saying
here is, look, it's impossible for you to hate God because God
is the ultimate good. Is it possible for you to hate
yourself? So the hate comes from your envy
of others, your pride, the fact that you want to stand above
other people. And if other people are above
you, then you you conspire against them, and that's a
source of all sin. OK, All right, let's come on
away. This threefold love is expedited
here below. Now I would have you understand
the love that seeks the good distortedly.
Each apprehends confusedly a good in which the mind may rest
and longs for it, and thus all strive to reach that good.
But if the love that urges you to know it or to reach that good
is LAX, this terrorist after addresses repentance, punishes
for that there is a different good which does not make men
glad. It is not happiness, is not true
essence, fruit and root of every good.
The love that profligately yields to that is whipped on
three terraces, on your three terraces above us.
But I'll not say with three shapes that love takes.
May you seek those distinctions for yourself.
OK, all right, So the purpose of purgatory is for us to cleanse
ourselves of our material wants and desires, OK?
To focus on the spiritual, to remember where we came from, and
to remember our connection with the good that will allow us to
access heaven at the end. OK, keep on going.
The subtle teacher had completed his discourse to me attentively
he watched my eyes to see if I seemed satisfied.
And I still go to buy a new thirst was silent without,
although within I said, Perhaps I have displeased him with too
many questions, But that true Father who would recognize the
timid want I would not tell aloud by speaking, gave me
courage to speak out. At which I said, Master, my
sight is so illumined by your light.
I recognize all that your words to clear or analyze.
Therefore I pray you, gentle Father dear, to teach me what
love is. You have reduced to love both
each good and its opposite. OK, so basically what Virgil is
saying is that love is the fundamental force of the
universe. If we move away from love, we do
bad things. If we move towards love, we do
good things. OK, so now Donnie is like, then
tell me exactly what love is. Be specific about love, all
right? He said, Direct your intellect's
sharp eyes toward me, and let the air of blinds who'd served
service guys be evident to you. The soul, which was created
quick to love, responds to everything that pleases just as
soon as beauty awakens it to act.
Your apprehension draws an image from a real object and expands
upon the object until soul is turned toward it, and if so
turned, the soul tends steadfastly.
Then that propensity is love. It's nature that joins the soul
in you, and you through beauty. Then just as flames ascend,
because the form of fire was fashioned to fly upwards towards
the stuff of its own sphere, where it lasts longest, so does
the soul when seized, move into longing emotion of the spirit,
never resting till the beloved thing has made it joyous.
OK, OK, so this is really important.
OK, so let's try to understand what he's saying here.
So soul comes from the divine, OK?
It is a memory of God, and it is inside a body, OK, A body that
allows it to experience the world.
This body confuses its soul, and the soul is lost.
And the soul believes that whatever is beautiful, I must
seek, OK. So the soul, if you leave it
alone, it's going to want to return to God.
But if it sees something beautiful, OK, it doesn't know
if it should, if it's good or bad, OK.
All it all it knows is like, I want to go to it.
So what happens is a soul expands outwards and tries to
encompass it. And then what it does is it
moves towards it and tries to swallow it whole.
It consumes it, OK, right. So think of Ditto and Ineus
where Ditto sees idiot Ineos in the iniad, falls in love with
him and he must have him. OK, he moves towards him and
tries to consume him. It drives her insane and the
moment he leaves her she has to kill herself.
OK so that's the issue with the soul.
The soul moves towards what's beautiful and doesn't even know
why it's doing so. And when it moves, it tries to
absorb and consume it. OK, because if it because that's
what it was trained to do, right?
God created it so that the soul would when they return to God.
But because as a body, the soul becomes confused.
And if it sees a beautiful woman, the soul is like, I must
have her. I must have sex with her.
It doesn't matter if I rape her. It doesn't matter if I marry
her. I don't really care.
But I must have her. I must control her.
OK? I must consume her.
All right, Keep on going. Now you can plainly see how
deeply hidden truth is from suteness.
Who would insist that every love is in itself praiseworthy?
And there let's error by the matter of love, because it may
seem always good, but not each seal is fine, although the waxes
your speech and my own wit that followed it, I answered him,
have shown me what love is, but that that has filled, filled me
with still greater doubts. For if Love's offered to us from
without, and is the only foot with which soul walks, soul
going straight or crooked has no merit.
And he to me, what reason can can see here?
