Ancient World

Today’s episode is about the climbing up to the 7th Terrace where Virgil is handing over Dante’s deep question about the nature of the “shades” to the Poet Statius. This is partly symbolic of how Dante’s question is now moving more into the spiritual and transcendent realms, and Statius becomes a representation of the transition between the rational-intellectual (Virgil) and the theology-spiritual (Beatrice).

The metaphysics of the soul blends the Aristotelian three levels with the Biblical Genesis – from the material creation of the embryo, to the breathing of the spirit and soul into the growing person once it has reached the vegetative soul (plants) and the sensitive soul (feeling and moving, like animals) – and then has the potential for the intellectual soul (only humans).

Dante is finally adding a part about the nature of “shades” and the “aerial bodies” as they appear in the Comedy, and comes back to the theme of how the body is also a “reflection” of the soul as something separate, and how the body “imitates” the life of the soul.

All of which explains why the soul/shades of the Gluttonous are so thin. Their bodies symbolize the lacking spiritual knowledge and nutrition in their Earthly lives.

And then – they enter the 7th Terrace of the Lustful.

Enjoy! 😀