Purgatory: From The Divine Comedy characters

Appears from the start

The living pilgrim who emerges from Hell at the foot of Mount Purgatory. Humbled by the journey below, he must cleanse away its signs and learn how freely chosen repentance, prayer, and disciplined love prepare souls for Heaven.

Appears from the start

Dante's guide, the ancient Roman poet who led him safely through Hell. His reason, experience, and authority continue to direct the pilgrim, though Purgatory presents spiritual laws and a final destination beyond his personal reach.

Also known as Cato of Utica

Appears from the start

The stern guardian of Mount Purgatory, encountered on its shore. Though a pagan who died by suicide, he represents liberty here. He accepts Virgil's explanation of their divinely authorized journey and orders Dante to wash his face and gird himself with a humble reed.

First appears in chapter 2

A musician and friend of Dante who arrives among the newly dead in an angel-piloted boat. Their attempted embrace passes through his insubstantial body. At Dante's request he sings, briefly holding the whole company still until Cato urges them toward the mountain.

First appears in chapter 3

The late king of Sicily, recognizable despite wounds to his face and chest. Excommunicated in life, he nevertheless repented at death and reached Purgatory. He asks Dante to tell his daughter the truth and seek her prayers, which can shorten his delay.

First appears in chapter 4

A Florentine acquaintance of Dante resting in the shade in Ante-Purgatory. His familiar slowness and dry manner survive death; because he postponed repentance, he must wait before beginning the mountain's active purification.

Also known as Buonconte da Montefeltro

First appears in chapter 5

A soldier who died at the battle of Campaldino and whose body was never found. He tells Dante that a final appeal to Mary saved his soul, after which an angry demon used a storm and flooded river to carry away his corpse.

Also known as Pia de' Tolomei

First appears in chapter 5

A Sienese woman among those who repented only when dying violently. She courteously asks Dante to remember her after he has rested, identifies Siena as her birthplace and the Maremma as the place of her death, and alludes briefly to the husband responsible.

Also known as Sordello of Mantua

First appears in chapter 6

A dignified poet found sitting apart in Ante-Purgatory. He embraces Virgil as soon as he learns that they share Mantua as a homeland, an encounter that prompts Dante's condemnation of political division in Italy.

First appears in chapter 11

A celebrated manuscript illuminator carrying a heavy stone among the proud. He acknowledges that Franco of Bologna has surpassed his art and explains that worldly fame quickly changes hands, using his own humility to reinforce the terrace's lesson.

Also known as Marco the Lombard

First appears in chapter 16

A courtly soul met in the blinding smoke of the wrathful. He answers Dante's question about the world's corruption by defending human free will and arguing that confused spiritual and political authority has deprived society of sound guidance.

Also known as Pope Adrian V

First appears in chapter 19

A former pope lying face down among the avaricious, bound to the earth he valued too highly. He explains how attaining the papacy exposed the emptiness of worldly ambition and asks Dante to send a message to his niece Alagia, whose prayers may help him.

First appears in chapter 21

A Roman poet whose completed purification causes the mountain to shake and the souls to sing. He joins Dante and Virgil on the ascent, explains that the tremor marks a soul's readiness to rise, and is overwhelmed to discover that the guide before him is Virgil, the poet he most admires.

Also known as Forese Donati

First appears in chapter 23

Dante's old friend, now gaunt with hunger on the sixth terrace. He explains that the souls willingly suffer thirst and starvation while learning temperance, and credits the prayers of his widow Nella with speeding his progress up the mountain.

First appears in chapter 28

An unnamed solitary woman gathering flowers beside the stream in the earthly paradise. Cheerful and graceful, she explains the perpetual breeze, vegetation, and two rivers of Eden, helping Dante understand the place he has reached.

First appears in chapter 30

The blessed woman who commissioned Virgil to rescue Dante and now appears in the earthly paradise amid a sacred procession. With Virgil suddenly gone, she becomes an exacting guide, confronting Dante with the ways he abandoned the good direction her earthly example had offered him.