I can impart past that for truth of faith.
It's beorgeous alone. You must await every substantial
form at once, distinct from matter and conjoined to it, and
gathers the force that is distinctively it's own.
The force, unknown to us until it acts, is never shown except
in its effect, just as green brats bows display the life
implants. OK, so Tony's confused by this
formulation because if we are trying to consume something that
we love, then how can we know what's good and what's evil,
right? What's the mechanism that tells
us what's good and what's evil? The source is doing what it must
do, right? The soul must seek out what's
beautiful and consume it. The soul thinks that whatever is
beautiful must be God. But if it gets confused and
think that a woman is beautiful and the soul tries to control
that woman, then it's a bad thing, right?
So why would God create a system in which you are naturally
compelled to do evil? All right, and come on going.
And thus man does not know the source of his intelligence of
primal notions, and is tending towards desires, primal objects.
Both are in you, just as in bees there is the honey making urge.
Such primal will deserves no praise and and it deserves no
blame. Now the all other longs may
conform to this first will. There is in you inborn the power
that counsels keeper of the threshold of your ascent.
This is the principle on which your merit may be judgeth, for
it garners and winnows good and evil longings.
Those reasoners who reached the roots of things learn from this
inborn, Learn of this inborn freedom to bequest.
That thus the left onto the world's is ethics.
Even if we allow necessity of source of every love that flames
in you, the power to curb that love is still your own.
This noble power is what Beatrice means by free will.
Therefore remember it if she should ever speak of it to.
You OK the power to curb that love is still your own.
This is this is what what free will is.
OK? So here's the logic here.
The logic is love is not good or bad, OK?
It's just natural part of you. It's like an animal desires
food. Is that good or bad?
It's just who we are. So in this circumstance, what is
good? What is good is our capacity to
control our emotions, right? In other words, obedience is
good. Obedience is what is free will,
OK? If we're able to shift from
emotions to reason, that is good.
What is reason? Reason is the capacity to
restrain our emotions by a boy obeying authority, because it's
only authority that allows us to control ourselves.
You know what's right and wrong, OK.
And this and this was the essence.
This was the main message of the INIAC, right?
Elias is on a mission to found the Roman Empire.
He goes from Troy to Carthage to the Italian peninsula.
But it's actually a spiritual journey because when he starts
his journey, he's very emotional.
He sees Helen and he wants to kill Helen because he thinks
that Helen is the person who caused the destruction of Troy.
Troy's been destroyed, and Elias wants to fight the Greeks and
die in the process because he wants to save his homeland even
though it's been destroyed. OK, He goes to Carthage, and
he's not supposed to be at Carthage.
He falls in love of Ditto and he wants to stay there.
And each time the gods have to come in and says, hey, man,
listen, you have permission to do go, go.
You have to go to Italy in order to found Rome.
OK. So and then towards the end of
the iniad, Ieneus recognizes his mission is to obey the gods he
has. He can no longer obey his
emotions. Therefore, at the end when he's
finding Chernus and Chernus is defeated, he wants to show mercy
to Chernus because Chernus has become very pitiful.
But he recognizes, no, I cannot allow my emotions sway me, I
cannot trust my intuition. I can never ever show love to
others. I must obey the gods.
I must obey my mission. I must be reasonable.
And so he kills Turnus. And that's how the Iniat ends.
Okay, does that make sense? That is the main argument that
Virgil is making. It is not love that defines who
we are. It's reason that defines who we
are. Reason as defined by obedience.
If we are able to obey, that demonstrates our free will.
OK, all right, so let's let's move on to another passage.
OK, keep on going. Natural thirst that could never
be quenched except by water that gives grace to drought.
The simple woman of Samaria sought tormented me.
He spurred me on the path crowded with souls behind my
guide, and I felt pity, though their pain was justified.
And here, even as Luke records for us that Christ knew, risen
from his burial cave, appeared to to along his way a shade
appeared, and he advanced behind our backs, while we were careful
not to trample on the outstretched crowd.
We do not notice him until he had addressed us with God.
Give you, O my brother's, peace. We turn at once.
Then after after offering suitable response, Virgil began.
And may that just tribunal, may that just tribunal which has
consigned me to eternal exile, place you in peace within the
blessed Assembly. OK so what's happening here is
that Virgil and Doctor are making their way up the mountain
OK, And there's seven terraces and a soul has to clear all 7
terraces before the soul can enter paradise.
