Lis and the "Mad Flight"

                                                    9. On the secluded beach of Purgatory

                                                                                                            February 12, 2013
                                                                                            San Marcello Pistoiese, Italy

We earlier reported to the second canto of Dante's Divina Commedia (see above).
Guardian of the kingdom otherworldly 'middle' is Cato the Uticensis, a complex figure, on which it is appropriate to rest for a while.
Historically, he is a well-known political figure, described as having a sum righteousness, incorruptible and impartial and perhaps for this reason hated by many influential men of the time. Great supporter of Pompeo, he paid for his loyalty with his own life and he decided to kill himself while he was in Utica, because he was being chased by the soldiers of Caesar.
In the Commedia, as already mentioned, we find him as the protagonist of the first two cantos of the Purgatorio and even guardian of that kingdom, even if, as suicide, we expect him to share the terrible vegetable fate reserved to Pier delle Vigne in Inferno XIII and, in general, to the violent against themselves.
The choice of Dante, apparently incomprehensible, is actually fully justified if we analyze the reasons for the suicide of Cato himself, which occurred in 46 a.C in Utica.
The latter in fact chose to end his life as an act of extreme virtus, rather than give up the political freedom that now Caesar had reserved for the supporters of Pompeo.
In Purgatorio (vv. 70-75) is the same Virgil to indicate clearly the ethical impulse that motivated the suicide:

Now may it please thee to vouchsafe his coming/ He seeketh his liberty which is so dear/ as knoweth he who life for her refuses/ thou know'st it; since for her to thee not bitter/ was death in Utica, where thou didst leave/ the vesture that will shine so, the great day./

Precisely because of the keyword, liberty, we can understand why Cato, instead of Hell, is found to be the guardian of Purgatory, that is the afterlife where souls are purified and they find freedom from sin.
Using as interpretative model the Auerbach's figural thesis (see above) we can see in the image of historical Cato traits of figura futurorum, that is the political anticipation of the libertarian backing that will assume purely moral traits in its otherworldly size and, therefore, eternal.
In fact, according to Auerbach, the historical Cato is the 'figure' who gave up life in the name of individual liberty, while in Purgatory he appears, as unveiled or fulfilled figure, as the emblem of freedom tout court, that is the special power given to man to choose how to act through the use of free will and thus to save themselves - even dying - from eternal damnation. 

G.Mucci

Editorial supervision by Elisa Lucchesi