Purgatory: Canto 28 -- The Earthly Paradise: The River Lethe

Welcome to the Sacred Wood, Pilgrims -- Lords of Yourselves you've been crowned and mitred (that is, you are sufficiently oriented to the will of God to have bestowed upon you both temporal (kingly) and spiritual (episcopal) powers). This wood contrasts greatly to the Dark Wood in which we began our journey. Here, there are no she-wolves, lions, or leopards to hamper our progress. Like St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, who carried the light of God against all adversity, Dante has achieved the goal he first formulated when he looked upon the Mount of Joy. In the Garden of Eden, he has effectively made it and is only two rivers away from paradise.



At present, he sees only Matilda, who is in the position of Leah, and later will come Beatrice, who is in the position of Rachel, each representing the active and contemplative lives of the soul, respectively. In the meantime, Dante's in charge of himself, and he sets out with the poets behind him and needs no prompting to ask Matilda his question about the wind and heat, which she answers comes from the revolving heavens and is the first wind and heat the earth itself feels. The river on which bank Dante is standing is Lethe, which is the river that flows down the mountain into Cocytus, bearing with it the memory of all sin. Dante will have to swim across it, and when he drinks from it in his crossing, he will no longer be burdened with the memories of the sins of earth. How this works and he is able to remember his journey through hell and up the mountain well enough to tell it is, perhaps, an instance of grace that provides him with enough detachment from the pain of all that came before the river and enough objective knowledge of it to later recreate it in poetry. Unlike Virgil and Statius, who have erred in their understanding of the location of Eden, and graciously open themselves to the fact, Dante cannot err since he's hearing it directly from a soul in grace (that's one way to trump all the classic poets of antiquity and all future poets that might come after).

Matilda, as a representative of the active life, is meant to prepare us for the contemplative life, just as Lethe, which is the river of sin's forgetfulness, is meant to prepare us for Eunoe, which is the river of good's memory. While Dante expresses no desire for this woman in the garden beyond knowing of her and her state, he berates himself in his Vita Nuova for the desire he holds for the woman with the compassionate eyes, knowing that his memory of Beatrice must not flag. He writes to himself, "'Until death kills your sight, never should you forget your gracious lady who is dead.' This is what my heart says - and then it sighs." His ability to gaze into the face of compassion and love without being distracted by it demonstrates growth on his part -- he is now closer to perfection than he has ever been, and he has the capacity for a greater kind of love than he has ever known.

S.