Dante and the early astronomers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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]

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.

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.

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]

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).

The mountain is full of daylight when Virgil wakes him, and the newly-risen sun shines behind them as they continue their journey, for they had reached the north point of the circle, and are walking now due west. They mount almost immediately to the Fifth Cornice, where presently they are startled by a violent trembling of the mountain followed by a mighty shout of “Gloria in excelsis” from all the spirits. Statius joins them, and from him they learn that this was no earthquake, for since passing the gate of Purgatory they are in a region too lofty for such disturbances to be felt, or for rain or snow or dew to fall; the mountain trembles, and the shout of praise follows, when a soul rises, purified and ready to ascend to Paradise. With Statius they climb to the Sixth Cornice, and then, looking round, they see that the fifth handmaid of the sun’s chariot is directing its upward course, that is, it is the fifth hour, or between 10 and 11 a.m. As usual, they walk on with the outer edge of the circle on their right. It is here that we are reminded, as once in the Inferno, that only a certain time is allowed, for while Dante is looking eagerly at the first mysterious tree Virgil gently urges him onward:—

It is here also that Dante informs his old friend Forese Donati and other spirits, who are all astonished at the sight of his shadow, that he is a living man who was rescued by Virgil some days ago, when the sister of the sun was round (referring of course to the full moon in the forest), and he points to the sun. Now a curious question arises: Dante was in sunshine in the early morning; he is in sunshine now, and has been walking all morning in the same direction in which the sun was moving; how is it then that Statius did not notice his shadow, but had to be told that he was not a spirit?[479] If the Mountain had been a small hill, it would have been quite easy to walk so large a part of a circle round it, in a short time, that the poets would have been in shadow until the sun caught them up again when they lingered talking on the Sixth Cornice; but the Mountain was so large that a whole day’s walking only brought them a quarter of the way round, i.e. from the east side to the north, and it was evidently a distance of many miles.[480] It is difficult to believe that Dante has forgotten, because he is so careful throughout to mention the surprise of the spirits except when his shadow could not be seen for one reason or another. It is true that in the latitude of Purgatory (32° south, as that of Jerusalem is 32° north), the sun rises rather steeply, which makes it easier to get into the shade in the early morning while circling a mountain.[481] On the other hand a simpler solution offers itself in the text. Statius approaches Dante and Virgil from behind, and they only stop and turn their faces to him for a few moments while Virgil returns his greeting, then walk on quickly while Statius makes his surprised reply: “What! if you are spirits....” If he has not yet quite overtaken them he cannot see Dante’s shadow, which Dante himself is screening from view as it falls in front of him, the morning sun being still at his back, and Virgil explains at once that his companion is a living man.

In spite of their haste, the three poets remain about four hours in this sixth Cornice; and when they reach the ascent to the next it was indeed time to climb without any delay, for the sun had left the meridian to the sign which follows Aries, viz. Taurus, and Night, “che opposita a lui cerchia,”[482] had left the meridian of the opposite hemisphere to Scorpio. Aries at the time of the equinox begins to cross the meridian at midday, Taurus at two o’clock, and Gemini at four[483]: therefore it is now between two and four in the afternoon. The three poets hasten therefore (Statius still accompanying Virgil and Dante), like men who pause for nothing on their way, whatever the road be like; and a question Dante is longing to ask with regard to the form of purgation last seen is put and answered as they follow one another up the narrow stair; as soon as they reach the top, they turn to the right, as usual, without hesitation or delay. As Dante walks cautiously between the outer edge of this Cornice and the fire which bursts forth from the inner wall of rock, all the blue of the western sky is already changing into ash-white, and he has come so far round the Mountain that the evening rays strike his right shoulder. With one of the many touches which show Dante’s close observation and his vivid realization of the scene he is describing, he says here that his shadow falling on the flame makes it appear a deeper red, and this is observed by the spirits. When they reach the spot where, on the further side of the flames, the chanting Angel guides them across to the last ascent, the sun is very near to its setting. Its burning noonday beams are shining on the waves of Ganges, its first morning beams quiver over Jerusalem, and Spain lying under Libra is wrapped in midnight gloom; hence it is beginning to set at sea-level in Purgatory. High on the Mountain it still shines, but when the poets have crossed the flames, the voice of the Angel persuades them to hasten their steps before the darkness comes. The stair mounts through the rock on the west side of the Mountain so that the low sun casts Dante’s shadow in front of him as he climbs. And he has only climbed a few steps when they are all aware that the sun has completely set because the shadow disappears. Before the colour has all faded from the west, and the whole vast range of the horizon seen from this height has become one uniform tint, each of the three makes a bed of one step, and between the high and narrow enclosing rocky walls Dante sees the stars come out, much brighter and much larger than he has ever seen them before. No moonlight dims them, for moonrise will be late to-night, long after Dante has fallen asleep.

Once again, for the third and last time, he has a prophetic dream in the early dawn; and if we compare these three parallel passages, we find that each begins with the same words “Nell’ ora.”[484] The first time the ideas connected with the time are wholly sorrowful, for it is said to be the hour when the swallow begins to twitter, perchance in memory of her former woes—alluding to the tragic tale of Procne and Philomel. The second is a depressing time, for it is the cold hour when, the day’s heat being all spent, the chilled earth cannot overcome the influence of the cold planets such as the moon or Saturn, but there is a thought of hope in the stars of the Greater Fortune seen rising in the east, in a sky which is now scarcely dark to them. The third is all joy, for it is the hour when Cytherea (the planet Venus), burning ever in the fire of love, shines first upon the mountain. Dante’s sleep flees from him as the shades of darkness flee on all sides, chased by the brightness before sunrise; and when Virgil tells him that to-day he shall reach the goal of his desires, he speeds up the remaining steps of the stair, almost as if on wings.

The poets arrived on the shores of Purgatory, as we saw, facing east, and now that they have attained the summit of the mountain, coming up the western slope, they again face east, and the just risen sun shines in their faces. Dante walks towards it: a breeze fans his forehead and causes all the trees to bend in the direction of the shadow thrown at sunrise by the Mountain (i.e. westwards), and the murmur of this gentle wind in the branches forms a bass to the treble of the singing birds who are greeting the morning hours. For a few steps the stream of Lethe stays his steps in this direction, but he soon reaches a bend, and once more “a levante mi rendei.”[485] The symbolical procession which accompanies Beatrice comes towards him from the east, and after he has crossed the river Lethe and joined the procession beside the Car in which Beatrice is throned, all turn to the sun, which by this time must have travelled some distance towards the north. After the vision of the disasters which befell the holy Car, and after Beatrice has spoken with Dante again, they reach the fountain whence Eunoe flows, and now the sun is on the meridian and it is noon, though (as Dante reminds us) different places have different meridians, so that it is not noon everywhere else. He is bathed in the holy waters, and thus, all having been accomplished for which he has visited these regions, he is “puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”[486]

Hell was entered at twilight, Purgatory at dawn, the ascent to Paradise is made at noon, “il colmo del dì.”[487] The time spent in Purgatory is three days and the morning of a fourth, which is the seventh from the beginning of the vision.