The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

  The beings in the next bright wheel you see are titled Thrones of the Eternal Aspect; and they complete the first great trinity.

  And know that all these raptures are fulfilled to the degree that each can penetrate the Truth in which all questioning is stilled.

  Hence one may see that the most blest condition is based on the act of seeing, not of love, love being the act that follows recognition.

  They see as they are worthy. They are made to their degrees by grace and their own good will. And so their ranks proceed from grade to grade.

  The second trinity that blossoms here in this eternal springtime of delight whose leaves nocturnal Aries does not sear,

  warble ‘Hosannah!’ everlastingly, and their three melodies sound the three degrees of blessedness that form this trinity.

  These are the divinities therein found: Dominations first, then Virtues, then, in order, the ranks of Powers within the widest round.

  In the next two dances of this exhaltation whirl Principalities first, then the Archangels. The last contains the Angelic jubilation.

  All fix their eyes on high and as their sight ascends their power descends to all below. So are all drawn, as all draw, to God’s height.

  Dionysius gave himself to contemplation of these same orders with such holy zeal that he named and ranked them just as I have done.

  Gregory, later, differed with his conclusions. But hardly had he wakened in this heaven than he was moved to laugh at his own delusions.

  And if a truth so hidden was made clear by one still in the weight of mortal dust, you need not wonder: one who saw it here

  returned and told him this: this and much more of the bright truth these circles hold in store.”

  NOTES

  1-21. The figure is based on Psalms, XIX, 1: “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” Wherever we look in the Primum Mobile, Dante tells us in lines 13-15, we see the glory of God.

  He proceeds to describe this glory as a vision of God and the Hierarchies of the Angels. (What David saw dimly from Earth, Dante sees in detail at heaven’s height.)

  But first the image is approached by seeing it reflected in the heaven of Beatrice’s eyes (revelation) to which Dante’s soul is ever drawn by love. From the revelation of Love (a heaven in itself), Dante turns to the glory itself, to find the fact in exact accord with the reflection.

  It is an elaborate and sublimely conceived figure, and will certainly do as an example of Dante’s fully let out paradisal style, of the high range of his rhetoric as opposed to some of the deliberate coarsening of style he found necessary in treating the Inferno.

  6. directly: Not reflected.

  14. my own: His own eyes. that heaven: The Primum Mobile.

  16. a Point: The term is used in its strict mathematical sense to symbolize God as an immaterial and nonspatial essence.

  19. from here: From Earth.

  26. the fastest of the spheres: The Primum Mobile.

  32. Juno’s messenger: Iris, the rainbow. As Juno’s messenger, the rainbow is conceived as descending from heaven to earth; at most, therefore, as a quarter of a circle. Were the rainbow to be extended to a full 180° across the sky, the distance it could span at its greatest spread could not equal the circumference of the seventh ring.

  21-36. THE HIERARCHY OF ANGELS. They surround God as the heavenly spheres surround the Earth, but their motions, contrary to those of the heavenly spheres, are greater as they lie closer to the center. Opposition (paradox) is a natural part of the language of mysticism. These spheres seem at first to be a sort of counter-universe. But note that the principle of both “universes” remains the same, for in either system, the spheres have greater motion and greater “virtue” as their placement draws nearer to God. In lines 52-57 below, Dante begs Beatrice to explain the mystery of this seeming paradox and in 58-78 Beatrice resolves Dante’s uncertainties, going on then (97-129) to set forth the nine orders of the angelic beings grouped in three trinities: First Trinity: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Second Trinity: Dominations, Virtues, Powers; Third Trinity: Principalities, Archangels, Angels.

  36. the first one: The first ring. Not to be confused with The Point.

  37. which: The first ring.

  38. the Scintilla: God. The Point.

  50. more godlike: Possessed of greater powers as indicated by greater speed and greater brilliance.

  56. the form: Platonic form, the essential, unchanging noumenal concept of which any exemplum is an instance.

  59. since none has tried it: Small wonder. Since Dante is the first to have reached this height of Heaven and to have returned from it, Dante is the first to state the problem.

  58-60. BEATRICE’S REPLY. The gist of Beatrice’s reply is that Dante is to observe a marvelous correspondence between each of the physical spheres and its assigned Angel Intelligence. Yet the juxtaposition of these two, so to speak, mirror images, speaks a masterful conception. God conceived as the center of the Angel Hierarchy and God conceived as the circumference of the physical universe, are not two but one, twin manifestations of one creative force; and the interplay of these two images is powerfully relevant to Dante’s belief that physical and spiritual law co-exist and interplay as twin manifestations of one will. God is the radiating center of all spiritual energy and He is simultaneously the all-containing bound and limit of physical creation.

  Yet, aside from the magnificence of Dante’s conception here, there remain problems of interpretation in Beatrice’s reply. If the largest physical sphere corresponds to the smallest angelic sphere, what then of the assertion that a larger body contains more good than a smaller one, if both are perfect? Dante, even as a pilgrim awaiting instruction, must have grasped that the greater power results from closer proximity to God: the whole journey of the Comedy is scaled to that proximity. It is odd that Beatrice, having mentioned so much else, does not mention proximity to God as the essence of the mystery.

