Chapter XVI: Introduction (11)

From other allusions of various kinds, scattered throughout the _Divine Comedy_, we gather that Dante did intend a definite date to be understood, but unfortunately the data by which he means to fix it are themselves so ambiguous that commentators differ as to the day, the month, and the year. The question has so direct a bearing on Dante’s astronomy that we cannot shirk it; but for the present, leaving it aside, let us deal merely with the hour, which is distinctly stated from the first, and indicated in a number of passages so clearly that readers with an elementary knowledge of the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies can find little difficulty in following Virgil and Dante through their journey, seeing exactly how many days it required, and frequently at what hour of day or night they were in a particular spot. If my readers are not now in possession of this elementary knowledge, this book has been written in vain.

I give below a list of all the hour-indications, astronomical and others, for the sake of clearness and completeness; but I omit for the present those that indicate only the date, and merely call the days the first, second, etc. These passages, though they are only to be understood in a popular sense, prove quite as clearly as the elaborate astronomical explanations in the _Convivio_ how deep an interest Dante always took in astronomy; and a study of them shows that he had carefully considered the positions of the heavenly bodies and their movements during the progress of the action in his poem.

TIME REFERENCES IN THE DIVINE COMEDY

Night. In the Forest. Moon full
(see below, _Inf._ xx. 127-129, and _Purg._ xxiii. 118-121).

“La notte ch’ i’ passai.”
_Inf._ i. 21.
“The night that I had spent.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
1st day. Just before sunrise.
At the foot of the Hill.

“Ma poi ch’ io fui al piè d’un colle giunto,
. . . . .
Guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalle
Vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta
Che mena dritto altrui per ogni calle.”
_Inf._ i. 13-18.

“But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,
. . . . . .
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders
Vested already with that planet’s rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunrise 6 a.m.[452]
Climbing the Hill.

“Tempo era dal principio del mattino,
E il sol montava su con quelle stelle
Ch’eran con lui quando l’ Amor divino
Mosse da prima quelle cose belle.”
_Inf._ i. 37-40.

“The time was the beginning of the morning,
And up the sun was mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love Divine
At first in motion set those beautous things.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [452] The clock-hours in this column are not to be regarded as if taken from a railway time-table! Sunrise is at 6 a.m. within a few minutes only, for the reasons above stated, viz.: our clocks are regulated by the “mean” sun, and it is not necessarily the exact day of the equinox when the vision begins. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evening twilight.
At the Gate of Hell.

“Lo giorno se n’andava, e l’ aer bruno....”
_Inf._ ii. 1.

“Day was departing, and the brown air....”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Midnight.
Crossing the fourth circle.

“Già ogni stella cade, che saliva
Quando mi mossi.”
_Inf._ vii. 98, 99.

“Already sinks each star that was ascending
When I set out.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
2nd day. About 2 hrs. before sunrise (4 a.m.)
On the edge of the cliff, preparing to descend to the 7th
circle.

“I Pesci guizzan su per l’ orizzonta,
E il Carro tutto sovra il Coro giace.”
_Inf._ xi. 113, 114.

“Quivering are the Fishes on the horizon,
And the Wain wholly over Caurus lies.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
(Dante refers to the previous day.)
In the 7th circle.

“Mi smarri’ in una valle.
. . . . .
Pur ier mattina le volsi le spalle.”
_Inf._ xv. 50-52.

“I lost me in a valley.
. . . . .
But yestermorn I turned my back upon it.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
After sunrise, between 6 and 7 a.m.
Leaving the 4th Pit of Circle VIII.
(Virgil reminds Dante of the night before last, spent in the
Forest.)

“Già tiene il confine
D’ ambedue gli emisperi e tocca l’ onda
Sotto Sibilia Caino e le spine;
E già iernotte fu la luna tonda;
Ben ten dee ricordar, chè non ti nocque
Alcuna volta per la selva fonda.”
_Inf._ xx. 124-129.

“... Already holds the confines
Of both the hemispheres, and under Seville
Touches the ocean-wave, Cain and the thorns;
And yesternight the moon was round already;
Thou shouldst remember well: it did not harm thee
From time to time within the forest deep.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
7 a.m.
On the bridge over the 5th Pit.

“Ier, più oltre cinq’ ore che quest’ otta,
Mille dugento con sessanta sei
Anni compiè che qui la via fu rotta.”
_Inf._ xxi. 112-114.

“Yesterday, five hours later than this hour,
One thousand and two hundred sixty-six
Years were complete that here the way was broken.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
About 1 p.m.
Leaving the 9th Pit.

“E già la Luna è sotto nostri piedi,
Lo tempo è poco omai che n’è concesso.”
_Inf._ xxix. 10, 11.

“And now the moon is underneath our feet.
Henceforth the time allotted us is brief.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Nightfall.
At the bottom of the world.

“La notte risurge; ed oramai
È da partir, chè tutto avem veduto.”
_Inf._ xxxiv. 68, 69.

“Night is reascending, and ’tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
3rd day. (no night intervening) 7.30 a.m.
In the new hemisphere

“Già il sole a mezza terza riede.”
_Inf._ xxxiv. 96.

“And now the sun to middle-tierce returns.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
4th day. About an hour before sunrise (5 a.m.).
On the island of Purgatory.

“E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.”
_Inf._ xxxiv. 139.

“Thence we came forth to see again the stars.”

“Lo bel pianeta che ad amar conforta
Faceva tutto rider l’ oriente,
Velando i Pesci ch’ erano in sua scorta.”
_Purg._ i. 19-21.

“The beauteous planet that to love incites
Was making all the orient to laugh,
Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dawn.

“Lo sol vi mostrerà, che surge omai.”
_Purg._ i. 107.