When a soul is able to complete the mission, the entire mountain
shakes OK? And there's an earthquake to
signal that a soul has been cleansed of all sins Is now is
now about to ascend. So there's a shade.
OK, who is in a rush to ascend to Heaven because he he's
cleared all 7 terraces and so he's going to rush to heaven.
It's been 500 years. And so he's going to and he so
he meets Virgil and Dante. They're in his way.
And it's like, excuse me, please, I'm on my way.
And Virgil's like, OK, sure. All right, I'm going.
What? He exclaimed as we move forward
quickly, if God's not deems you worthy of assent, who's guided
you so far along the stairs. If you observe the signs the
Angel traced upon this man, my teacher said you'll see plainly
he's meant to reign with all the righteous.
But but since he, she who spins right and night and day had not
yet spun, spun the spool that Clotho sets upon the despass,
the staff and adjusts for everyone, his soul, the sister
of your soul and mine in in his scent, could not alone have
climbed here, for it does not see the way we see.
Therefore I was brought forth from Hell's broad draws to guide
him in his going. I shall lead him just as far as
where I teach can reach. But tell me, if you can, why
just before the mountain shook and shouted, all of it for so it
seemed down to its sea bathed. Short OK, so the soul is
confused because if you reach this point in the mountain then
you're going to heaven. So you'd be going as fast as
possible and then virtual trying to explain that actually they
are not part of purgatory. OK, keep on going.
This question threaded so the needles eye of my desire that
just the hope alone of knowing left my thirst more satisfied.
The other shade began. The sanctity of these slopes
does not suffer anything that's without order or uncustomary.
This place is free from every preservation but heaven from
itself, and in itself receives may serve as cause here.
Nothing else, therefore, no rain, no hail, no snow, no dew,
no hoarfrost, falls here any higher than the stairs of entry,
with their 33 brief steps. Neither thick clouds nor thin
appear, nor flash of lightning. Thomas's daughter, who so often
shook place in your world, is absent here.
Dry vapor cannot climb any higher than to the top of the
three steps of which I spoke. Where Peter's vicar plants his
feet. Below that point there may be
small or ample tremors, but here above I know not why.
No one concealed in earth has ever caused a tremor, for only
trembles here when some soul feels, is cleansed, so that it
rises or stirs to climb on high, and that shot follows.
All right, so the mountain only moves if a soul has been
cleansed, OK. The will alone is proof of
purity and fully free surprises soul into a change of dwelling
place effectively. OK, so this is a really
important idea, right? So what's driving this cleansing
is just a will. If you have the will, you can
always achieve heaven. OK, so people in Infernal, the
reason why they're there is they choose to be there.
People in purgatory are there because they choose to be there
as well. It may take a long time, but if
you have the will, you can always cleanse yourself of all
your sins. God is all forgiving.
OK, keep on going. Saul had the will to climb
before, but that will was opposed by law, and to do
penance as ones to sin. OK, this is very important.
OK guys, the issue is not that God has not forgiven us.
The issue is that we are not forgiven ourselves.
You understand we want to dependence in order to make
ourselves worthy of God. OK, keep on going.
And I, who have lain in the suffering 500 years and more,
just now have felt my free will for a better, better threshold.
Thus you heard the earthquake, and the pious spirits throughout
the mountain, as they praise the Lord, and may He send them
speedily upward, so did He speak to us.
And just as joy is greater when we quench a great greater
thirst, the joy He brought cannot be told in words.
In my wise guide I now can see the next did not impeding you,
how one slips through and why it quakes here, and what makes you
all rejoice. And now may you please, please,
you just tell me who you were, and in your words, may I find
why you've lain here for so many.
Centuries. OK, so this is a really
important correction to Virgil's understanding, OK, virtual
beliefs that a soul moves to whatever is beautiful.
OK, so obviously if you're close to God, you want to go to God as
soon as possible. But this person here is saying,
no, that's not true. Actually, the soul, yes, wants
to move to God, but the soul is love.
If you truly love God, you must first love yourself.
That means clenching yourself of all sins so that you are worthy
to be with God. OK, so love seems to be also
restraint and judgment, and this is very different from Virgil,
who believes that love is incapable of restraint and
judgment. OK, It's love that tells you
that no, I must first forgive myself, because if I don't
forgive myself and I bring any doubt, any hatred, any sin to
heaven, this will be unworthy of God, OK?
