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At the end of the canto we encounter another of the ritual components of the purgatorial experience, repeated on each terrace: Dante meets an angel and a “P” (for peccato, sin) is …

Dante follows closely behind Virgil as the two make their way through the first level of Purgatory. On the floor are carved several biblical and mythical scenes, each illustrating the dangers of …

My body, still in thought submissive bow'd. To ruminate the bed beneath thy feet." From forth the mountain stretches. On one part. Of mortal ice-stroke. The Thymbraean god. Strewn o'er th' …

There on one side, I saw Lucifer, God’s most beautiful creation, fall from Heaven like a thunder bolt. On the other side, I saw the giant, Briareus, struck dead by Jove’s lightning. Then I saw …

Want to know how Dante is like an ox? He is “yoked” to the Prideful penitents. Seriously, he compares himself to an ox that pulls his burden alongside his fellow bovines. Virgil follows …

Canto 12. ABREAST, like oxen going in a yoke, [24] I with that heavy-laden soul went on, As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted; [25] But when he said, “Leave him, and onward pass, For …

Canto 12 Summary Dante walks on, yoked to “that burdened soul” (212) like a pair of oxen until Virgil instructs him to let the soul loose. Virgil and Dante continue on their way.

Purgatorio: Canto XII Abreast, like oxen going in a yoke, I with that heavy-laden soul went on, As long as the sweet pedagogue permitted; But when he said, "Leave him, and onward pass, For …

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