Divine Comedy: Purgatorio Lesson Plan

What do each of the figures in the pageant in the Earthly Paradise represent?

This is a big question for any single student to try to tackle alone: a better course of action is for each student to try to determine what a particular element or person in the pageant symbolizes. Thus, some students might prefer to try to talk about how the "four animals" represent the four evangelists of the Gospels, or how the griffin represents Jesus Christ. Other students may want to use this question as an opportunity to ask questions of their own, such as by asking about the meaning of the "twenty-four elders" (who here represent the 24 books of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible).

Why...