  In accepting the beauty of Beatrice’s revelation, Dante certainly implies that we must ponder these points. Perhaps the central clue is in lines 73-75: Dante does not see the Angel Hierarchy as it is but as it manifests itself to him in the form of nine spheres. Seen from all lower levels, these spheres are contained in God and surrounded by Him, for God is Allness. Seen in this nonphysical manifestation at the height of Heaven, the spheres surround Him, for God is nondimensional essence.

  65. the power: The “virtue” of each, its power to influence the course of what lies below it. The power, of course, descends to each as a ray from God, more powerfully to the nearer spheres, but in each the amount of power is infused through all parts of the sphere equally.

  70. this sphere: The Primum Mobile, the source of all motion in the physical universe. As the most powerful of the spheres and as the one closest to God, it corresponds to the inner ring of the Angel Hierarchy, the Seraphim.

  78. Intelligence: The Angel Intelligence of each sphere.

  81. Boreas: The North Wind. When he blows straight out of his mouth the wind is from the north, which in Italy is from the Alps. Italians call that wind “il tramontano,” and think of it as the stormy source of bitter winter cold. When Boreas blows from his left cheek, the resultant northeaster (“il grecale”) is thought of as a source of storms and of cloudy skies. But when he blows from the right (the gentler) cheek, Italians experience “il maestrale,” the sky-clearing wind from the northwest.

  88. every angel sphere: The rings of the Angel Hierarchy. They react to the perfection of Beatrice’s answer with a sparkling shower of joy.

  91. every spark: Dante says only “iron that boils.” But molten iron does not shoot sparks in the quantity Dante suggests unless it is hammered or poured. spun with its spinning ring: On earth, sparks tend to fly away from their sources. Here they stay in place, keeping pace with the rotation of the heavenly ring. The sparks may be taken as the individual angel intelligences within each ring; the added brightness of each, as evidence of the
increase of its joy.

  92-93. the chessboard of the king: The legend is still common and variously told. In one form, the inventor of chess offered the game to the king, who was so pleased with it that he ordered the inventor to name his own reward. The inventor asked that a single grain of wheat be placed on the first square of the board, two on the second, four on the third, and so on until the 64th increment was reached. The king, no mathematician, agreed gladly. It must have been at about the twelfth square (1,080,576 grains, if my figuring is sound) that the king began to learn the power of mathematics and that the number of grains would mount by the 64th square to something more than 18,000,000,000,000,000,000.

  99. have shown you: As ever in Heaven, Dante does not see through the power of his own senses; rather, visions are manifested to him out of caritas. These symbolic visions cannot be taken as the thing itself, for the mystery of heavenly being is beyond Dante; as, in one sense, it is beyond all but God. Dante is offered symbolic representations at a level he can begin to grasp with the aid of Beatrice (Revelation).

  100-102. Being led, they chase the reins: The figure should become clear if one thinks of the opposite condition of drawing back from the reins. The Angel Intelligences are all eagerness to pursue what leads them ever faster. to resemble the Point, etc.: To make themselves more godlike. Pride, the first of sins, it must be noted, springs from man’s desire to be himself God. The Angel Intelligences yearn toward God in love (as it is man’s charge to make himself over in God’s image), not in rebellion, as Satan was moved.

  102-105. Dante, ever a symbolic numerologist, divides the nine ranks into three trinities. Each rank, likely, expresses an aspect of God. The first two ranks of the first trinity may well be taken as being entirely beyond human understanding. Of the Thrones he has already spoken in IX, 61-62: “On high are mirrors (you say ‘Thrones’) and these reflect God’s judgment to us.” Thus the Thrones would seem to be God’s aspect as Supreme Justice.

  106. all these raptures: All the angelic beings of all the nine ranks, not simply those of the first trinity.

  108. the Truth in which all questioning is stilled: God.

  116-117. springtime . . . nocturnal Aries: In spring the sun is in Aries and its stars are not visible in the day sky. In autumn the sun has moved to the opposite sign (Libra) and the stars of Aries are visible at night. Thus nocturnal Aries may be said to be the sign under which the plants that blossomed in spring turn to seared leaves.

  118. warble: The idea of “warbling” Hosannah may seem odd and yet it is native to the language Dante has invented for his Paradiso. The angel beings sing their praises with an ecstasy akin to the nisus of birds. The word Dante uses is “sverna” (svernare—literally, “to unwinter,” and by extension, “to sound the glad spring song of birds”).

  121-123. therein: Within the second trinity. the widest round: The third of the second trinity.

  124. dances: Ranks, orders. Called dances to denote exaltation. 130. Dionysius: St. Dionysius the Areopagite. A Greek mystic of the first century A.D. His conversion by St. Paul is recorded in Acts, xvii, 34. To him was attributed the thesis De coelesti hierarchia, from which Dante draws the details for his Angel Hierarchy.