“The sun, which now is rising, will direct you.”

“L’ alba vinceva l’ ora mattutina.”
_Purg._ i. 115.

“The dawn was vanquishing the matin hour.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sun just below east horizon.
On the Shore of the Island.

“Già era il sole all’ orizzonte giunto
Lo cui meridian cerchio coperchia
Jerusalem col suo più alto punto;
E la notte, che opposita a lui cerchia,
Uscia di Gange fuor con le bilance
Che le caggion di man quando soperchia;
Si che le bianche e le vermilie guance,
Là dove io era, della bella Aurora,
Per troppa etate divenivan rance.”
_Purg._ ii. 1-9.

“Already had the sun the horizon reached
Whose circle of meridian covers o’er
Jerusalem with its most lofty point;
And night, that opposite to him revolves,
Was issuing forth from Ganges, with the scales
That fall from out her hand when she exceedeth;
So that the white and the vermilion cheeks
Of beautiful Aurora, where I was,
By too great age were changing into orange.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sun risen.

“Da tutte parti saettava il giorno
Lo sol, ch’avea con le saette conte
Di mezzo il ciel cacciato il Capricorno.”
_Purg._ ii. 55-57.

“On every side was darting forth the day
The sun, who had with his resplendent shafts
From the mid-heaven chased forth the Capricorn.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Soon after sunrise.
Walking westward, towards the Mountain of Purgatory.

“Lo sol che retro fiammeggiava roggio.”
_Purg._ iii. 16.

“The sun that in our rear was flaming red.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Shortly after 6 a.m. (3 p.m. in Italy).

“Vespero è già colà dov’ è sepolto
Lo corpo dentro al quale io facea ombra.”
_Purg._ iii. 25, 26.

“’Tis vespers there already where is buried
The body within which I cast a shadow.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
About 9.30 a.m.
At the foot of the Mountain.

“Ben cinquanta gradi salito era
Lo sole.”
_Purg._ iv. 15, 16.

“Fifty full degrees uprisen was
The sun.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Midday.
On a ledge of the Mountain (Anti-purgatory).

“Vedi ch’è tocco
Meridian dal sole, e dalla riva.
Copre la notte già col piè Morrocco.”
_Purg._ iv. 137-139.

“See, the sun has touched
Meridian, and from the shore the night
Covers already with her foot Morocco.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon.
Climbing the eastern slope of the Mountain.

“Vedi omai che il poggio l’ ombra getta.
. . . . .
Prima che sii lassù tornar vedrai
Colui che già si copre della costa,
Sì che i suoi raggi tu romper non fai.”
_Purg._ vi. 51-57.

“See, e’en now the hill a shadow casts.
. . . . .
Ere thou art up there, thou shalt see return
Him, who now hides himself behind the hill,
So that thou dost not interrupt his rays.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Evening.

“Vedi già come dichina il giorno.”
_Purg._ vii. 43.

“See already how the day declines.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset (6 p.m.).
In the Flowery Valley, on the Mountain-side.

“Era già l’ora che volge il disio
Ai naviganti e intenerisce il core,
Lo di ch’han detto ai dolci amici addio;
E che lo nuovo peregrin d’ amore
Punge, se ode squilla di lontano
Che paia il giorno pianger che si more.”
_Purg._ viii. 1-6.

“’Twas on the hour that turneth back desire
In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart,
The day they’ve said to their sweet friends farewell;
And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,
If he doth hear from far away a bell
That seemeth to deplore the dying day.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Evening twilight.

“Tempo era già che l’ aer s’annerava.”
_Purg._ viii. 49.

“Already now the air was growing dark.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
(Dante refers to the morning of the same day.)

“Per entro il lochi tristi
Venni stamane.”
_Purg._ viii. 58, 59.

“Through the dismal places
I came this morn.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Early night: about 7 p.m.

“Le quattro chiare stelle
Che vedevi staman, son di là basse,
E queste son salite ov’ eran quelle.”
_Purg._ viii. 91-93.

“The four resplendent stars
Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low,
And these have mounted up to where those were.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Shortly before moonrise, between 8 and 9 p.m.

“La concubina di Titone antico
Già s’imbiancava al balco d’oriente,
Fuor delle braccia del suo dolce amico;
Di gemme la sua fronte era lucente,
Poste in figura del freddo animale
Che con la coda percote la gente;
E la notte de’ passi con che sale
Fatti avea due nel loco ov’ eravamo,
E il terzo già chinava in giuso l’ ale.”
_Purg._ ix. 1-9.

“The concubine of old Tithonus now
Gleamed white upon the eastern balcony,
Forth from the arms of her sweet paramour;
With gems her forehead all relucent was,
Set in the shape of that cold animal
Which with its tail doth smite amain the people;
And of the steps with which she mounts the Night
Had taken two in that place where we were,
And now the third was bending down its wings.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
5th day. Dawn.
At the Gate of Purgatory.

“Nell’ ora che comincia i tristi lai
La rondinella presso alla mattina.”
_Purg._ ix. 13, 14.

“Just at the hour when her sad lay begins
The little swallow, near unto the morning.”

(See also ix. 52 “nell’ alba che precede al giorno,”
and ix. 59 “come il di fu chiaro.”)

(See also “At dawn, which doth precede the day.”
and “As day grew bright”).
----------------------------------------------------------------
More than 2 hours after sunrise (after 8 a.m.).

“Il sole er’ alto già più che due ore.“
_Purg._ ix. 44.

“And now the sun was more than two hours high.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
About 9.30 a.m.
On the 1st Cornice of the Mountain.

