The Purgatorio begins just as Dante and Virgil, the famous Latin poet who serves as Dante's guide, have escaped Hell. Dante announces that he will now take as his topic “the second kingdom.” This is where “the soul of man is cleansed,” the mountain of Purgatory. At this point, he invokes the muses. Dante the pilgrim enjoys the fresh air, and they watch as Venus rises. Dante and Virgil soon see and talk with Cato of Utica, who oversees this region, known as Ante-Purgatory. Cato orders that Dante be taken to the sea, washed, and have a reed wrapped around him. When the two poets come to the shore and follow his directions, the reed they pluck miraculously rejuvenates.
As dawn rises, a set of newly departed souls appears at the shore. Among them is Casella, a friend of Dante’s, who sings for everyone. Cato castigates the group for being so easily distracted, and they scatter. Dante and Virgil have trouble discovering the way into the mountain of Purgatory, but Manfred and the souls around him guide the poets to a place where they can ascend. Dante tires quickly, although they soon reach a terrace on which is Belacqua, a lazy friend of Dante’s. Goaded by Virgil, Dante continues ascending.
The souls the two poets encounter begin to notice and be amazed by Dante’s shadow. This confusion will continue throughout the poem, as the dead wonder how someone with a body has been able to enter the afterlife. Dante soon encounters the Late-Repentant, who must wait before they enter Purgatory proper; three of them tell Dante their stories, explaining their identities, deaths, and final repentance. As if he is a celebrity, the souls crowd Dante, begging that he tell their living relatives to pray for them. Dante promises to do so and continues his ascent. Soon they come across a person named Sordello, who guides the poets through the aptly named Valley of Princes, which contains the souls of repentant kings and emperors.
In the Valley, Dante watches as two angels with flaming swords without points descend. They defend the Valley from the same serpent that was found in Eden, but they only need to flap their wings, and the serpent slithers away in fright. Soon night falls, and Dante and Virgil fall immediately into sleep. Dante dreams of being carried by an eagle and discovers, when he wakes up, that he has been carried by Saint Lucy to the gate of Purgatory. Dante ascends the three steps to the entrance of the mountain, each with its own special significance. An angel at the top traces seven “P”s on his forehead and opens the door with special keys. Inside, Dante hears distant singing. At last, he enters.
Now within the walls of Purgatory, Dante and Virgil navigate a narrow and difficult path. Soon they come to a high wall, on which are carved the exemplary figures of humility; soon Dante sees human souls, strangely bent and bearing stones. These are the proud, now suffering contrapasso punishments akin to those suffered in Hell. These souls have been crushed such that they look like corbels—small crouching figures carved into structures. They chant the Lord’s Prayer, and when they are done, Virgil asks for directions. Before they offer them, the penitents tell their stories to Dante.
As Virgil and Dante leave this terrace of Purgatory, they notice carvings that look like gravestones, bearing images of the exemplars of Pride. Soon an angel comes to guide them to the next terrace; the angel touches Dante’s forehead, and, feeling lighter, Dante realizes one of the “P”s on his forehead has disappeared. The next terrace is completely bare, and it contains the envious. Their eyes have been sewn shut with metal wire. As with the last terrace, Dante is shown figures of charity and then envy. Yet this time they are revealed to him through a strange voice. A structure now emerges that will appear for each canto: Dante enters and has exemplary figures shown to him, first of the virtue opposite the sin of the terrace and then second of the sin of the terrace. In between these revelations, he converses with the penitents and shares stories.
Having done this on the terrace of the envious, Dante moves towards the entrance to the next terrace; once he has ascended to it, a light blinds him, and Virgil explains that divine love is like a great light thrown into a mirror; unlike earthly possessions, it multiplies the more it is shared, as if passed from mirror to mirror. This is the terrace of the wrathful, where smoke chokes the penitents. After Dante has seen the exemplars of wrath, the soon-to-set sun peeks through the smoke, and Dante is shown to the next terrace. At this point, Virgil explains that all virtues and sins—including the seven sins punished in Purgatory—are manifestations of love, whether divine love in the case of virtue or distorted love in the case of sin. This terrace is of the slothful, who are insufficiently zealous in following the love of God. Their punishment is to be forced to sprint constantly around the circular terrace, shouting examples of zeal and sloth. Soon, Dante falls asleep.
Dante dreams of a “stammering” woman who becomes beautiful when she sings; yet when Dante comes closer, a woman and Virgil reveal her rotting stomach and ugly looks. Now awake and reinvigorated, Dante climbs to the next terrace. There, on the terrace of the avaricious, he meets Pope Adrian V. With the other penitents, he is “lying face down on the ground and weeping.” Dante moves forward after a quick conversation; soon he meets Hugh Capet, a king of France. As they are about to leave the terrace, an earthquake shakes the mountain. Soon Statius, a Latin poet who has just finished his penitence, joins the other two poets; an earthquake occurs each time a soul is ready to leave.
When Statius learns that Virgil is Virgil, he is overjoyed; Virgil’s Aeneid, he says, was his “mamma” and “nurse.” The three continue to move upwards. The next terrace is for the gluttonous; their starved souls appear like starved and deformed bodies. While there is a tree laden with fruit on the terrace, they are unable to eat it. The final terrace is that of the lustful, who constantly burn in a roaring flame. To ascend to the Garden of Eden, Dante must walk through the flame; he resists at first, but reminded of Beatrice by Virgil, he hardens his will and walks through, experiencing pain but unharmed. Now on the stairs to the Garden, the three poets fall asleep. Dante dreams of Leah and Rachel, and when he wakes, Virgil says his final words to Dante, assuring him his will has been corrected.
Dante enters the Garden; he follows a woman, who we will learn is named Matelda, through the Garden. Soon he comes to a spectacular procession of figures and creatures, leading finally to a chariot led by a griffin. On it is Beatrice; when she descends, she castigates him and forces him to confess his sins. Dante is almost speechless; he breaks down in tears. He confesses and faints soon after. Matilda drags him through the river Lethe, cleansing him of his memory of sin. He follows Beatrice, Matelda, and the procession deeper into the Garden.
The chariot is suddenly attacked by a number of strange creatures; suddenly a giant and a “harlot” commandeer it, taking it even deeper into the Garden. Members of the procession mourn what has just happened, but Beatrice confides that soon things will be righted. She orders Matelda to have Dante drink from the Eunoë, another river in the Garden. Once done, Dante’s memories of good are restored, and the Purgatorio ends with Dante “pure and prepared to rise up to the stars.”