I must be the Pearl that reflects the universe, and
therefore I must be a perfect Pearl.
OK, keep on going. In that age when dwarthy Titus,
with help from the highest king, avenge the wounds from which the
blood that Judas soul had flowed, I had sufficient fame.
Beyond that spirit, replied, I bore the name that lasts the
longest and honors most. But faith was not yet mine.
So gentle was the spirit of my verse that Rome drew me, son of
Toulouse, to her, and there my brow deserves a a crown of
Myrtle on earth. My name is still remembered,
Stadius. I sang of Thebes, and then the
great Achilles. I fell along the way of that
last labor. The sparks that warmed me, the
seeds of my ardour, were from the holy fire.
The same that gave more than 1000 poets light and flame.
I speak of the Aeneid when I wrote my when I wrote verse, it
was mother to me. It was nurse.
My work without it would not weigh a noun.
And to have lived on earth when Virgil lived.
But for that I would extend by one more year at the time I owe
before my exiles end. Great.
So Virgil is very impressed by this man.
And so Virgil asked, who are you?
And then the person says my name is Thaddeus.
OK, you may not know who I am, but when Titus was alive, when
Titus was a Roman emperor who lived around 70 CE.
This is important because Titus was the one who destroyed the
the temple, OK, The Second Temple of the Jews, OK.
So he's a very important figure in Christian mythology.
And he's saying that during this time.
And this is this is only like, you know, 40 years after the
death of Jesus. And Jesus is not very well known
at this point in history. Statius says that I was a poet,
OK, but he, I was a Latin poet. And who was my hero?
Virgil. OK, but no.
But not only is Virgil my my hero, the Iniat was my mother.
She nursed me, she fed me. I aspire to be Virgil.
I want to write the Iniat. OK, so now what?
What happens is you have a paradox, a created right where
we just said that Virgil is in hell because he wrote the Iliad
and because he's proposing a theory of love that's not
consistent with God. How is it possible that a son of
his, a student of his name status, how is he able to ascend
to heaven? OK, this is really weird.
It's a paradox, and we'll see a lot of paradoxes in the lion
comedy. They keep on going.
These words made Virgil turn to me, and as he turned his face
through silence said Be still. And yet the power of will cannot
do all, for tears and smiles are both so faithful to the feelings
that have prompted them, that true feeling escapes the will
that would subdue. OK, stop.
OK, right. So you have the scene right
where Virgil and Don are talking to Thaddeus and Thaddeus doesn't
know who they are and having this conversation and Virgil's
saying to Thaddeus, who are you? And started saying, I admire
Virgil the most. And Dante is like, Oh my God,
wow, Virgil. And so Donna feels tremendous
happiness for both Virgil and for Thaddeus.
Virgil because he's found a fan and status because he's found
his mentor. What is strange though, is
Virgil's reaction. Virgil's saying to.
Dante, shut up, man. I know what you want to do.
I know you want to tell him, but don't do it.
Keep quiet. I don't want him to know who I
am. This is this is a paradox.
This is a paradox. Why would you do that?
Also remember, Virtual has shown tremendous respect and
admiration to Thaddeus for being able to cleanse himself over his
sins and to be able to ascend to heaven.
Right, so Dante is so confused by this that he doesn't actually
respond to Virgil's command to shut up.
Virgil's Dante is actually going to tell Stadius that yes, this
is Virgil, man, keep on going. But I smiled like a man whose
eyes would signal. At this the shade was silent,
and he stared where sentiment is clearest, and my eyes, and said,
So may your trying labor, and successfully do tell me why.
Just now your face showed me the flashing of a smile.
Now I am held by one side and the other one keeps me still,
the other conscious me to speak. But when therefore I sigh, my
master knows why and tells me. Do not be afraid to speak, but
speak in answer what he has asked you to tell him with such
earnestness. At this I answered.
Ancient spirit, you perhaps are wondering.
At the smile I smiled, but I would have you feel still more
surprised. He who is guide, who leaves my
eye on high, is, is that same Virgil from whom you derive the
power to sing of men and the and of the gods.
Do not suppose my smile had any sore spew on the speech he
spoke. Be sure it was those words you
said of him that were the 'cause now he had been to kiss my
teacher's feet, but Virgil's hurt.
