Allegory of the Cave... Continued?

I first read Plato’s allegory of the cave last semester, and now I seem to see allusions to it in much of what I read for other classes. For example, in Dante’s Pradisio, Dante the pilgrim uses much of the same language as Plato in describing his quest for understanding of the ultimate truth (or what Plato called the Good, as represented by the sun in his allegory). I’ll focus this comparison in canto two of Paradisio.

As he sets off on his journey across the Ocean of Being, the pilgrim warns those that would take the same path: “Don’t try the open ocean—turn and see your own familiar shores, for you’d remain forever lost, should you lose sight of me. I venture across waters never sailed by man!” (Dante, Parad 2.4-7). Just like the prisoner freed from his chains and compelled to embark on a journey upward, the pilgrim must go on a journey that few men ever attempt on their own. The pilgrim foresees that it will be challenging and at times painful to leave his shore of familiarity.

We follow the pilgrim on his journey out of his ‘cave’ as his preconceived notions are challenged and his intellect is stretched. Finally he reaches the point when he “saw [he]’d reached a place that turned [his] sight toward something to behold in awe” (Dante, Parad 2.25-26). This is the moment when he sees what Plato calls the sun in his allegory, just like the prisoner led out of the cave who has his gaze turned towards the sun. Dante describes the moment as “struck by the warming sun, what underlies snow is denuded of the cold and white, so now—yourself remaining what you are—I wish to fill your intellect with light, light so aflame with life that cannot cease” (Dante, Parad 2.106-110). The snow is water stripped of the accidental features of white and coldness. Likewise, upon beholding the light, the intellect is so filled and enlightened that it experiences true and unveiled life in its purest/simplest state and not hidden behind the walls of the cave.