Midian

Description

In Dante's Purgatorio, the circle of the gluttonous is animated by voices emerging from the trees and offering examples of punished gluttony, according to the law of Purgatory. The voice announces two examples: the first, taken from the myth of the centaurs born of Ixion and a cloud in the form of Juno, who at the wedding of Pirithous and Laodamia gave themselves over to wine and violence, until Theseus confronted and defeated them; the second is a biblical example drawn from the Book of Judges, concerning Gideon and the ten thousand Israelites preparing to fight the Midianites. God ordered Gideon, at the water, to choose only the three hundred who drank bringing the water to their mouths with their hands without bending their knees, while the others, throwing themselves down to drink their fill, proved themselves weak. The reference to Midian in the verses concludes this second example, recalling the descent of the Israelites toward the Midianite camp.