Pride is purged on the first terrace of Mount Purgatory.
In Purgatorio, Dante and Virgil meet souls who are learning humility by confronting the attitudes that distorted their earthly lives. The proud are forced to walk bent beneath enormous stones, a physical image of the spiritual weight of self-importance. Their posture reverses the lifted head and dominant stance associated with pride.
The terrace also displays sculpted examples of humility. Dante sees the Annunciation, in which Mary accepts her role with the words “Ecce ancilla Dei,” and the medieval legend of Emperor Trajan stopping to answer a poor widow’s plea for justice. These positive examples teach the souls what virtue should replace their former sin.
The seven terraces correspond to the seven deadly sins, but Dante organizes them through different forms of love. Pride is the first and deepest of the sins caused by love directed toward harming others, because the proud seek superiority by diminishing other people. After this terrace, the Angel of Humility erases the first “P” from Dante’s forehead, marking spiritual progress.