At Long Last, Matelda: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123

The procession continues away from Lethe and farther into the Garden of Eden until they come to a dark, frigid spot that stops them . . . a curious moment in this innocent landscape.

And it gets more curious as we discover rivers named and then renamed before we come to the most difficult naming of them all: Matelda, the fair lady who has been with us since PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII.

We'll talk cosmology, geography, and even poetic rhyme sequences before we turn to the thorny question of exactly who Matelda is.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I offer you lots of answers without giving any final solution to this most enigmatic figure.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:26] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123. If you'd like to read along or continue the discussion with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:25] Cosmological references that help set (and even bookend) PURGATORIO.

[06:24] Stopping the procession at a dark, frigid spot (somehow in Eden!).

[08:56] The Tigris and Euphrates rivers: how and why?

[14:27] A beautiful rhyme sequence that encodes the fall into Eden.

[17:10] Matelda: the difficult and long-standing interpretive questions about who this fair lady is.

[31:06] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, lines 103 - 123.