Purgatorio

Dante focuses on seeing everything that his eyes can take in, despite being momentarily blinded as by a bright sun. When his eyes refocus, he sees the chariot turn towards the sun, preparing to march east. Matelda stations herself next to the chariot’s wheels, and the Gryphon carries its burden without losing a single feather. Statius and Dante follow Matelda as the procession moves.

The procession marches through an empty grove to the measure of “angel song,” halts in front of a leafless tree, and then circles the tree, chanting “Blessed are you, the Gryphon. With your beak/you do not spoil this wood, so sweet to taste./For, after tasting, bellies writhe, all sick” (310). The Gryphon says, “In this way, all that’s true and just is saved” (310), and ties the tree to the chariot. As trees on earth swell with leaves under the sun, so the tree in Eden bursts with new leaves, “more than violet and […] less than rose” (310).

The hymn is too beautiful for Dante to comprehend. He falls asleep, comparing his intense drowsiness to that imposed on Argus by Syrinx’s story and to the disciples Peter, James, and John who were present at Christ’s transfiguration.