“Pria lo scemo della luna
Rigiunse al letto suo per rícorcarsi,
Che noi fossimo fuori di quella cruna.”
_Purg._ x. 14-16.

“Sooner had the moon’s decreasing disc
Regained its bed to sink again to rest.
Than we were forth out of that needle’s eye.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
12 noon.
Ascent to the 2nd Cornice.

“Più era già per noi del monte volto,
E del cammin del sole assai più speso
Che non stimava l’animo non sciolto.
. . . . .
... Vedi che torna
Dal servigio del dì l’ancella sesta.”
_Purg._ xii. 73-81.

“More of the mount by us was now encompassed,
And far more spent the circuit of the sun,
Than had the mind preoccupied imagined.
. . . . .
... Lo, returning is
From service of the day the sixth handmaiden.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
3 p.m. (midnight in Italy).
Ascent to the 3rd Cornice.

“Quanto tra l‘ultimar dell’ ora terza
E il principio del dì par della spera
Che sempre a guisa di fanciullo scherza,
Tanto pareva già in ver la sera
Essere al sol del suo corso rimaso;
Vespero là, e qui mezza notte era.
E i raggi ne ferian per mezzo il naso,
Perchè per noi girato era si il monte,
Che già dritti andavamo in ver l’occaso.”
_Purg._ xv. 1-9.

“As much as ’twixt the close of the third hour
And dawn of day appeareth of that sphere
Which aye in fashion of a child is playing,
So much, it now appeared, towards the night
Was of his course remaining to the sun;
There it was evening, and ’twas midnight here.
And the rays smote the middle of our faces,
Because by us the mount was so encircled,
That straight towards the west we now were going.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Evening.
On the 3rd Cornice.

“Noi andavam per lo vespero, attenti
Oltre, quanto potean gli occhi allungarsi
Contra i raggi serotini e lucenti.“
_Purg._ xv. 139-141.

“We passed along athwart the twilight, peering
Forward, as far as ever eye could stretch
Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset at sea-level, 6 p.m.

“Io rividi
Lo sole in pria, che già nel corcare era.”
_Purg_ xvii. 8, 9.

“I saw again
The sun at first, that was already setting.”
----------------------------------------------------------------

On the 3rd Cornice.

“I raggi, morti già, nei bassi lidi.“
_Purg._ xvii. 12.

“Rays already dead on the low shores.”
----------------------------------------------------------------

Ascent to the 4th Cornice.

“Procacciam di salir pria che s’abbui.”
_Purg._ xvii. 62.

“Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset on the Mountain, shortly after 6 p.m.
On the 4th Cornice.

“Già eran sopra noi tanto levati
Gli ultimi raggi che la notte segue,
Che le stelle apparivan da più lati.”
_Purg._ xvii. 70-72.

“Already over us were so uplifted
The latest sunbeams which the night pursues,
That upon many sides the stars appeared.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Towards midnight.

“La luna, quasi a mezza notte tarda,
Facea le stelle a noi parer più rade,
Fatta com’ un secchione che tutto arda;
E correa contra il ciel per quelle strade
Che il sole infiamma allor che quel da Roma
Tra i Sardi e i Corsi il vede quando cade.”
_Purg._ xviii. 76-81.

“The moon, belated almost unto midnight,[453]
Now made the stars appear to us more rare,
Formed like a bucket that is all ablaze;
And counter to the heavens ran through those paths
Which the sun sets aflame when he of Rome
Sees it ’twixt Sardes and Corsicans go down.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [453] Or “almost at late midnight.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th day. Nearly 2 hours before sunrise, about 4 a.m.
On the 4th Cornice.

“Nell’ ora che non può il calor diurno
Intepidar più il freddo della luna,
Vinto da terra, o talor da Saturno;
Quando i geomanti lor Maggior Fortuna
Veggiono in oriente, innanzi all’ alba,
Surger per via che poco le sta bruno.”
_Purg._ xix. 1-6.

“It was the hour when the diurnal heat
No more can warm the coldness of the moon,
Vanquished by Earth, or peradventure Saturn;
When geomancers their Fortuna Major
See in the orient, before the dawn,
Rise by a path that long remains not dim.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Early morning.
Ascent to 5th Cornice.

“Su mi levai, e tutti eran già, pieni
Dell’ alto dì i giron del sacro monte,
Ed andavam col sol nuovo alle reni.”
_Purg._ xix. 37-39.

“I rose, and full already of high day
Were all the circles of the sacred mountain,
And with the new sun at our back we went.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
About 10 a.m.
On the 6th Cornice.

“E già le quattro ancelle eran del giorno
Rimase addietro, e la quinta era al temo,
Drizzando pure in su l’ ardente corno.”
_Purg._ xxii. 118-120.

“And four handmaidens of the day already
Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth
Was pointing upwards still its burning horn.”

(Dante refers to “the other day” when he began the journey.)

“Di quella vita mi volse costui
Che mi va innanzi, l’ altr’ ier, quando tonda
Vi si mostrò la suora di colui—
E il sol mostrai.”
_Purg._ xxiii. 118-121.

“Out of that life he turned me back who goes
In front of me, some days agone, when round
The sister of him yonder showed herself—
And to the sun I pointed.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Between 2 and 4 p.m.
Ascent to the 7th Cornice.

“Il sole avea lo cerchio di merigge
Lasciato al Tauro, e la notte allo Scorpio.”
_Purg._ xxv. 2, 3.

“The sun bad his meridian circle
To Taurus left, and Night to Scorpio.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Evening.
On the 7th Cornice, west side of the Mountain.

“Feriami il sole sull’ omero destro,
Che già, raggiando, tutto l’ occidente
Mutava in bianco aspetto di cilestro.”
_Purg._ xxvi. 4-6.

