This article argues that the representation of Dante’s dream in Purgatorio 9 is indebted to the depiction of rapture in Virgil’s and Ovid’s stories of Ganymede, but also outdoes them by registering the inwardness and sensory reactions of the raptured. In rewriting his classical models, Dante implicitly invokes Saint Paul as an authority on what it feels like to be raptured, allowing the poet to valorise the vulnerability of the visionary body and the cognitive uncertainty when confronted with mystical experiences. Finally, the article outlines the implications of rapture represented in Purgatorio 9 for the Commedia as a whole: the dream leads the pilgrim towards a more profound appreciation of how an individual can participate in the universal bonds of desire that, in Dante’s understanding, order and regulate the world.