Dante: The Power of Reading

(Purgatorio, Canto XXI): Statius, Earthquake and Virgil's wisdom

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Welcome to Dante Book Club, where you and I descend into Hell and Purgatory to be able to ascend to Paradise. Our guide is the great Roman poet Virgil and in this Twenty first Canto of the Purgatorio, Dante and Virgil meet Statius. You can find the main page of the read-along right here, reading schedule here, and the list of chat threads here.

In each post you can find a brief summary of the canto, philosophical exercises that you can draw from it, themes, character, and symbolism explanations.

All the wonderful illustrations are done specially for the Dante Read-Along by the one and only Luana Montebello.

This Week’s Circle ⭕️

The Fifth terrace of Avarice, continued - The guiding soul standing upright among those sufferers - Virgil explains their journey - The soul explains the earthquake and the rule of ascent - Statius introduces himself - Epic poet of the Silver Age - Statius’ adoration of Virgil - The realization that he stands before his poetic master.

Canto XXI Summary:

That seemingly unquenchable thirst is the moving force behind Dante’s innermost thoughts; that thirst will pervade this canto as reason reaches the one who will be the bridge to Beatrice, bringing that understanding that he so craves.

As the Philosopher states at the beginning of the First Philosophy, all human beings by nature desire to know.
Dante Convivio, I.i.1

The idea of the unquenched thirst and the ideal of that which can fulfill it is found in the story of the woman at the well, and her conversation with the Christ about living water:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14

Dante and Virgil hurried along, watching their steps amidst the souls that were lying on the ground, as they were still on the fifth terrace of the Avaricious. Suddenly, a shade appeared, as quickly and as quietly as had the resurrected Christ to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus—Cleopas and Simon—after the crucifixion and the finding of the empty tomb. This shade greets them:

“God give
you, o my brothers, peace!” We turned at once;
then, after offering suitable response,

Virgil began: “And may that just tribunal
which has consigned me to eternal exile
place you in peace within the blessed assembly!”
xxi.13-18

The shade greeted them with the liturgical Pax Vobis—peace be with you—and Virgil’s “suitable response” was the ritual reply, Et cum spiritu tuo—and with thy spirit. Virgil told that soul his circumstances and offered a blessing, that the same “court of heaven” that consigned him to Limbo would also bring that soul to Paradise.

The three walked on together with haste, and the soul asked how they had come so far; Virgil pointed out the P’s on Dante’s forehead, of which there were three remaining, but also noted that Dante was destined to dwell above in Paradise.

This passage has brought speculation over the question of whether or not the souls in Purgatory also have P’s inscribed on them, or if they are only on the living Dante.

The fact that Dante nowhere explicitly states, or even implies, that the spirits have P’s traced on their foreheads is in itself enough to assure us that, in his conception, they simply do not bear such marks; for we have only to consider how often the fact would have been observed of this or that spirit, e.g., that he has only so many P’s left to be erased…we are, therefore, bound to think that Virgil points to the ‘segni’ on Dante’s brow as to something exceptional, as exceptional as his journey itself.”¹

The Appearance and Homage of Statius – Federico Zuccari (1586)

To explain Dante’s living state, Virgil referenced the classical Fates, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos; that Lachesis, who spins the thread of destiny, had not finished with the flax which Clotho had packed onto it, representing the lifetime that Dante had left. Neither could Dante, being flesh, see what they, being shades, could see.

[This is] another of the poet’s indications that the Three Kingdoms of Death are not located in the world of sense. Virgil is Dante’s ‘contact’, by whom he is able to perceive what takes place in the world of spirits.²

Virgil explained his role as guide, and asked the soul the pressing question:

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 shore.”

His question threaded so the needle’s eye
of my desire that just the hope alone
of knowing left my thirst more satisfied.
xxi.34-39

From Virgil’s words, we can take it that as the mountain shook, every soul, down to the shores of Ante Purgatory, cried out praising Gloria in excelsis Deo, that heightened moment that closed out canto xx. This question pinpointed the burning essence of Dante’s desires as well, and that thirst, referenced in the opening lines of the canto, began to find fulfillment. The soul went on to explain another Law of the Mountain.

Every occurrence that took place there was under the law of perfect order; the terraces above St. Peters Gate with its three steps were the boundary of natural varieties in weather. Even the sign of Thaumas’ daughter does not appear—Iris, who heralded the rainbow in the classical world. Neither do the “dry vapors” encroach, which to the medieval scientific mind, taking Aristotle as authority, were thought to be the cause of earthquakes.

