what sun, or what candles dispersed thy darkness so that thou
didst thereafter set thy sails behind the Fisherman?"[9] And he
to him, "Thou first directedst me toward Parnassus to drink in
its grots, and then, on the way to God, thou enlightenedst me.
Thou didst like him, who goes by night, and carries the light
behind him, and helps not himself, but makes the persons
following him wise, when thou saidst, 'The ages are renewed;
Justice returns, and the primeval time of man, and a new progeny
descends from heaven.'[10] Through thee I became a poet, through
thee a Christian. But in order that thou mayst better see that
which I sketch, I will stretch out my hand to color it. Already
was the whole world teeming with the true belief, sown by the
messengers of the eternal realm; and these words of thine touched
upon just now were in harmony with the new preachers, wherefore I
adopted the practice of visiting them. They came to me then
appearing so holy, that, when Domitian persecuted them, not
without my tears were their lamentings. And so long as I
remained on earth I succored them; and their upright customs
made me scorn all other sects. And before I had led the Greeks to
the rivers of Thebes in my verse, I received baptism; but out of
fear I was a secret Christian, for a long while making show of
paganism: and this lukewarmness made me circle round the fourth
circle,[11] longer than to the fourth century. Thou, therefore,
that didst lift for me the covering that was hiding from me such
great good as I say, while we have remainder of ascent, tell me
where is our ancient Terence, Caecilius, Plautus, and Varro, if
thou knowest it; tell me if they are damned, and in what region?"
"They, and Persius, and I, and many others," replied my Leader,
"are with that Greek whom the Muses suckled more than any other
ever, in the first girdle of the blind prison. Oftentimes we
discourse of the mountain[12] that hath our nurses[13] always
with itself. Euripides is there with us, and Antiphon, Simonides,
Agathon, and many other Greeks who of old adorned their brows
with laurel. There of thine own people[14] are seen Antigone,
Deiphile, and Argia, and Ismene sad[15] even as she was. There
she is seen who showed Langia;[16] there is the daughter of
Tiresias and Thetis,[17] and Deidamia with her sisters."

[1] Quid non mortalia peetora yogis,
Auri sacra fames?
Aeneid. iii. 56-57.

[2] I should be in Hell among the prodigals rolling heavy weights
and striking them against those rolled by the avaricious. See
Hell, Canto VII.

[3] A reference to the symbolic short hair of prodigals in Hell.

[4] As, for instance, avarice and prodigality.

[5] In the Thebaid.

[6] Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of Jocasta. See Hell,
Canto XXVI.

[7] On her lyre.

[8] From the general course of thy poems.

[9] St. Peter.

[10] The famous prophecy of the Cumaean Sibyl, very early applied
to the coming of Christ:--
Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
Jam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna:
Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.--Ecloga, iv. 5-7.

[11] Where love too slack is punished.

[12] Parnassus.

[13] The Muses.

[14] The people celebrated in thy poems.

[15] Two pairs of sisters, and, of the four, Ismene, sister of
Antigone, had the hardest lot.

[16] Hypsipyle, who showed the fountain Langia to Adrastus, and
the other kings, when their army was perishing with thirst.

[17] Manto is the only daughter of Tiresias, who is mentioned by
Statius; but Manto is in the eighth circle in Hell. See Canto XX.


Now both the poets became silent, once more intent on looking
around, free from the ascent and from the walls; and four of the
handmaids of the day were now remaining behind,[1] and the fifth
was at the pole,[2] directing still upward its burning horn, when
my Leader, "I think that it behoves us to turn our right
shoulders to the outer edge, circling the Mount as we are wont to
do." Thus usage was there our guide, and we took the way with
less doubt because of the assent of that worthy soul.

[1] The first four hours of the day were spent. It was between
ten and eleven o'clock.

[2] Of the car.




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