On this 24th anniversary of 9/11, I would again try to relate what I saw in that same year: That Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy contained in it a prophecy about 9/11/2001. In particular, in the last four cantos of Purgatory, 29 to 33, are images that relate to the 9/11 attacks, foreign or domestic.

I first read Tennyson’s translation, but now I have another translation by Rev. Cary obtained from Project Gutenberg:

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm

All of the following Dante Alighieri Purgatory excerpts were taken from that document:

1. Previously, Dante has been walking along a river, just as New York City has a river on either side, and there is much writing about the divine chariot pulled by a griffen. These very last few lines of Purgatory canto 29 describe the striking of the first WTC tower, and the halting of the airplane:

Whenas the car was o’er against me, straight.
Was heard a thund’ring, at whose voice it seem’d
The chosen multitude were stay’d; for there,
With the first ensigns, made they solemn halt.

2. I select these lines in Purgatory canto 32 as describing the striking of the second WTC tower, in that the chariot is being bound to a stock, the tower.

And turning to the chariot-pole, to foot
He drew it of the widow’d branch, and bound
There left unto the stock whereon it grew.

3. Still in canto 32, the collapse of one tower:

As I beheld the bird of Jove descending
Pounce on the tree, and, as he rush’d, the rind,
Disparting crush beneath him, buds much more
And leaflets. On the car with all his might
He struck, whence, staggering like a ship, it reel’d,
At random driv’n, to starboard now, o’ercome,
And now to larboard, by the vaulting waves.

4. I once thought “poorly freighted bark represented the fourth plane, with no viable pilot after the “Let’s Roll!” revolt. But now I propose, still in canto 32, the collapse of the other tower:

Next, from whence before he came,
I saw the eagle dart into the hull
O’ th’ car, and leave it with his feathers lin’d;
And then a voice, like that which issues forth
From heart with sorrow riv’d, did issue forth
From heav’n, and, “O poor bark of mine!” it cried,
“How badly art thou freighted!” Then, it seem’d,
That the earth open’d between either wheel,
And I beheld a dragon issue thence,
That through the chariot fix’d his forked train;
And like a wasp that draggeth back the sting,
So drawing forth his baleful train, he dragg’d
Part of the bottom forth, and went his way
Exulting.

5. Although on the clock, the Pentagon was struck before the towers fell, I think Dante grouped the events thematically, as I have heard and seen a lot in the Book of Revelation. So, still in canto 32, this represents the striking of the Pentagon, which building is of much concrete, like an immense rock, while the whore and the giant represent the USA military and politics:

Thus transform’d,
The holy structure, through its several parts,
Did put forth heads, three on the beam, and one
On every side; the first like oxen horn’d,
But with a single horn upon their front
The four. Like monster sight hath never seen.
O’er it methought there sat, secure as rock
On mountain’s lofty top, a shameless whore,
Whose ken rov’d loosely round her. At her side,
As ’t were that none might bear her off, I saw
A giant stand; and ever, and anon
They mingled kisses.

6. Immediately after, ending canto 32, are these lines describing the fourth airplane, which crashed in Pennsylvania, which part-word sylvania means forest:

But, her lustful eyes
Chancing on me to wander, that fell minion
Scourg’d her from head to foot all o’er; then full
Of jealousy, and fierce with rage, unloos’d
The monster, and dragg’d on, so far across
The forest, that from me its shades alone
Shielded the harlot and the new-form’d brute.

7. On a much longer timescale, even up to now, features in canto 33 describe the ascendancy and work of President Donald J Trump, for while 515 in Roman numerals would be DXV, the inversion in the text makes DVX, a visual cognate of the initials DJT:

Plainly I view, and therefore speak, the stars
E’en now approaching, whose conjunction, free
From all impediment and bar, brings on
A season, in the which, one sent from God,
(Five hundred, five, and ten, do mark him out)
That foul one, and th’ accomplice of her guilt,
The giant, both shall slay.