Told him, Brother, there's no need.
You are a shade. A shade is what you see and
rising he now you can understand how much love burns in me for
you when I forget our insubstantiality, treating the
shades as one treats solid things.
OK all right, so so sorry I was wrong.
OK So Dante is sort of stuck, OK?
Because he knows he wants to tell Thaddeus, but Virgil
doesn't want him to tell Thaddeus.
And then Donnie looks at Virgil and Virgil says, fine man, go,
go tell him. OK.
And as you can see, Status is ecstatic.
And he's so ecstatic that if he gets that he's actually just a
shade, he has no body. So he he goes down and kisses
Virgil's feet. And Virgil's like, stop this
man. You're just a shade.
You're just a shadow. You can actually kiss my feet.
And so this shows both Status excitement, but also shows
Virgil's embarrassment. He's embarrassed by all this.
He's mortified. In fact, he he is so embarrassed
by all this. And this is very confusing.
You've got this huge fan Stadius, and he's a great person
and he should be, he should be ecstatic about this.
So why is he so mortified? And the logic is this.
OK, let's imagine that you guys take the great books of me, OK?
And then you go on to America, where you go to Harvard and
become a professor of Dante, OK? And then you come back and I
don't, I don't know that you're now teaching at Harvard and
you're teaching Dante, but you come back.
I'm still here after 20 years, unfortunately.
And you say to me, Professor Jiang, I want to take you out to
lunch because you're such an inspiration.
I was like, OK, sure. I'm very happy about this.
And then I ask you, hey, what are you teaching now?
And you say Harvard. I'm like, OK, I I need to go
now, guys. OK, see you later.
OK, so this is what's happening here, where status is supposed
to be lower than Virgil. He's supposed to be Virgil
student. But how is it that status is
able to transcend Virgil? Virgil's still stuck in limbo,
but status is going to heaven. OK, what happened?
All right, keep on going. Virgil began Love that's that is
kindled by virtue will in another fine reply, as long as
that Love's flame appears without.
So from the time when juvenile descending among us in Hell's
limbo had made plain the pondness that you felt for me,
my own benevolence towards you has been much richer than any
ever given to a person when when he's not seen thus.
Now these series seem short, but tell me and as friend, forgive
me if excessive candor let's my reins relax and as a friend
exchange your words with me. How was it that you found within
your breast a place for avarice when you possess the wisdom you
had nurtured with such care? OK, so Juvenile is another poet
that's a contemporary of Stadius.
OK, so this is really where it's where Stadius is able to ascend
to heaven. But Juvenile goes to Limbo.
It's remember, Limbo is a place not for bad people.
It's just is it for people who were born before Christ or who
never really acknowledged Christ.
OK, so most people end up in limbo.
And so Virgil's obviously asking Thaddeus, how did you end up
here in purgatory when you should be in limbo?
This makes no sense to me, right?
This is destroying Virgil's framework for the universe where
you have to believe in God, you have to swear it leads to Christ
in order to ascend to heaven. OK, keep on going.
These words at first brought something of a smile to Sadius.
Then he answered. Every word you speak to me is a
dear sign of love. Indeed, because true causes are
concealed, we often face deceptive reasoning and and
things provoke perplexity in us. Your question makes me sure that
you're convinced. Perhaps because my circle was
the 5th, that in my in the life I once lived, avarice had been
my sin. Know then that I was far from
avarice. It was my lack of measure.
Thousands of mouths months have been have punished, and if I had
not corrected my to corrected my assessment by my understanding
what your verses meant when you, as if enraged by human nature,
exclaimed. Why cannot you, O holy, holy
hunger for gold, restrain the appetite of mortals?
I now while rolling weights. No, sorry, Josts.
Then I became aware that hands might open to wide like wings
and spending. And of this, as of my other sin,
I did repent. OK, so he's saying yes, I should
be here because of avarice, but the issue is not avarice, OK?
The issue is I don't really understand the universe.
OK, so it took me 500 years for me to truly understand the
universe and my place in it. I keep on going.
Sorry. Like letting me.
All right. Sorry.
OK. How many arts arise again with
heads crop close, whom ignorance prevents from reaching
repentance in and at the end of life.