“On the right shoulder smote me now the sun,
That, raying out, already the whole west
Changed from its azure aspect into white.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunset at sea-level, 6 p.m.
About to cross the zone of fire.

“Sì come quando i primi raggi vibra
La dove il suo Fattore il sangue sparse,
Cadendo Ibero sotto l’ alta Libra,
E l’ onde in Gange da nona riarse,
Sì stava il sole; onde il giorno sen giva.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 1-5.

“As when he vibrates forth his earliest rays
In regions where his Maker shed his blood,
The Ebro falling under lofty Libra,
And waters in the Ganges burnt with noon,
So stood the sun; hence was the day departing.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sun about to set on the mountain heights.
At the foot of the last stairway.

“Lo sol sen va, soggiunse, e vien la sera.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 61.

“The sun departs, it added, and night cometh.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sun sets.
Climbing the last stairway.

“Io toglieva i raggi
Dinanzi a me del sol ch’era già basso.
. . . . .
Il sol corcar, per l’ ombra che si spense
Sentimmo.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 65-69.

“I cut off the rays
Before me of the sun, that now was low.
. . . . .
By the vanished shadow the sun’s setting
Behind us we perceived.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Night.
On the last stairway.

“Vedev’ io le stelle.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 89.

“I beheld the stars.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
7th day. About 4 a.m.

“Nell’ ora, credo, che dell’ oriente
Prima raggiò nel monte Citerea.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 94, 95.

“It was the hour, I think, when from the east
First on the mountain Cytherea beamed.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Dawn.

“E già per gli splendori antelucani
. . . . .
Le tenebre fuggian da tutti i lati.”
_Purg._ xxvii. 109-112.

“And now before the antelucan splendours
. . . . .
The darkness fled away on every side.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Early morning.
In the Earthly Paradise.

“Vedi là il sol che in fronte ti riluce.”
_Purg_. xxvii. 133.

“Behold the sun that shines upon thy forehead.”

“L’ ôre prime.”
_Purg._ xxviii. 16.

“The hours of prime.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Midday.
By the fountain of Eunoë.

“Teneva il sole il cerchio di merigge.”
_Purg._ xxxiii. 104.

“The sun was holding the meridian circle.”

Ascent to Paradise.

“Fatto avea di là mane e di qua sera
Tal foce quasi, e tutto era là bianco
Quello emisperio, e l’ altra parte nera.”
_Par._ i. 43-45.

“Almost that passage had made morning there
And evening here, and there was wholly white
That hemisphere, and black the other part.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
8th day.
A lapse of 6 hrs. since entering the 8th heaven.
(_Cf. Par._ xxii. 151-153).
Sunset in Jerusalem (sunrise in Purgatory).
In the eighth heaven among the stars of Gemini.

“Dall’ ora ch’io avea guardato prima
Io vidi mosso me per tutto l’arco
Che fa del mezzo al fine il primo clima;
Si ch’io vedea di là da Gade il varco
Folle d’Ulisse. e di qua presso il lito
Nel qual si fece Europa dolce carco;
E più mi fora discoperto il sito
Di questa Aiuola, ma il sol procedea
Sotto i miei piedi un segno e più partito.”
_Par._ xxvii. 79-87.

“Since the first time that I had downward looked
I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
Which the first climate makes from midst to end;
So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses
Past Gades, and this side well nigh[454] the shore
Whereon became Europa a sweet burden;
And of this threshing-floor the site to me
Were more unveiled, but the sun was preceding
Under my feet, a sign and more removed.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [454] Or “nigh me:” “presso” may mean either. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. THE INFERNO.

Using the above table as a guide, we may now see how Dante uses the movements of the heavenly bodies both for time and direction, and we shall discover how long his journey takes.

Dante has spent a night in a dark forest. The moon was then full; but we only learn this later, when Virgil reminds him of it, and he himself mentions it to Forese, when talking in the Purgatorio. At dawn he finds himself at the foot of a hill on which are already shining the first rays of the morning sun—the planet which leads all aright by every path. The sun rises: it is in Aries, consequently the moon, being full, must be in Libra, and must have set as the sun rose, i.e. at about 6 a.m. Virgil appears, rescues the poet from three terrible beasts, and announces that he has come to conduct him through Hell and Purgatory, and to lead him to Beatrice, who will guide him to Paradise.

On the evening of the same day, at twilight, the poets enter the Inferno. This great subterranean cavity, shaped like an inverted cone (see fig. 45), is divided into nine circles, in which the different classes of sinners are punished. In this blind world of eternal darkness no star shines, and the sun is never once mentioned as timegiver; when Virgil wishes to remind Dante that they must hasten, he refers to the position of moon or stars, and the former is called “La Donna che qui regge.”[455]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [455] “The Lady who rules here.” _Inf._ x. 80. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

After passing through four circles, Virgil says that every star is now sinking which was ascending when he started, indicating that it is now six hours since they entered the Inferno, or soon after midnight. He does not mean that all these stars are setting, but that they have crossed the meridian, and are at some point of their descent towards the west. Strictly speaking this does not apply to stars north of the equator, since they take more than six hours to reach the meridian, being above the horizon for more than twelve. Perhaps Virgil is thinking chiefly of the constellations of the zodiac.