Thaumas is a rather obscure figure, presumably another sea-god, though his children by the Oceanid Elektra were very much creatures of the air. These were Iris, goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods, fleet as the winds, and the Harpies, winged female monsters.³

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When the heat of the sun enters into the body [of the earth], which has to resolve the humidity into vapor, it dries the humidity of the earth, which then becomes a windy vapor…and it [the windy vapor] can also be moved by virtue of the heavens; whereupon, since it cannot remain still, it fights with the earth, to get out. If it finds the earth hard and solid, it moves it up and down and makes it tremble.⁴

This earthquake then, was an occurrence of a more divine reasoning:

For it only trembles here
when some soul feels it’s cleansed, so that it rises
or stirs to climb on high; and that shout follows.

The will alone is proof of purity
and fully free, surprises soul into
a change of dwelling place—effectively.
xxi.58-63

Here was another Law of the Mountain, the rule of ascension. Such a momentous occasion called for the trembling of the mountain itself upon the release of a purified and purged soul. The soul inherently knew when that time had come; it could feel it, and just that ability to stand proved that worthiness had been attained; the souls need to change its dwelling place overtaking its need to purge through divine justice, meant that the birth of the new soul had been accomplished.

So long as there remains in the soul the least trace of consent to sin, this clouding and coarsening remain to fetter the will and judgement. Only when the clear sight and tender conscience are restored is the soul set free to stand before the unveiled light of the presence of God, which otherwise it could not endure. It is this which underlies Dante’s great statement, that when the soul feels itself free, it is free.⁵

That same will so longed to fulfill its purgation, that even the innate desire to climb was outweighed by the desire to fulfill the just exchange, and so it could not have climbed too early.

Encounter with Statius – Bonino de Boninis (1467)

This soul gave the indication of just how long of a time he had spent purging when he stated that he had lain on the terrace of Avarice for 500 years before that will to stand was strong enough, and that it is his freedom which caused the trembling of the earth; as he is standing with them, speaking, this fact becomes even clearer that it is so.

So did he speak to us; and just as joy
is greater when we quench a greater thirst,
the joy he brought cannot be told in words.
xxi.73-75

Dante’s thirst both grew and was more greatly fulfilled the longer they conversed with this soul who, through this fulfillment, seemed to point to an understanding beyond the Reason that Virgil could provide.

Virgil answered that he understood both the obstacle impeding the soul and how freedom was accomplished, as well as the nature of the earthquakes on the mountain. And here, we finally come to know this soul by name, and meeting him will become one of the great shifting points of the Divine Comedy. Virgil asked him who he was and what brought him there to the terrace of Avarice.

The Terrace of Avaricious and Prodigal Souls, Statius – Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1485)

This was Statius, Roman poet of Epic; where Virgil was of the Golden age of Latin literature, Statius was of the Silver age.

Statius lived in the era after the birth of Christianity in the reign of the Emperor Titus who, before he was Emperor, had led the effort in 70 A.D. of quelling the Jewish rebellion, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple in the process. Later eras commonly saw Titus as avenging the death of Christ at the hand of the Jews in this sacking of Jerusalem.

“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 deserved a crown of myrtle.

On earth my name is still remembered-Statius:
I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles;
I fell along the way of that last labor.
xxi.85-93

This long-lasting name was none other than the name of Poet, an exalted title for those who could truly be her mistress and create lasting verse, gaining the myrtle crown.

O how sacred and immense the task of bards! You snatch everything
from death and to mortals you give immortality.
Lucan Pharsalia ix.980-981

The Encounter with Statius – Christopher Dall’ Acqua (1734-1787)

When Statius has made the city happy by fixing a day,
there’s a rush to hear his attractive voice and the strains of his darling
Thebaid. He duly holds their hearts enthralled by his sweetness;
and the people listen in total rapture.
Juvenal Satires vii.82-86

Yet he also states here, of the “faith was not yet mine”, indicating that although of the Roman tradition, he had later held a Christian faith; otherwise, he could not be cleansing his soul in Purgatory.

Dante, by a poetical fiction for which there does not appear to be any historical foundation, in the next canto will represent Statius as having secretly embraced Christianity before the completion of the Thebaid.⁶

Statius’ great works include his Thebaid, outlining the events of the Seven Against Thebes, whose characters appeared time and again in the Inferno. His next major work, of the hero Achilles and his role in the Trojan War, was the Achilleid; he died before he could complete this work however, and very little of his final outline was finished. His miscellaneous poems were published under the name of Silvae. His poetic emulation—his Thebaid had twelve books—and inspiration came from a very familiar source:

The sparks that warmed me, the seeds of my ardor,
were from the holy fire—the same that gave
more than a thousand poets light and flame.

