Why Cato of Utica became a guard of the Purgatory?

Abstract

“The Divine Comedy” of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri is one of the most honourable masterpieces of world literature. There are three parts: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. It tells us about Dante’s trip in the afterlife world. Dante’s guide through the Hell and Purgatory in this trip is Virgil, an ancient Roman poet, who was a “pagan prophet”, according to the medieval thought. Virgil in his “Aeneid” put Cato of Utica among the righteous. Dante made Cato the guard of the Purgatory. In this article, the A. tries to explain the reasons of such a position of Cato, a pagan political activist, who in addition also committed suicide. The conclusion is that he represents, on the one hand, an ideal of justice, from the other side - the ideal of freedom. Cato did not know Christ, but, from the Dante’s point of view, he could be some kind of the image of Christ. At the same time the Purgatory souls, as they rise on the mountain, have a hope to get to Paradise, but Cato should stay in front of the Purgatory gates eternally.