The poets cross the fifth circle, enter the “basso Inferno”[456] or city of Dis, and on the edge of the precipice which borders the circle of the Heretics they sit while Virgil explains the system of the several circles. Then he expresses a wish to continue the journey, for the Fishes (of the zodiac) are quivering on the horizon, and the Wain lies to the north-west. As it is the time of the Vernal Equinox, and the sun is in Aries, Pisces is the zodiacal sign immediately preceding the sun, and begins to rise about four in the morning. The part of Ursa Major called the Wain is somewhat less than 180° distant from Pisces; hence when the latter appears on the eastern horizon the former will be in the west (and of course always in the north). The “Caurus” of the Latins was the wind from the north-west.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [456] “Lower Hell.” _Inf._ viii. 75. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

They descend a cliff over loose stones which roll under the unaccustomed weight of Dante’s living feet. Virgil tells him that both here and elsewhere in Hell the ancient rocks were riven by an earthquake which immediately preceded the triumphant descent of Christ after His crucifixion. So mighty was the shock that he thought the universe was dissolving into chaos by the force of love, as Empedocles had said must happen periodically. At the base of the cliff they cross the river Phlegethon, then pass through the wood of the Harpies, and walk along the stone banks of a conduit which afterwards falls with thunderous roar down a steep precipice. On the burning sand through which the conduit runs, Dante sees Brunetto Latini, and tells him that it was only yesterday that he escaped from the Forest. The monster Geryon carries them down the precipice, and they reach the ten Pits of Malebolge, which like so many moats surround the central Depth.

When looking down upon the astrologers in the fourth Pit, Virgil again hastens Dante on, telling him that now Cain and the thorns—by which he means the moon, alluding to the legend[457]—is on the boundary of the two hemispheres, and already touching the waves below Seville. The two hemispheres are those of the habitable earth whose centre is Jerusalem, and the uninhabitable with Purgatory at its centre: the moon, therefore, is just setting as seen from Jerusalem, and in the Inferno the time is Jerusalem time. It is here that Virgil adds, “And yesternight the moon was full:” did we not know this, the fact that she was setting would give no clue to the time. When full, she set as the sun rose, that was at 6 a.m.; now, therefore, she is setting after sunrise, between six and seven in the morning;[458] and this is how Virgil tells Dante, without mentioning the sun, that a new day has begun.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [457] _Cf. Par._ ii. 48-51.

[458] The retardation is not likely to be more than the average of 50 minutes, and may be less, because the moon is in Libra, and therefore going south. This tends to diminish the interval between one moonset and the next in the northern hemisphere, just as the days get shorter when the sun goes south in autumn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The poets accordingly hasten on to the bridge above the next Pit, the fifth, and here the demons treacherously mislead them by assuring them that the next bridge directly on their way is broken down, but the one to the left is standing. The anniversary of the catastrophe is precisely determined by Malacoda, the chief demon of the band, as five hours later than the present hour on the preceding day. There can be no doubt that he refers to the same earthquake as Virgil described when descending the stony cliff, and all commentators are agreed to this. The time now, therefore, is five hours before midday, _i.e._ 7 a.m., since it was at midday that Dante believed Christ to have died.[459]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [459] Some think the interval between this reference and the last almost too short, but the words do not indicate that Malacoda spoke on the stroke of seven! and the moon may have set at about 6.30. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scenes with the demons follow, the breathless escape into the next Pit, of the Hypocrites, and the horrors of the Pit of the Thieves.

Then for a short space, when the suffering and the murk of Hell is becoming almost intolerable, we are suddenly lifted into the upper air by the narrative of Ulysses—into the pure air and the vast spaces of the southern ocean, and we see once more the skies. We follow the adventurers to the regions beyond the sun, the world where no one lives; we see all the stars of the other pole, and the moon shines down upon us. Too soon comes the tragic end of the story, and the waters close over the ship; the shade of Ulysses passes on, and we are once more in the “buio d’ inferno.”[460]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [460] “Darkness of Hell.” _Purg._ xvi. 1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the next Pit, that of the Schismatics, as Dante stands ready to weep for pity on the bridge above it, Virgil reproaches him for delaying, for little remains now of the time permitted for seeing the Inferno, and already the moon is beneath their feet. This is about an hour after midday; for if the moon were full she would be just opposite the sun, hence under our feet when the sun is on the meridian, _i.e._ at noon; but this is one day after Full Moon, and therefore she does not reach the position till about an hour later.

The tenth and last Pit is traversed, and when the giant Antæus has lifted them down into the sorrowful pit towards which all the rest of Hell converges, the poets have nearly reached the centre of the earth. For they have been descending continually, finding a slight fall between each circle, and between the great divisions of different classes of sin, three sharp steep falls—the cliff descending to the River of blood and other circles of the violent, the precipice down which Geryon carried them to the Malebolge of Fraud, and the Dark Pit to the bottom of which Antæus conveyed them, where in the Frozen Lake treachery was punished. Last of all, at the very centre and bottom of the whole “dolorous kingdom” of Lucifer, they see its King, and Virgil says all has been seen, and it is time to depart, for Night is rising again.

Thus we see that the journey through the Inferno has taken exactly the time from one sunset to another, twenty-four hours.

Now Virgil seizes the shaggy side of the fiend, while the monstrous wings are raised, and with Dante clinging to him climbs down the side, as far as the hip; here with difficulty and labour the master turns round, so that his head is where his feet were, and climbs up, panting, so that Dante thinks they are returning. But when the ascent has been made, and both poets sit down to rest, Dante sees to his astonishment that the frozen lake is gone, the head and wings of Lucifer are gone, they are looking down upon him, and see only his legs which are directed upwards! To add to Dante’s bewilderment, Virgil now says, “Rise, for the way is long and the road is bad, and the sun has already returned to middle-tierce,” which, as we have seen, means at the time of the equinox 7.30 in the morning. Night was just beginning in the dreadful place they have so recently left, but now for the first time Virgil mentions the sun as giving them the time, and it is early morning.

