Dante's Puragatory Canto XIX - exposing the Siren

"You saw," he said, "that ageless sorceress
for whom alone the souls above must weep;
you also saw how men escape from her."

XIX 58-60

Previously we learned that Dante had encounted a Siren in his dreams.  The dream ended as Virgil, under the direction of a "saintly lady", tears apart the outward garment of the siren and exposes for what she is on the inside.  We are told the name of this saintly lady who initiated exposing the Siren - she is perhaps a type of all the saintly ladies of Dante's world:  Mary, Beatrice, Lucy.  Likewise the Siren does not have a specific name given - she is as well a type of all deception which has an outwardly attractive appearance but inwardly is corrupt. 

How is it that we are capable of being so deceived, and how is it that we can escape from such deception?  The Siren herself tells Dante that "whoever dwells with me seldom departs/ I satisfy so well" (XIX. 24). 

LIke all self-deceptions, it is difficult to see the truth except by persuasion from outside oneself.  In Dante's dream it was a figure of grace (the sainlty lady) who begins the process.  Human reason (the figure of Virgil) is able to complete the task of realizing the truth of self-deception, but because it is bound by the falsehood which the human will has embraced, it cannot begin the process unaided. 

This is a pattern for the spiritual life, and for the purgation of the sins of Avarice, Gluttony and Lust which will be addressed by Dante.  Each has an outwardly attractive power which binds human will power, but each has an inward corruption which in the end not only fails to satisfy, but ultimately destroys.  The movement out of self-deception begins not with ourselves, but with divine grace.

Comments

[scott]

It seems to me that wanting plays a powerful role here. At the heart of our self-deception surely lies something we want. "I satisfy so well". Echos of James and selfish desires here.

Which do we *want* - an ugly creature or a beautiful one(truth notwithstanding)? Naturally, if our wanting (the source of it all) doesn't change, we'll not stop the self deception, because we don't want to.

Hmmm... Notice the alternate direction of the same dynamic, where intentional human focus and desire has power and effect.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

[joseph]

Good thoughts, Scott. It seems to me that Dante "constructs" the beauty of the Siren in his dream, in the sense that he himself conjures it up out of his own will. I think there is also an ambiguity in the poem, in that the Siren also has the quality of being "outside" him at the same time.

I like your concluding thought.