Purgatorio: Canto XII

First Ledge: the Proud.—Examples of the punishment of Pride graven on the pavement.—Meeting with an Angel who removes one of the P’s.—Ascent to the Second Ledge.

Side by side, like oxen who go yoked, I went on with that burdened spirit so long as the sweet Pedagogue allowed it; but when he said, “Leave him, and come on, for here it is well that, both with sail and oars, each as much as he can should urge his bark,” I straitened up my body again, as is required for walking, although my thoughts remained both bowed down and abated.

I was moving on, and following willingly the steps of my Master, and both now were showing how light we were, when he said to me, “Turn thine eyes downward; it will be well for thee, in order to solace the way, to look upon the bed of thy footprints.” As above the buried, so that there may be memory of them, their tombs in earth bear inscribed that which they were before,—whence oftentimes is weeping for them there, through the pricking of remembrance, which only to the pious gives the spur,—so saw I figured there, but of better semblance in respect of skill, all that for pathway juts out from the mountain.

I saw him who was created more noble than any other creature, down from heaven with lightning flash descending, at one side.

I saw Briareus transfixed by the celestial bolt, lying at the other side, heavy upon the earth in mortal chill. I saw Thymbraeus, I saw Pallas and Mars, still armed, around their father, gazing at the scattered limbs of the giants.

I saw Nimrod at the foot of his great toil, as if bewildered, and gazing at the people who in Shinar had with him been proud.

O Niobe! with what grieving eyes did I see thee portrayed upon the road between thy seven and seven children slain!

O Saul! how on thine own sword here didst thou appear dead on Gilboa, that after felt not rain or dew!

O mad Arachne, so I saw thee already half spider, wretched on the shreds of the work that to thy harm by thee was made!

O Rehoboam! here thine image seems not now to threaten, but full of fear, a chariot bears it away before any one pursues it.

The hard pavement showed also how Alcmaeon made the ill-fated ornament seem costly to his mother.

It showed how his sons threw themselves upon Sennacherib within the temple, and how they left him there dead.

It showed the ruin and the cruel slaughter that Tomyris wrought, when she said to Cyrus, “For blood thou hast thirsted, and with blood I fill thee.”

It showed how the Assyrians fled in rout after Holofernes was killed, and also the remainder of the punishment.

I saw Troy in ashes, and in caverns. O Ilion! how cast down and abject the image which is there discerned showed thee!

What master has there been of pencil or of style that could draw the shadows and the lines which there would make every subtile genius wonder? Dead the dead, and the living seemed alive. He who saw the truth saw not better than I all that I trod on while I went bent down.—Now be ye proud, and go with haughty look, ye sons of Eve, and bend not down your face so that ye may see your evil path!

More of the mountain had now been circled by us, and of the sun’s course far more spent, than my mind, not disengaged, was aware, when he, who always in advance attent was going on, began, “Lift up thy head; there is no more time for going thus abstracted. See there an Angel, who is hastening to come toward us: see how from the service of the day the sixth hand-maiden returns. With reverence adorn thine acts and thy face so that he may delight to direct us upward. Think that this day never dawns again.”

I was well used to his admonition ever to lose no time, so that on that theme he could not speak to me obscurely.

To us came the beautiful creature, clothed in white, and in his face such as seems the tremulous morning star. Its arms it opened, and then it opened its wings; it said, “Come: here at hand are the steps, and easily henceforth one ascends. To this invitation very few come. O human race, born to fly upward, why before a little wind dost thou so fall?”

He led us to where the rock was cut; here he struck his wings across my forehead, then promised me secure progress.

As on the right hand, in going up the mountain, where sits the church that dominates her the well-guided city above Rubaconte, the bold flight of the ascent is broken by the stairs, which were made in an age when the record and the stave were secure, in like manner, the bank which falls here very steeply from the next round is slackened; but on this side and that the high rock grazes. As we turned our persons thither, voices sang “Beati pauperes spiritu” in such wise that speech could not tell it. Ah, how different are these passes from those of Hell! for here through songs one enters, and there below through fierce lamentings.

Now we were mounting up over the holy stairs, and it seemed to me I was far more light than I had seemed on the plain before. Whereon I, “Master, say, what heavy thing has been lifted from me, so that almost no weariness is felt by me as I go on?” He answered, “When the P’s that almost extinct still remain on thy countenance shall be, as one is, quite erased, thy feet will be so conquered by good will that not only they will not feel fatigue, but it will be delight to them to be urged up.” Then I did like those who are going with something on their head, unknown by them unless the signs of others make them suspect; wherefore the hand assists to ascertain, and seeks and finds, and performs that office which cannot be accomplished by the sight; and with the fingers of my right hand outspread, I found only six those letters which he of the keys had encised upon my temples: looking at which my Leader smiled.