The explanation is that the point which they passed with so great an effort is the exact centre of the world; they are now on its further side, and above them is the other hemisphere, where all is ocean save the island of Purgatory. Virgil explains how it was through the fall of Lucifer from Heaven that all the land except Purgatory is in one hemisphere, and that there is a cavity through which they may now climb to the opposite hemisphere. When Lucifer fell, all the land which then existed in the unknown hemisphere fled for fear of him, sinking under the sea, and then escaping round the globe settled in the inhabited hemisphere. It may be, he adds, that then the earth in the interior fled away from him upwards to form land in this hemisphere (Purgatory) and thus an empty space is left here. Up this, which is the same length as the tunnel of the Inferno, they climb, guided through the darkness by the sound of a little brook which has worn its winding way down the rock. On this route there is nothing to detain them, for they are alone in the darkness, but it presumably takes much longer to ascend than it did to descend, for climbing without a pause it takes about twenty-three hours (from the centre) to reach that round hole in the rocks through which at last they once more see the stars, just before the dawn of a new day.

3. PURGATORY.

Leaving Earth’s centre at sunset by Jerusalem time, sunrise by Purgatory time, the poets emerge next morning by starlight when the morning star is making all the orient smile. Henceforth Dante does not need to be told how moon or stars are standing in the sky: he has but to look up, and see the sun and sometimes the moon by day, the stars and sometimes the moon by night. The Inferno was like one long dark night, Paradise will be one brilliant day; in Purgatory the sun rises four times and sets three times, before Dante reaches the summit, and thence rises to Paradise with Beatrice.

“Lo bel pianeta che ad amar conforta”[461] is of course Venus: if there were any doubt about this, the words used concerning the dawn of the last morning on the Mountain would solve it, for there “Cytherea” is spoken of as shining in the east on the mountain. She is in Pisces, the sign which rises about two hours before Aries, or 4 a.m. at this season, and as the stars are still clearly visible, it is about 5 a.m. The poets have evidently come up from the subterranean passage facing east, for they see Venus first, then Dante turns to his right (south) and sees the four brilliant stars near the south pole, then turning towards the north pole he sees that the Wain has disappeared beneath the horizon, and close beside him he finds Cato, on whose face the Four Stars are shining. Cato tells them that the sun, which is about to rise, will be their guide to reach the Mountain, and as they first go down to the shore, following his instructions, daylight begins to appear.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [461] “The fair planet which kindles love.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

While they are still on the shore the sun reaches the point just below the horizon, for he is described as just touching the western horizon of the other hemisphere, whose zenith is above Jerusalem, and night is just rising on the eastern horizon of that hemisphere. Where the poets are the rose colour in the east is turning to orange, just before the sun rises. It rises over their horizon while they are watching a light far over the sea, which with almost incredible rapidity draws near, becomes visible as a vessel, touches land, the spirits disembark, and the celestial pilot “sen gì, come venne, veloce.”[462] The sun has now driven Capricorn from the mid sky with his bright beams, that is, the stars have become invisible in bright daylight, and fig. 46 shows that when Aries rises over the eastern horizon Capricorn will be overhead. But the sun is still very low, so swift was the coming of the spirits, for Dante’s shadow is not yet visible to them: it is by his breathing that they perceive he is a living man. It is only after the meeting with Casella, and the dispersal of the spirits by Cato, that the sun, still red with sunrise tints, makes Dante’s shadow fall in front of him as the poets are walking westward towards the mountain. He is alarmed not to see Virgil’s shadow on the ground beside it, and is told that the body within which Virgil once had cast a shadow lies buried in a country where it is now the time of vespers. That is, in Italy it is three o’clock in the afternoon: hence in Purgatory, where they now are, it is six in the morning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [462] “Departed, as he came, swiftly.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 6 a.m. Aries is just rising, Libra the opposite
constellation is just setting, while Capricornus
has just reached the meridian. The signs follow one
another in their diurnal course over the sky in the
direction shown by the arrows, circling parallel to
the celestial equator.]

At the foot of the mountain they are joined by a band of spirits, and walking very slowly with them, conversing with Manfred, so much time passes that to Dante’s surprise, when they reach the place where the ascent is to be made (still on the eastern side), the sun has travelled fully fifty degrees since rising. As the sun passes over 360° in 24 hours, this indicates about 3½ hours after sunrise, or 9.30 a.m.[463] The climb to the first ledge is slow and very arduous, for as Virgil explains, the lower slopes are the most difficult, since the act of climbing becomes more and more easy as the ascent is made. Resting on a ledge, they look back and at the sun, and note how it has travelled north, so that it now strikes their left shoulders; and after a conversation with Belacqua Virgil begins to mount again, saying that it is noon. The other hemisphere consequently is all in darkness, from Ganges (“la riva”[464]) to Morocco.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [463] If the meaning is that the sun is now 50° _above the horizon_, this would indicate a later hour, nearing midday, for the sun does not rise vertically in this latitude, and reaches only 58° at noon at the time of the equinox. But the first explanation is the more probable.

[464] “The shore.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other spirits have been met and spoken with, and they are still climbing when evening comes, and Dante, thinking he is to reach the summit of the mountain and see Beatrice that day, entreats Virgil to hasten. “See,” he says, “how the mountain now casts a shadow.” For the sun has travelled round to the west, and the poets, still on its eastern side, are in deep shadow: this explains how, when they meet Sordello, he does not recognize that Dante is a living man, as all the spirits until now have done. But Virgil assures him that the way is longer than he knows: before they reach the summit, the sun, now hidden behind the mountain and not causing Dante to cast any shadow, will return again to the east.