And know that when a sin is countered by another fault
directly opposite to it, then here both sins see their green
wither. Thus I join those who pay for
Alvarez in my purgation, though what brought me here was
prudigality its opposite. Now when you sing the savage
words of those twin stars of Jocasta, said the singer of the
bucolic poems, it does not seem from those notes struck by you
and Cleo there that you would yet turn faithful to the faith,
without which righteous works do not suffice.
If that is so, then what sun or what candles drew you from
darkness to so that in their wake you set your sails behind
the fisherman? OK, so Virgil's confused by all
this. Like, you're not a Christian.
Why are you here? Keep on going.
And he to him you were the first to send me to drink with him,
Parnassus his caves, and you the first who, after God enlightened
me, you did. As he who goes by night and
carries the lamp behind him, he is of no help to his own self,
but teaches those who follow. When you declare it, the ages
are renewed, just as in man's first time on earth Return from
heaven, a new progeny descends. Through you I was a poet, and
through you a Christian. But that you may see more
plainly, I'll set my hand to color what I sketch Disseminated
by the messengers of the eternal Kingdom.
True faith by then had penetrated all the world, and
the new preachers preached in such accord with what you'd
said. And I have just repeated that I
was drawn into frequenting them. Then they appeared to me to be
so saintly that that when Domitian, Domitian persecuted
them, my own laments accompanied their grief, and while I could,
as long as I had life, I helped them, and their honest practices
made me the stainful of all other sects.
OK, so again, Virgil's asking sadists like, how are you here?
You're not a Christian. And what sadist is saying is
like, yes, it's true that I never publicly converted to
Christianity, but I was always, I was always sympathetic towards
Christianity. And it's your book, The Iniad,
in which made me convinced that Christianity is a good religion.
OK, for you our support and for you a Christian, right?
But but really sad that Virgil's Iliad goes against the teachings
of the universe. So what this is telling us is
that Statius purposely misread Virgil.
He loved Virgil for for his poetry, but instead of believing
Virgil, he, in his heart chose to believe in himself.
OK. He trusted his own intuition,
and that's what saved him. All right, keep on going.
Before, within my poem, I led the Greeks onto the streams of
Thebes. I was baptized, but out of fear.
I was a secret Christian and for a long time showed myself as
Pagan. For this half heartedness for
more than 4 centuries a circle to 4th circle.
And now may you who lifted up the lid that hid from me the
good of which I speak, while time has left us as we climbed,
tell me where is our ancient Terrance and calculus and plot
Plotus? Where is various?
If you know, tell me if they were damned and in what quarter.
All these and Perseus, I and many others, my God replied, are
with that Greek to whom the Muses gave their gifts in
greatest measure. Our place as the as the blind
prison, it's 1st circle. And there we often talk about
the mountain where those who are nurses always dwell.
OK, stop. OK, All right, so status is
saying I was a secret Christian. OK, so I was secretly baptized
and I became a secret Christian. But if you're a secret
Christian, are you really a Christian?
So again, there are many ways that you can interpret this, OK?
But obviously this is a paradox and this is confusing Virgil,
and it's telling us that maybe even that Virgil says is not
correct. OK, this is actually suddenly
and with nuance undermining the argument of Virgil.
OK, All right, so now we are moving towards the final, a part
of our toy when Dante is able to ascend to the mountaintop where
Beatrice will come and meet him. OK, keep on going.
I have a time seen all the eastern sky becoming rose as
they begin seeing the door ends and will be blue the rest of
heaven, and seeing the sun's face rise so veiled that it was
tempered by the mist, and could permit the eye to look at blank
upon it. So within a cloud of flowers
that were cast by the angelic hands, and then rose up and then
fell back. Outside in the chariot a woman
showed herself to me above a white veal.
She was crowned with olive bows. Her cave was green, her dress,
her dress beneath flame red within her presence.
I had once been used to feeling trembling, wonder, dissolution,
but that was long ago. Still, though my soul, now she
was viewed, could not see her directly, by way of hidden force
that she could move, I felt the mighty power of old love.
OK, so Donna has not seen Beatriz in a long time in
decades. And his his heart has loved
Beatriz all his life. And so he's really excited that
Beatriz is before him. OK his entire body shakes and
his first response is he wants Virgil to share in his happiness
because he owes everything to Virgil.
It's Virgil that brought him through Infernal and brought him
through purgatory so that he may finish his journey with
Beatrice. OK so that's what Donnie wants.
He wants to share his happiness with his teacher Virgil.
