hat ageless sorceress / for whom alone the souls above must weep; / you also saw how men escape from her'" (19.58-60). Thus, Musa's description of Purgatory as "a place of repentance, regeneration, conversion" (xxxiv), not only refers to the penitents, but also to the traveler, Dante, who must purge himself completely for the last phase of his journey.This purgation culminates in the traveler's meeting with Beatrice on top of the mountain. He confesses that "'Those things with their false joys, / offered me by the world, led me astray" (Purgatorio 31.34-5). Beatrice responds to this denunciation of his sins by telling him to master his feelings that he "may truly feel shame / of all [his] sins-so that, another time, / [he] will be stronger when the Sirens sing" (31.43-5). Having sought heavenly aid and repented for his sins, Dante is encouraged to remain strong willed, for temptation will always remain a constant challenge. The manner in which he must do this stems from reason, from rational thought.This brings full circle what Mazzotta said of sloth, describing it as a "contemplation of nothingness." The contemplation of nothingness leads directly to sin and death under the visage of false earthly pleasures, as manifested in the figure of the Siren. In Canto 12 of the Paradiso, Dante the traveler finally fully realizes the degree of evil behind the Siren and her sweet song. After discoursing with St. Thomas Aquinas, champion of Scholastic thought and of the contemplation of Divine things, Dante hears the song that breaks forth from the sphere of the Sun, the realm of Christian learning, "song that in those sweet instruments surpassed / the best our Sirens or our Muses sing, / as source of light outshines what it reflects" (Paradiso 12.7-9). Dante the traveler here discovers that in the contemplation of divine things lies the path to ultimate truth. Completely polar from contemplation of nothingness, contemplation of Divine t...