Immediately after this, they meet with Sordello, who tells them that it is impossible to climb even one step on the mountain after sunset, and leads them to a flowery valley, in which to rest for the night. The spirits in the valley sing the evening hymn while the sun sets; and it begins to grow dark while Dante is talking with judge Nino, explaining whence he came that morning. As soon as the stars become visible, his eyes seek the southern pole, and fix themselves on three brilliant stars which have taken the place of that constellation of four which he saw some fourteen hours before. The latter have travelled to the south-west, and are hidden behind the mountain, and the new constellation is above the pole towards the east.

Night has risen two steps and part of a third in this place when Dante falls asleep, and the most natural meaning of this is that it is somewhat more than two hours after sunset, or after 8 o’clock, in Purgatory. The moon has not yet risen, since she is like a clock which loses on an average 50 minutes every day.

Since the first morning in the Forest, when she was exactly 12 hours behind the sun and set at six o’clock, three whole days have elapsed,[465] and if she has lost 3 times 50 minutes, or 2½ hours, she will rise 14½ hours after the sun rises, that is 2½ hours after sunset, or at about 8.30. As the retardation varies much, let us say simply that she rises to-night between eight and nine o’clock. She has also moved among the stars, about 13 degrees each day, and as 3 × 13 = 39, and there are 30° in a zodiacal sign, she has passed out of Libra and is in Scorpio. Libra begins to rise at 6 p.m., and Scorpio at a little before 8, therefore part of Scorpio is now above the horizon.[466] This, then, is the meaning of the first two stanzas of Canto ix.: the mistress of Tithonus is the aurora before moonrise (the solar aurora being his wedded wife, according to classical mythology), and this pale aurora is showing white in her balcony of the eastern sky, while on her forehead shine the stars of Scorpio, the cold creature with the stinging tail.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [465] See table on p. 361.

[466] “We must not assume, as some commentators have done, that the signs rise at equal intervals of two hours, although each circles the star sphere in 24 hours. See fig. 46, where the dotted line shows how _e.g._ Cancer, circling parallel with the celestial equator, will rise at a point considerably north of east, and having had to traverse more than 90 degrees since Aries rose due east, will not rise until about 7 hours later, _i.e._ 1 p.m. Conversely Scorpio, following Libra, will rise south of east, and a little _less_ than 2 hours later. The moon’s retardation, therefore, is less in this part of the zodiac than it would otherwise be, and the hour is probably nearer eight than nine.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This curious passage has been otherwise interpreted by some commentators, and Scartazzini calls it “oscuro al superlativo,”[467] a riddle which still waits its Œdipus. According to him, “Titone” should be read “Titan,” the sun-god, and his mistress is Tethys the ocean, which is now shining not under his rays (“fuor delle braccia del suo dolce amico”[468]) but under the rays of the rising moon. This seems far-fetched, and the reading doubtful. In any case, it would indicate the same hour and the same phenomenon (moonrise).

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [467] “Superlatively obscure.”

[468] “Out of the arms of her lover.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Others think that the solar aurora is intended, and explain the “freddo animale”[469] as Pisces, and the “steps” as the watches of the night. But why a terrible tail should be ascribed to a fish is not clear, nor is it easy to see how the third step with which Night ascends could be the hour of dawn. Night, which circles opposite to the sun, surely reaches the culminating point and begins to descend at midnight, just as midday is “il colmo del dì.”[470] Moreover, the third watch would bring us at latest to a little before 3 a.m. To make the “steps” signs of the zodiac is no better; for if Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius have risen, it is midnight; what then can be shining in the east? and on whose forehead are the stars of Scorpio glittering?

On the other hand, all accords well if we accept the first interpretation—the light of the moon just about to rise whitening the eastern sky, some brilliant stars of Scorpio shining there, and Dante falling asleep at the third hour of the night, wearied after his sleepless nights, and the hardest day’s climb that he will have. We need not grudge him his long sleep of nearly twelve hours, as those do who take this passage to indicate midnight or early morning.[471]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [469] “Cold creature.”

[470] “The climax of the day.”

[471] See Moore, _Studies in Dante_ iii. pp. 75-84, for a detailed discussion of this passage. Several commentators have held that lines 1 to 6 describe the dawn of day _elsewhere_; and it is true that it would be nearly 6 a.m. and Pisces would be on the horizon in Italy when the hour was nearly 9 p.m. in Purgatory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Dante wakes the sun has already been up for more than two hours, but a dream which had come to him in the early dawn, at the time when the swallow begins to twitter, has had its counterpart in the truth, that the lady Lucia came at that time and carried him up the mountain side, leaving him outside the Gate of Purgatory when the day was bright.

When this Gate has been passed through, a narrow chasm between the rocks has to be climbed, and the passage is so difficult that it is at least an hour before the poets emerge on the open space of the First Cornice. For the waning moon has already set, and as she has lost another half hour or so during the night, the time of her setting this morning was about 9 a.m.

When Dante next notices the position of the sun, which he is too intent to do for some time, they have travelled some distance along the First Cornice, with its outer edge on their right, and the sixth handmaid is returning from the service of the day, that is, the sixth hour is ended: it is midday, and they have spent nearly three hours here, looking at the rock sculptures and conversing with the spirits.

The ascent to the Second Cornice is made with marvellously little fatigue, as Virgil had promised. There they at first find no one to direct them, so Virgil looks at the sun, and turns westward towards it, taking it as their guide, and they walk for about a mile before encountering any spirits in this circle.