Keep on going as. Soon as that deep force has
struck my vision, the power that when I had not yet left my
boyhood had already transfixed me, I turned around into my
left, just as a little child, afraid or in distress, will
hurry to his mother anxiously to say to Virgil, I am left with
less than one drop of my blood that does not tremble.
I recognize the the signs of the old flame.
But Virgil had deprived us of himself.
Virgil, the gentlest father, Virgil, he to whom I gave myself
for my salvation. And even all our ancient mother
lost was not enough to keep my cheeks.
The wash would do from darkening again with tears.
OK, so he is extremely happy. He's ecstatic to see Beatrice.
He turns to Virgil, and he is assuming that Virgil is beside
him. And he says he wants to tell him
how happy he is. And then when he sees that
Virgil is not there, Virgil's has disappeared, he becomes
despondent. His ecstasy becomes a
depression, OK. That's how high he's got and
that's how low he's fallen. Because all you want is she sure
is happiness with Virgil. But Virgil has run away.
So this is a paradox again, OK. The divine calmly is nothing but
paradoxes. Why did Virgil run away?
Right. OK, this makes absolutely no
sense. First of all, Virgil should be
proud and happy for Dante, right?
He loves Dante. Dante wants to be with Beatrice
again, and Virgil made it happen.
You would think that he would want to see Dante and Beatrice
together again. OK, that's one problem.
Another problem is that Beatrice was the one who asked Virgil to
take Dante on this journey. So Beatrice owes him a favor.
And you would think that Virgil can say, hey, Beatrice, I did
you this favor, so maybe you can do me a favor and like get me to
heaven, right? This is like really strange.
And the third problem is that this is, like, really awkward.
OK? This is like, really strange.
The least you can do is basically say to Beatrice,
listen, I brought Dante here, and now he's yours, OK?
That's a polite thing to do. And it's like, not typical of
Virgil. So this leads, this leads a huge
question in our mind as to why Virgil did this.
OK, keep, keep on going. Dante, though Virgil's leaving
you do not yet weep. Do not weep yet.
You'll need your tears for what another sword must yet inflict.
Just like an admirable who goes to stern and proud to see the
officers who guide the other ships, encouraging their tasks.
So on the left side of the chariot I turn around when I
heard my name, which of necessity I transcribe.
Here I saw the lady who had first appeared to me beneath the
veils of the angelic flowers look at me across the stream,
Although the veil she. Wait.
Stop. OK.
All right. OK, So what's even strangers?
Beatrice is saying to Dante. Virgil's gone.
Forget him. He's not important.
What's important is your mission in Paradise.
Focus on that. Dante.
Let's forget Virgil. All right, let's forget him.
And this creates a huge paradox in our minds.
What is going on here? Why did Virgil run away?
OK, and again, you can interpret this as many ways as you want,
and there's no right or wrong answer.
But one interpretation is that Virgil is first and foremost.
He believes he is right. He is in hell because he
believes that he should be there.
No one put him there. He should put himself there and
he believes he should be there because God can only let in
those who are Christians, OK? And along the way we discover
that's not actually true. Cato, who is not a Christian, is
a guardian of Purgatory. Statius, who is a singer
Christian, he's able to ascend to heaven.
So clearly Virgil's framework is wrong.
Virgil does not want to see Dante and Beatrice together
again. OK, Because the relation between
Dante and Beatrice is the opposite of the relationship
between Virgil and Ditto, OK? Both are literary creations.
The difference is that Dante put Beatrice into Paradise, whereas
Virgil put Ditto into Hell. Right?
In The Infernal, Dante believes that love is fundamentally about
giving, whereas Virgil believes that love is fundamental about
receiving and conquering. OK, so these are two major
economies and Virgil does not want to see the power of Dante's
love for Beatrice. Where Beatrice rejected him,
Beatrice was never with him. But Dante loved, kept on loving.
Her OK, Dante was willing to give, he understood that living
that true love is about sharing, it's about bestowing, it's about
giving yourself. Whereas Virgil has always
claimed that love is about taking, about consuming, about
controlling. OK, so that's why Virgil had to
leave because he did not want to be wrong, OK?
He did not want his worldview to be destroyed.
So he would rather burn in hell for of eternity than to say I am
wrong. OK All right.
Any questions? All right.
So we will finish in line calmly next Wednesday.