So I beheld united the bright school
Of him the monarch of sublimest song,4
That o’er the others like an eagle soars.
When they together short discourse had held,
They turn’d to me, with salutation kind
Beck’ning me; at the which my master smil’d:
Nor was this all; but greater honour still
They gave me, for they made me of their tribe;
And I was sixth amid so learn’d a band.
Far as the luminous beacon on we pass’d
Speaking of matters, then befitting well
To speak, now fitter left untold. At foot
Of a magnificent castle we arriv’d,
Seven times with lofty walls begirt, and round
Defended by a pleasant stream. O’er this
As o’er dry land we pass’d. Next through seven gates
I with those sages enter’d, and we came
Into a mead with lively verdure fresh.
There dwelt a race, who slow their eyes around
Majestically mov’d, and in their port
Bore eminent authority; they spake
Seldom, but all their words were tuneful sweet.
We to one side retir’d, into a place
Open and bright and lofty, whence each one
Stood manifest to view. Incontinent
There on the green enamel of the plain
Were shown me the great spirits, by whose sight
I am exalted in my own esteem.
Electra5 there I saw accompanied
By many, among whom Hector I knew,
Anchises’ pious son, and with hawk’s eye
Caesar all arm’d, and by Camilla there
Penthesilea. On the other side
Old King Latinus, seated by his child
Lavinia, and that Brutus I beheld,
Who Tarquin chas’d, Lucretia, Cato’s wife
Marcia, with Julia6 and Cornelia there;
And sole apart retir’d, the Soldan fierce.7
Then when a little more I rais’d my brow,
I spied the master of the sapient throng,8
Seated amid the philosophic train.
Him all admire, all pay him rev’rence due.
There Socrates and Plato both I mark’d,
Nearest to him in rank; Democritus,
Who sets the world at chance,9 Diogenes,
With Heraclitus, and Empedocles,
And Anaxagoras, and Thales sage,
Zeno, and Dioscorides well read
In nature’s secret lore. Orpheus I mark’d
And Linus, Tully and moral Seneca,
Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrates,
Galenus, Avicen, and him who made
That commentary vast, Averroes.10
Of all to speak at full were vain attempt;
For my wide theme so urges, that ofttimes
My words fall short of what bechanc’d. In two
The six associates part. Another way
My sage guide leads me, from that air serene,
Into a climate ever vex’d with storms:
And to a part I come where no light shines.
Footnotes
1 “Portal.” “Porta della fede.” This was an alteration made in the text by the Academicians della Crusca, on the authority, as it would appear, of only two manuscripts. The other reading is, “parte della fede,” “part of the faith.”
2 “Secret purport.” Lombardi well observes that Dante seems to have been restrained by awe and reverence from uttering the name of Christ in this place of torment; and that for the same cause, probably, it does not occur once throughout the whole of this first part of the poem.
3 “A puissant one.” Our Savior.
4 “The monarch of sublimest song.” Homer.
5 Daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus, founder of Troy.
6 “Julia.” The daughter of Julius Cæsar, and wife of Pompey.
7 “The Soldan fierce.” Saladin, or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard Cœur de Lion.
8 “The master of the sapient throng.” “Maestro di color che sanno.” Aristotle.
9 “Who sets the world at chance.” Democritus, who maintained the world to have been formed by the fortuitous concourse of atoms.
10 Averroes, called by the Arabians Ibn Roschd, translated and commented on the works of Aristotle.
Canto V
ARGUMENT.—Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante at the entrance beholds Minos the Infernal Judge, by whom he is admonished to beware how he enters those regions. Here he witnesses the punishment of carnal sinners, who are tossed about ceaselessly in the dark air by the most furious winds. Among these, he meets with Francesca of Rimini, through pity at whose sad tale he falls fainting to the ground.
FROM the first circle I descended thus
Down to the second, which, a lesser space
Embracing,