Commentary Purg XXV 34-108

Statius's lecture on embryology may be paraphrased as follows.  He is willing to deal with Dante's desire to know how the aerial body is formed ([Purg XXV 34-36]): (1) After the 'perfect blood' is 'digested' (the third digestion) in the heart, having now the power to inform all the parts of body, it is 'digested' once again and descends into the testicles; (2) it now falls upon the 'perfect blood' in the uterus; it is 'active,' the latter 'passive'; (3) the male blood now informs the soul of the new being in the female; (4) but how this soul becomes a human being is not yet clear ([Purg XXV 37-66]).  Once the fetal brain is formed, God, delighted with Nature's work, breathes into it the (rational) soul, which blends with the already existent souls (vegetative and sensitive) and makes a single entity, as wine is made by the sun ([Purg XXV 67-78]).  At the moment of death the soul leaves the body but carries with it the potential for both states, the bodily one 'mute,' the rational one more acute than in life, and falls to Acheron (if damned) or Tiber (if saved), where it takes on its 'airy body,' which, inseparable as flame from fire, follows it wherever it goes; insofar as this new being 'remembers' its former shape, it takes on all its former organs of sense and becomes a 'shade' ([Purg XXV 79-108]).  This 'lecture' is put to the task of justifying Dante's presentation of spiritual beings as still possessing, for the purposes of purgation, their bodily senses even though they have no bodies.  Souls in Heaven, we will discover, have no such 'aerial bodies,' but are present as pure spirit.

      As has been suggested (see C.Purg.XVIII.99-138), the organization of each terrace is fairly formulaic.  Dante remains free, however, to employ the interstices between terraces to address issues that would perhaps adversely affect the force of descriptions of intense penance if included among them (Marco Lombardo's lengthy disquisition on the necessary exercise of the will in canto XVI is an obvious exception, and it is 'excused' by the darkness, inhibiting descriptions of the penitents, on the terrace of Wrath).  Now that we have come to the last of these 'lectures,' it may be useful to review them.  At both the beginning and the end of the penitential sequence, the poet uses the liminal portions of each terrace only for physical descriptions of the ascent ([Purg X 1-21]; [Purg XXVII 64-75]).  Leaving Pride, however, he addresses the protagonist's increasing lightness and the removal of his P's ([Purg XII 115-136]); at the end of Envy the 'lecturing' really begins, when Virgil explains Guido del Duca's words about possession and sharing ([Purg XV 40-81]); at the conclusion of Wrath, the poet reverts to a mere description of the ascent ([Purg XVII 61-69]), but then, uniquely, devotes the time of arrival on a new terrace to doctrinal matters, Virgil's lengthy discourse on love (XVII.70-XVIII.85); having completed his description of Sloth, he has Virgil explain the meaning of the witch in Dante's dream ([Purg XIX 52-69]); with Avarice left behind, he has Statius explain his debt to Virgil ([Purg XXII 1-126]); and now the transit from Gluttony to Lust offers occasion for this lecture on the 'physiology of the spirit,' as it were.

      For extremely useful notes on Dante's sources in these verses (37-88), Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroës, Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, along with reference to Bruno Nardi's important contribution, 'L'origine dell'anima umana secondo Dante' (1931-1932), reprinted in his Studi di filosofia medievale (Nard.1960.2), to our awareness of Dante's schooling in these matters, see Singleton's commentary: DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.37-44; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.40-41; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.47; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.49-50; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.52-54; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.55-56; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.62-66; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.70; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.72; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.73-74; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.74-75; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.80-81; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.83; DDP Singleton.Purg.XXV.88.