A soul joins them on the staircase — recently freed from the fifth terrace, ascending the mountain with them toward its summit. He addresses them graciously. Virgil asks him to explain both the earthquake and the Gloria that followed it. The soul explains: Purgatory cannot be disturbed by earthly weather — nothing below the Gate is subject to the natural forces of wind and rain. The mountain shudders only when a soul completes its purgation and rises free, and then all the souls rejoice with the Gloria. The soul knows this because it has just happened to him: he has completed his purgation after more than five centuries on the mountain, and it was his own release that caused the earthquake. The jubilation was all of Purgatory rejoicing at one soul's freedom — as heaven rejoices over one repentant sinner.
The soul reveals himself: Publius Papinius Statius, the 1st-century Roman epic poet, author of the Thebaid and the unfinished Achilleid. He was on the terrace of avarice — not for greed but for prodigality (the opposite sin). He praises Virgil in extravagant terms: it was the Aeneid that nursed him as a poet, the text he studied until he could recite every page. Without the Aeneid, he would not have been worth a drachma. He says he would have gladly added a year to his time in Purgatory for the privilege of living in Virgil's era. Virgil, trying to suppress a smile, signals Dante to remain silent — he should not reveal who it is walking beside them. Dante suppresses his laughter, then catches Statius's glance and cannot hold it. Statius sees his expression and demands the truth. Virgil reveals himself. Statius bends to embrace his knees — and Virgil stops him: do not, we are both shadows.