  133. Gregory: St. Gregory (circa 540-604), called “the Great.” Pope from 590. Among many other writings he revised Dionysius’ treatise on the angel hierarchies. As Beatrice tells it, he had hardly awakened in heaven before he saw how wrong he had been, whereupon he was moved to laugh at his own delusions. His error, to be sure, was a harmless mistake; not a heresy, nor in any way sinful.

  138. one who saw it here: St. Paul (II Corinthians, xii, 2 ff.) tells of his ascent to the third heaven “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know.” Dante’s presumption here is that Paul told Dionysius what he had seen in heaven, and thus the accuracy of Dionysius’ description (though if he were merely reporting what he had been told by Paul, he need hardly have given himself to such zealous contemplation as Beatrice ascribes to him in 130-132).

  140. hold in store: A rhyme-forced addition. Dante says simply “of the truth of those circles.” Since that truth is the revelation that awaits the pious soul, I hope I may argue that “hold in store” is implicit.

  Canto XXIX

  THE NINTH SPHERE: PRIMUM MOBILE

  The Angel Hierarchy

  BEATRICE, gazing on God, sees Dante’s unspoken questions and explains to him GOD’S INTENT IN WILLING THE CREATION, THE ETERNITY OF GOD, and the SIMULTANEITY OF CREATION.

  She proceeds then to explain the TIME FROM THE CREATION TO THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS, HOW THE LOVING ANGELS BEGAN THEIR BLISSFUL ART, and that GRACE IS RECEIVED ACCORDING TO THE ARDOR OF LOVE.

  She then DENOUNCES FOOLISH TEACHINGS, and concludes by pointing out THE INFINITY AND THE DISTINCTION OF THE ANGELS.

  When Latona’s twins, one setting in the sign of Aries and the other rising in Libra, are belted by the same horizon’s line;

  as long then as the zenith’s fulcrum bears their perfect balance, till one and other leave their common belt and change their hemispheres,

  so long did Beatrice, smiling her delight, stay silent, her eyes fixed on the Fixed Point whose power had overcome me at first sight.

  Then she began: “I do not ask, I say what you most wish to hear, for I have seen it where time and space are focused in one ray.

  Not to increase Its good—no mil nor dram can add to true perfection, but that reflections of his reflection might declare ‘I am’—

  in His eternity, beyond time, above all other comprehension, as it pleased Him, new loves were born of the Eternal Love.

  Nor did He lie asleep before the Word sounded above these waters; ‘before’ and ‘after’ did not exist until His voice was heard.

  Pure essence, and pure matter, and the two joined into one were shot forth without flaw, like three bright arrows from a three-string bow.

  And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal a ray shines so that nothing intervenes between its coming and being, which is total;

  so the threefold effect rayed from its Sire into created being, without beginning and without interval, instantly entire.

  Order was the co-created fact of every essence; and at the peak of all, these angel loves created as pure act.

  Pure potential held the lowest ground; between, potential-and-act were tied together so tight they nevermore shall be unbound.

  Hieronymus wrote to you of the long span of centuries in which such beings existed before the other world was made for man;

  but the Scribes of the Holy Ghost clearly declare the true account in many passages, as you will see if you will read with care.

  It can, in part, be grasped by intellection, which cannot grant such powers could long exist apart from the functioning of their perfection.

  This much will answer where, and when, and how the angels were created; and so are quenched the first three flames of your desire to know.

  Nor could you count to ten and ten before some of those angels fell from Heaven to roil the bedrock of the elemental core.

  The rest remained here and around their Cause began the art you see, moved by such bliss that their glad revolutions never pause.

  It was accursèd pride for which they fell, the pride of that dark principal you saw crushed by the world’s whole weight in deepest Hell.

  These you see here were humble, undemanding, and prompt in their acknowledgment of the Good that made them capable of such understanding;

  whereby their vision was exalted higher by illuminating grace and their own merit, in which their wills are changeless and entire.

  Now hear this and, beyond all doubt, believe it: the good of grace is in exact proportion to the ardor of love that opens to receive it.

  And now, if you have heeded what I said, you should be able to observe this college and gather much more without further aid.

  But since your earthly schoolmen argue still that the angelic nature is composed of understanding, memory, and will,
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  I will say this much more to help you see the truth that is confounded there below by the equivocations of sophistry:

  these beings, since their first bliss in the sight of God’s face, in which all things are revealed, have never turned their eyes from their delight.

  No angel’s eye, it follows, can be caught by a new object; hence, they have no need of memory, as does divided thought.

  So men, awake but dreaming, dare to claim, believing it or not, they speak the truth—though the hypocrite’s is the greater sin and shame.

  You mortals do not walk a single way in your philosophies, but let the thought of being acclaimed as wise lead you astray.

  Yet Heaven bears even this with less offense than it must feel when it sees Holy Writ neglected, or perverted of all sense.