Classics Summarized: Dante's Purgatorio

Funny story: That half-second-long scream? Took me about four hours to record. I'm really bad at screaming and/or laughing on demand, so I sat down with some videos of the Game Grumps playing horror games and recorded my reactions to use whenever I need them. I now have a fifteen-second sound file of laughter and screams with varying degrees of shameful girliness.

Part 2 of the centuries-old trilogy has finally been summarized! Surely you've awaited this moment with bated breath. As always, I am happy to oblige.

[antiawarenessawarenessclub]

"Where is purgatory?"
"Oh it's just a little east of New Zealand"

[christopherrobinhood]

Fun fact: This is an absolute coincidence, but near where Dante said Purgatory was, is the world tallest stack, a steep vertical column of rocks, called Ball's Pyramid.

[plush.master]

I just realized in fmab Lust was killed with fire, the terrace of lust is completely engulfed in flames. My only conclusion is that Dante is a weaboo

[teagannam]

*walkin around in Gluttony*
Dante: heheh
Virgil: wut
Dante: *points to forehead* pp
Virgil:
Virgil: I'm starting to think I should've just left you in Hell...

[snerrkthemerc]

wait, if Dante's GF sent him on this stupid quest to teach him a lesson over falling in love with someone else, wouldn't she be at the peek of envy???

[xavierreichel]

Appreciated the Fullmetal Alchemist "not this one" images.

[TomSistermans]

Ok so for anyone who didn't get the whole ordeal at 7:42, it's beautiful!

Everything is a symbol for something here of course. The chariot was first carrying Beatrice and was pulled by a Griffin. Beatrice symbolises divine wisdom, the griffin is Jesus and the chariot is the church. So the church is pulled by Jesus and contolled well by divine wisdom. Then the chariot is bound to the tree of knowledge by the griffin, they compliment the griffin for not eating from the tree of knowledge, symbolising Jesus' purity as oppossed to Eve's impurity. The chariot (church) is now bound to the tree which also symbolises divine justice (justice was put onto Eve when she ate from the tree).

Then the weird thing happens, Beatrice sits against the tree of knowledge as divine wisdom and divine justice go hand in hand. Then the eagle goes down and damages the chariot. The eagle is a very clear symbol for the emperor. In this case the Roman emperors (emperors often have an eagle as symbol, check out the Habsburg coat of arms), in this case the emperors damage the church (chariot), or, the Roman emperors prosecuted christians. Then the fox comes which symbolises heretics which also damage the chariot but is chased away by... Divine wisdom (Beatrice), something from Dante himself that he thinks that Divine wisdom can eventually overcome heretics. Then the eagle is back but he leaves feathers in the chariot. Symbolising the emperors giving power to the church or more specifically, the popes.

Then the dragon! It's Satan, he comes from underneath because he tries to destroy the church from its foundations roughly translated, so... From underneath... The devil does it by dividing the church, creating chaos with early Christians (early schisms) and a rebellious movement (Islam, which was seen as a rebellious christian sect during the late middle ages). So devil trying to destroy the church through divide in the foundations of the church. The chunk he drags down of course stands for the people leaving the church after these events.

And then the chariot changes in the heads, Dante describes them as beastly, they symbolise the moral decline of the church which is described in the book of revalation. They have horns and stuff which symbolise the sins. Red misread something there because it turns into 7 heads, 3 of them have 2 horns (they symbolise the most important sins) and 4 of them have 1 horn, the less terrible sins.

After that the prostitute and the giant, the prostitute stands for the Roman curia (papal authority) and the giant... you won't believe it... stands for France! The 2 flirt with each other which, you history buffs probably know, would stand for the French pressure to move the pope to Avignon, something that would actually create a schism some years after Dante's death (the antipope in Avignon). But the pope would move to Avignon when Dante was writing the Divine Comedy so he sort of saw it coming already (the DC takes place a while before Dante writes it). The giant and the prostitute run off and Beatrice tells this prophecy which is mostly focussed on the fact that the giant and the prostitute will be defeated by a great man... Which of course refers to the Holy Roman Emperor.

And this became a long story, I hope I can help anyone with it, I think it's really fascinating symbolism! That whole parade before symbolised the church before that and has the fall of Eve and that kind of stuff. It ended with Beatrice, the Chariot and the Griffin, where that whole ordeal Red didn't understand started.

Also, Dante was looking kind of dumb with some blood and some flesh in the shape of a P on his forehead. ;)

[vitoc]

And another cool thing about Dante's Purgatory is that the mountain was formed by the displacement of earth when Lucifer hit the ground after he was cast out of heaven.

There's an irony in the devil hitting the earth so hard that a mountain for saving souls bulged up on the other side of the planet

[blu]

Teacher: Guess where were going today for our field trip?
Dante: Where?!
Virgil: **Pulls off disguise** *Hell and back*

[kevinli]

7:43-8:10 I smell SYMBOLISM!
Chariot: The Church
Griffin: Jesus
Eagle: The Roman Empire
Fox: Heresy
Dragon: Satan
Giant: French Monarchy
Prostitute: Corrupt Papacy

[maikamaikamaikamaika]

So Lust is basically barbecued, Pride is crushed by rocks, Sloth runns, and Envy has their eyes destroyed... sounds familliar

[denisaene]

The whole time I was studying this in school, I couldn't stop feeling sorry for Virgil. I mean, it was pretty sad in Hell, but in Purgatory it just kicked in. Unlike all the people around him, he and the Limbo ghosts are doomed to have an eternally hopeless existence because they basically WERE BORN IN THE WRONG CENTURIES.

[verdragon]

3:39 I think that's the greatest display of emotion I've seen from Red, ever

[Daemonophobic]

Gosh look at all that Fullmetal Alchemist

[sketchbookonline]

3:39 I’ve seen this video so many times and that scream still gets me. Red’s voice never sounds like it could go that high

[joethehero]

Dante: You sent me to hell because I moved on?

Beatrice: I should have been the one to fill your dark soul with LIGHT!!!

[Gormathius]

Ok I'm now convinced Dante had a fever dream and decided to write the whole thing down.

[adithyachennamadhavuni]

Wtf did dante do to deserve the field trip to all these places....

[danhasong]

It was so weird for me reading Homer, Virgil, and Dante because it feels like Virgil is making a continuation/fanfiction based off Homer, which Dante idolizes but hates the source material so he hates on it in HIS fanfic...
...and these are all considered classics.
Fanfic writers goals.

[soloragoldsun]

"Virgil teaches Dante about love."

Me and Dante: 8D

"No, no no. Not like that!"

Me and Dante: :(