Commentary Purg IX 31-33

Once again the negative version of events put forth in the dream has a better meaning.  It seemed that the eagle and Dante were consumed in the ring of fire high above the earth, while actually Dante and Lucia have risen to the gate of purgatory, as we shall shortly find out, and Dante is being awakened, not by the pain of death, but by the late-morning sun on his eyelids ([Purg IX 44]).  If there is a further significance to this detail, it would seem to refer to Dante's eventual arrival at the true 'sphere of fire,' the Empyrean.