I speak of the Aeneid; when I wrote
verse, it was mother to me, it was nurse;
my work, without it, would not weigh an ounce.
xxi.94-99

Just as Dante held Virgil as guide, both in his poetry and now on his journey, so did Statius in life revere Virgil as the source of the “holy fire.” At the end of his epic Thebaid, Statius paid tribute to this love of Virgil:

My Thebaid, on which for twelve long years
I burnt my midnight oil, will you endure
In far-off days to come, will you survive
Your author and be read? Already now
Your present fame has surely paved for you
A kindly path and at your outset makes
Your mark for men to come. Already now
You our great-hearted Caesar deigns to know;
Already too the youth of Italy
Learn and recite you. Live! That is my prayer,
Nor try to match the heavenly Aeneid
But follow from afar and evermore
Worship its steps. Anon, if envy still
Should cloud you, it will die and honor due,
When I have passed away, shall walk with you.
Thebaid xii. 1031-1045

It is as if Dante, having read and loved both works, wanted to fulfill Statius’ wish to walk with Virgil and worship his very footsteps.

The Meeting with Statius – John Flaxman (1793)

And to have lived on earth when Virgil lived-
for that I would extend by one more year
the time I owe before my exile’s end.
xxi.100-102

So deep was his love that, even having just reached purgation, Statius would willingly spend more time in purification just to be able to walk with Virgil.

At these exhortations, imagine how Dante must have been bursting to share that his greatest dream would be accomplished, not in life, but here and now in the eternal realm. Virgil’s eyes told him to be still, but their silent communication could not hide the excitement underlying the encounter; Statius of course saw this relay of silent information and could not help but ask the reason, even using the familiar bargain formula hoping that Dante would receive fulfillment on his journey for his help in answering.

And what is laughter save a coruscation of the delight of the soul, that is to say, a light appearing outwardly according as it exists within?
Dante Convivio III.viii.2

Pulled between the silencing look of his guide and the probing question of Statius, Dante sighed, surely lightened with the gladness he tried so hard to conceal:

At this, I answered: “Ancient spirit, you
perhaps are wondering at the smile I smiled:
but I would have you feel still more surprise.

He who is guide, who leads my eyes on high,
is that same Virgil from whom you derived
the power to sing of men and of the gods.
xxi.121-126

Statius’ fell to Virgil’s feet in honorific supplication; Virgil, perhaps thinking of Pope Adrian’s refusal toward this honor in the equality of all souls in the afterlife, dissuaded him, mentioning also that as shades, Statius could not even give him the kiss on the feet that was his intention. Statius embodied the depths of love with his closing sentiment:

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.
xii.133-136

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💭 Philosophical Exercises

A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.

~ Goethe

The Encounter with Statius – Amos Nattini

There are two kinds of reading: one that seeks confirmation - gathering arguments to support beliefs we already hold; the other is an act of courage - reading to challenge, test, and possibly transform those beliefs.

The truth is that each one of us is guilty of the former, and only occasionally practice the latter. It seems to me that we meet Statius (Stazio), a pagan poet who was not aware of Christianity, because he practiced the latter type of reading experience.

But first, let’s talk about Virgil…

I.

There have been moments on this journey when my heart tightened in compassion for Virgil. This work is called a Commedia - a story destined for a joyful ending. But how can it truly be called such, when its central protagonist , the noble Virgil, must return to Limbo - a realm of eternal yearning, forever barred from the light he helped others reach?

It’s like taking me to my favourite bookshop in London, letting me wander through the aisles and choose every book I’ve ever wanted with childlike excitement - only to say at the end: “Actually, put them all back. We’re going home.” ⁷

That is how I felt when we met Statius, who is essentially inspired by Virgil’s genius, and who, although being a pagan, was allowed the entrance to Purgatory.

II.

A Russian literary critic once said: “Every great work of literature is bigger than its author.”

What, in Purgatory, does this even mean?

Books, too, can be authors. A great book authors the story and fate of its attentive reader. The creative process did not end when Tolstoy put down his pen and declared War and Peace as finished; in fact, it had only just begun. From that moment forward, each reader has encountered a different War and Peace. No two readers have ever read a great book in quite the same way.

Statius speaks in admiration of Virgil; Virgil was his ‘manna’, and his epics are even called after Virgil’s. Aeneid means ‘the story of Aeneas’, Statius’s Achilleid is ‘the story of Achilles’, and, as my reader has already guessed, Thebaid is ‘the story of Thebes’.

But how could Statius find salvation by reading the Aeneid and Georgics, if even its author Virgil, the very man who wrote it, didn’t?

‘Statius’s salvation comes closer than anyone else’s in showing how near Virgil himself came to eternal blessedness, as the next canto will make clear'⁸

Samuel Palmer's pencil black and white landscape study, Eclogue IV: Thy Very Cradle Quickens

If you walk into any bookshop today, you’ll likely find copies of Ovid, Virgil, or Dante, but rarely a copy of Statius’s Thebaid or Achilleid. In our time, Statius has been largely forgotten, his masterpieces preserved only in specialised editions like those of the Loeb Classical Library.