The stairway to the next Cornice is reached at the time of vespers, that is, 3 p.m.; and Dante describes the position of the sun by saying that the portion of sky which it still had to traverse before evening was equal to the portion which is brought into view between the beginning of the day and the end of the third hour, that is, it was three hours before sunset; and he compares this ceaseless motion of the sky, which according to the Ptolemaic system caused the motion of the sun, to an ever-playing child. We need not particularly enquire whether he is thinking of the heaven of the sun, or the Primum Mobile: it may be either, but is most likely simply the diurnal movement in general, made strikingly evident by the sun. The sun’s rays now strike their faces, for they have so far circled the mountain that they are walking towards the west; “Vespero là”[472] means in Purgatory, and “qui”[473] is Italy, where it is midnight now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [472] “Vespers there.”

[473] “Here.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun is low when they reach the third Cornice, and when they emerge from the dense cloudy fog which here envelopes the spirits, Dante gradually sees the ball of the sun as when mists clear away, and he sees that it is just about to set. In fact the low shores at the foot of the mountain are already in shadow. Virgil urges that they make the ascent to the next Circle before darkness comes, and, as each ascent is easier than the last, they are able just to reach the summit before the sun is quite gone. Here Dante sees the stars begin to appear, while he is wondering at the strange law which robs him of power to proceed (as Sordello had warned them) after the sun has set.

They employ this time of forced inaction by talking of the sins which are punished in the several Circles, until all Dante’s questions are answered, and he is beginning to fall asleep. It is at this moment that he first mentions the moon: she is glowing, shaped like a bucket in her present phase, and the stars are paled by her light. She is “belated almost till midnight,” if the epithet “tarda” belongs to her; if it applies to “mezza notte,” then it is almost late midnight when she is seen paling the stars. She ought to have risen about ten o’clock, but Dante does not speak of her rising, so this may mean simply that it was moonlight and starlight at the time of which he is about to speak, viz. nearly the late hour of midnight; or else that since he is now on the northern slope of the mountain, and the moon is in a southern sign, she did not become visible to him till towards midnight. In any case, the “quasi” shows that he is only giving us a rough idea of the time.

But in what sign was she? Her position in the zodiac is described in a peculiarly round-about fashion. Dante says that her course _against the sky_, that is, her monthly motion which is contrary to the diurnal, had taken her to that part of her track in which the sun is when from Rome he is seen to set between Sardinia and Corsica. The straits between these islands lie west and a little south of Rome, therefore the sun sets in that direction when he is going south after passing the autumnal equinox in Libra, and this is just what the moon is doing now. (The sun passes the same point again when coming north, before entering Aries at the spring equinox, but Dante has either forgotten this, or considers it obvious that the first position is meant here).

This is probably all that he means to convey, and if we ask for more exact information, it is almost impossible to tell what degree or even what sign in the zodiac he intends us to understand; for as the straits are nearly two hundred miles from Rome they are quite invisible thence, and we do not know what he thought was their precise direction. The mediæval commentator Benvenuto da Imola says that the position intended is in Scorpio; the moderns usually say Sagittarius, but without explaining how they draw this conclusion. Benvenuto’s is probably simply the position which he thought the moon ought to have in order to agree with what Dante says about her, just as he states that Venus was in Pisces in March 1300, although this was not the case at all, as we shall presently see.

A calculation based on the difference in latitude between Rome and the Straits shows that they are only about 9° south of west, and that the sun, when setting in this direction is about 6° south of the equator: this is the case 15 days after the equinox, which in the beginning of the fourteenth century fell on September 14. Therefore the date at which the sun was seen from Rome setting in the direction between Sardinia and Corsica was the 29th of September, and its position in the zodiac was then the middle of the sign Libra. (Owing to precession, it would be in the _constellation_ Virgo, but we have seen that Dante ignores precession in these references.)

But the moon ought now, on this second night in Purgatory, to have reached at least the last degrees of Scorpio, since on the previous night she rose when the first part was already above the horizon. Dante has therefore made a flagrant mistake with his moon, running her back into Libra again, and falsifying all his previous descriptions—_if_ he knew as much about geography as we do now. But it is only necessary to glance at the map of Henry of Mainz to see that such a supposition would be grotesque. The portolan maps did indeed show the relative positions of Rome, Sardinia, and Corsica, with remarkable accuracy;[474] but as we have already said, it is not in the least likely that Dante had ever seen one of these sailing charts. It was on the classics, and especially on Orosius, that he relied for his geography,[475] and the suggestion of Dr. Moore seems most plausible, that he was here thinking of the Spaniard’s description of Sardinia:—“Habet _ab oriente et borea_ Tyrrenicum mare quod spectat ad portum urbis Romae.”[476] This implies that Sardinia lay south-west of Rome, in a direction such as the sun might have had when setting in November, in Scorpio or Sagittarius.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [474] See for instance the “Carte Pisane,“ and the Central Mediterranean map of Vesconte, dating from about 1300 and 1311 respectively, in Beazley’s _Dawn of Geography_, iii. Latitudes and longitudes are not given, but from certain centres lines radiate to all points of the compass, like great spiders’ webs.

[475] _De Mon._ II. iii. 87-90. etc.

[476] “It is bounded _on the east and north_ by the Tyrrhenian sea, which lies towards the port of Rome,” Moore, _Studies in Dante_ iii. p. 72. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or possibly, when the poet was in Rome in 1301, he may have been watching a sunset in the second week in November, and may have been told, among other pieces of misinformation which are so readily given to visitors to great cities, that he was looking towards the straits which separate Sardinia from Corsica. We can imagine his replying, or thinking: “Then the sun sets behind them when he has nearly finished his course in Scorpio, and is about to yoke his steeds under another star!”[477]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [477] _Purg._ xxxii. 56, 57. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is while the moon is shining on this Cornice that the spirits who purge their sins on it appear, rushing past in haste. Then at last Dante sleeps, and dreams again in the cold moonlit dawn when Aquarius and Pisces are on the horizon (see p. 290).