ABSTRACT
Self-reflexivity can symbolize the very epitome of unproductive circularity—tautological emptiness—as reproducing always the same. Dante similarly represents the serpent in the Garden in insistently self-reflexive language: it turns its head again and again to lick its back like a beast that sleeks itself. Dante himself, in Inferno XXX, associates "the mirror of Narcissus" with base sins of counterfeiting in the persons of Mastro Adamo and Sinon Greco. Nevertheless, most significantly, a series of reflections of his own image in Purgatory builds up to a scene which has already been recognized by some as Dante's reenactment and correction of the self-reflexive sin of Narcissus. Dante transforms Narcissus's futile death into a scene of repentance leading to redemption and purified life. However, Dante's purification in Purgatory involves also-inverting Narcissus-a gazing at himself in abhorrence. Tragically lost is an intrinsically relational understanding of being and of being human.
