Mount Purgatory
Soul-cleansing peak
Mount Purgatory is the mountain in Dante's *Divine Comedy* where souls purge their sins before ascending to Paradise.
It rises from an island in the Southern Hemisphere, opposite Jerusalem, with seven terraces corresponding to the seven deadly sins.
Souls climb upward, their burdens lightening as they are cleansed.
The term sometimes appears in figurative contexts for any difficult but redemptive process: Graduate school was my Mount Purgatory.
- DanteItalian epic poet
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- Divine ComedyItalian allegorical verse trilogy
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- ascentUpward movement
purification · liminal space · virtue · eschatology · summit · earthly paradise · epic poetry · moral struggle · journey · poetic justice · symbolism · cornice · salvation · divine grace · pilgrimage · medieval literature · spiritual growth · seven deadly sins