And yet for Dante, and in medieval times, he was regarded as one of the greats. This is why when we entered Limbo in the Inferno, where we met Homer, Ovid and the rest, it was surprising not to see Statius. It was not clear that Dante had a different vision for this great poet.

Just as he did with Cato, a pagan and a suicide whom Dante nonetheless places as the guardian of Purgatory - so too does Dante with Statius. He reimagines the final destination of this great poet, reminding us once again that imagination - a word that has echoed throughout the last four cantos - is a force capable of reshaping even the afterlife.

Statius read Virgil not as we read him today, and not even, perhaps, as Virgil himself intended to be read. He was inspired by the master’s genius, but his reading was singular, transformative. It shaped his soul in a way no one else’s did. Remember, dear reader: every great work of literature is greater than its author. It speaks beyond them, and sometimes, even against them.

For, perhaps, he understood Virgil’s famous fourth Eclogue which prophesizes the coming of a new force, a new religion, that will end his age and begin the other. Here’s the fourth Eclogue, which is often interpreted as Virgil’s prophecy of coming of Christ:

"Now is come the last age of the Cumaean prophecy:
The great cycle of periods is born anew.
Now returns the Maid, returns the reign of Saturn:
Now from high heaven a new generation comes down.
Yet do thou at that boy's birth,
In whom the iron race shall begin to cease,
And the golden to arise over all the world,
Holy Lucina, be gracious; now thine own Apollo reigns."

Eclogue 4 (ll. 4–11)

Statius’s inner eye, his soul, was open to see wisdom that Virgil had expressed but failed to comprehend himself.

III.

What Dante does is not just testing his imagination, there is an underlying motive in this. If God is ever present we must have been able to perceive his presence in one shape or another even before of the coming of Christ.

Statius’s piercing inner eye perceived the truth and for this, he was granted a gentler fate: not the eternal twilight of Limbo, but the purifying ascent of Purgatory, and eventually Paradise.

Tarkovsky once said, “A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.” Statius’s unique reading of Virgil became his own unwritten gospel, a secret path to salvation carved not by doctrine, but by inner vision.

In Dante’s time, this was a radical suggestion: that a pagan, unaware of Christ, might still attain salvation, not through baptism or formal faith, but because he had seen the truth, and followed it.

IV.

“A child is not born when they choose,” wrote Tolstoy, “they are born when the conditions are viable.”

There’s a story that Michelangelo, when pressured to begin his Last Judgement, snapped at the commissioner: “It is not yet in me! It has not been born inside my soul.”

Truth, like a child or a masterpiece, must be conceived inwardly before it can emerge outwardly. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. But the student must first open their inner eye - refined and watchful enough to recognise the truth when it arrives.

In this sense, placing Statius in Purgatory is not only plausible, it is profound.

For how many today are presented with truth and yet refuse to admit it?

This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭

(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)

The Homage of Statius – Piero Cattaneo

I. Meteorology

Statius explains that the source of the earthquake is not physical, but metaphysical. Above the gates of Purgatory, there is no realm of the elements—no wind, no rain, no weather as we know it, so nothing physical could cause such a tremor.

II. The Fountain of Water

The opening verses of this canto refer to the Gospel of St. John, and I find them particularly powerful because they speak to that dimension of our lives which is infinite:

 "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He, however, who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting."

III. Statius as an imitation of Christ

As a secular person, I try to comprehend the profound meaning of these stories through a philosophical lens. I don’t interpret them literally, but rather see them as symbolic much like the earthquake that Dante and Virgil experience in this canto. As we explored earlier, the quake is not physical, but metaphysical, an interior trembling of the soul, a sign of transformation.

In that sense, Statius’s ascent, echoing the resurrection of Christ, becomes a metaphor for what every purified soul undergoes when it is ready. It is not about doctrine, but about inner readiness - an alignment so deep that the soul, at last, rises.

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Quotes 🖋️

(The ones I keep in my journal as reminders of eternal wisdom):

His question threaded so the needle’s eye
of my desire that just the hope alone
of knowing left my thirst more satisfied.

~ 37-39

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1. Charles S. Singleton, Commentary on Purgatorio 504

2. Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory 238-239

3. Jenny March, The Penguin Book of Classical Myths 37

4. Ristot d’Arezzo, Della composizione del mondo colle sue cascioni [The composition of the world with its causes] VII.iv.6

5. Sayers 58

6. Singleton 510-511

7. A silly example I know but bookish people will relate!

8. Robert & Jean Hollander, Purgatorio, Canto XXI