WEBVTT 00:02.200 --> 00:07.100 Prof: I realize that as we read from assignment to 00:07.104 --> 00:10.714 assignment, and partly because we read in a 00:10.714 --> 00:14.864 very selective way, I know there are a lot of gaps 00:14.864 --> 00:16.304 in our readings. 00:16.300 --> 00:21.400 I never really have tried to share with you the idea that 00:21.397 --> 00:24.397 there is a line, a narrative line, 00:24.401 --> 00:28.681 a conceptual line running through the poem. 00:28.680 --> 00:32.550 The cantos are not discrete units, 00:32.549 --> 00:36.659 poetic units, without much relationship where 00:36.662 --> 00:41.902 the links are to be found symmetrically maybe with cantos 00:41.896 --> 00:46.566 far apart from the cantos that we are reading. 00:46.570 --> 00:51.390 I think that there is a continuity going through many of 00:51.386 --> 00:51.996 them. 00:52.000 --> 00:54.860 There is no doubt, for instance, 00:54.863 --> 00:58.003 between Cantos XV, XVI, and XVII of 00:58.004 --> 01:02.534 Paradise we read last time and Cantos XVII, 01:02.530 --> 01:07.610 XVIII, and XIX there is actually a thematic expansion of 01:07.611 --> 01:13.801 some of the issues that Dante raises in the Heaven of Mars. 01:13.799 --> 01:19.919 To begin with, Dante in Canto XVIII is still 01:19.924 --> 01:27.194 in the Heaven of Mars and he meets and he lists-- 01:27.188 --> 01:30.928 I know that I did not--the number does not appear in your 01:30.927 --> 01:34.737 syllabus, but just bear with me so that I 01:34.739 --> 01:37.459 can go on with these ideas. 01:37.459 --> 01:42.329 He just lists the number of warriors, 01:42.330 --> 01:48.260 souls who are figures, heroic figures, 01:48.260 --> 01:52.580 the heroic life very much like Cacciaguida himself who appears 01:52.578 --> 01:56.568 as one of the blessed, from lines 40 and following of 01:56.568 --> 01:57.528 Canto XVIII. 01:57.530 --> 02:02.090 He mentions, he sees and he mentions Joshua, 02:02.090 --> 02:07.930 biblical figures Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus and then he 02:07.926 --> 02:12.166 goes on mentioning medieval figures. 02:12.169 --> 02:17.879 Charlemagne was clearly--he's justifying retrospectively the 02:17.883 --> 02:23.893 whole issue of the crusades to which Cacciaguida took part, 02:23.889 --> 02:29.229 and which can really be brought back to Charlemagne's experience 02:29.233 --> 02:33.053 in France and in Spain against the Muslims. 02:33.050 --> 02:36.900 He mentions and lists Charlemagne and of course his 02:36.901 --> 02:39.671 paladin the great, the so called, 02:39.668 --> 02:42.948 the Achilles-like invulnerable Roland, 02:42.949 --> 02:46.679 who however, dies at Roncevaux which is the 02:46.680 --> 02:51.740 site of the war between Muslims and Christians and he dies 02:51.744 --> 02:56.634 because of the hubris that characterizes his life, 02:56.628 --> 03:02.828 the hubris of not wanting to blow the bugle, 03:02.830 --> 03:05.730 that it would be heard by Charlemagne and Charlemagne 03:05.733 --> 03:07.523 could have come to his rescue. 03:07.520 --> 03:12.930 As I have probably said before, that became in the Western 03:12.925 --> 03:16.905 imagination a most traumatic experience. 03:16.908 --> 03:22.338 A traumatic experience because it showed that the myth of 03:22.342 --> 03:29.482 invincibility of the Christian-- of Christian Europe was simply 03:29.483 --> 03:33.263 that, an illusion to be turned into 03:33.256 --> 03:38.806 rubble by the invading and victorious Christian armies. 03:38.810 --> 03:42.260 Then he goes on mentioning the figures of the second crusade, 03:42.258 --> 03:48.748 1109 the Godfrey of Bouillon and a figure-- 03:48.750 --> 03:52.670 a Normand who defeated actually the Muslims in Sicily, 03:52.669 --> 03:54.609 the Guiscard, Robert Guiscard, 03:54.610 --> 03:58.430 and brought about in the early ninth century-- in the late 03:58.425 --> 04:01.695 ninth century; after about 75 years the 04:01.695 --> 04:06.945 Muslims were there the expulsion of the Muslims from Sicily. 04:06.949 --> 04:13.389 A clear, thematic thread between the previous cantos and 04:13.388 --> 04:19.708 this canto is the question of what is a heroic life. 04:19.709 --> 04:22.379 The heroic life can even involve a defeat, 04:22.375 --> 04:24.125 as in the case of Roland. 04:24.129 --> 04:28.019 It implies, however, a heroic life clearly, 04:28.024 --> 04:33.874 though there is a typology that runs from Joshua's defeat of and 04:33.867 --> 04:35.997 seizure of Jericho. 04:36.000 --> 04:40.410 This is the great epic biblical story to Guiscard, 04:40.410 --> 04:45.090 contemporary history, almost contemporary history. 04:45.089 --> 04:49.649 For Dante it implies really a division, 04:49.649 --> 04:55.879 it implies a heroic life which is--it implies the power to 04:55.884 --> 05:01.904 establish and live for a cause which is going to be-- 05:01.899 --> 05:05.309 for Dante it's a just cause but it's a cause that brings about 05:05.310 --> 05:08.920 divisions so it's not-- a heroic figure is not 05:08.915 --> 05:14.925 necessarily a figure that would unify and cut across barriers 05:14.934 --> 05:16.644 and divisions. 05:16.639 --> 05:20.069 On the contrary, Dante is indicating that 05:20.074 --> 05:25.144 there's a possible heroic life onto a giving of oneself to a 05:25.142 --> 05:28.152 cause much larger than oneself. 05:28.149 --> 05:32.589 We could just leave it at that and we will come back to this 05:32.593 --> 05:34.103 issue in a moment. 05:34.100 --> 05:36.780 What I would stress--in a few minutes. 05:36.779 --> 05:42.529 What I would stress though about this particular scene is 05:42.526 --> 05:46.936 that Dante is really aware of divisions, 05:46.940 --> 05:52.690 aware of the need even to separate what is mine from what 05:52.689 --> 05:55.499 is not mine, what is ours from what is not 05:55.499 --> 05:58.879 ours so it would seem-- he seems to be perpetuating a 05:58.875 --> 06:02.835 myth that's-- or an idea that some might find 06:02.843 --> 06:08.533 even objectionable that indeed this separation is dangerous and 06:08.529 --> 06:13.299 it's in itself caused by war and a cause of wars. 06:13.300 --> 06:17.630 This is the objection to this problem. 06:17.629 --> 06:22.799 It's not the only time that Dante is establishing divisions, 06:22.800 --> 06:27.710 when I have been talking over the past few weeks about, 06:27.709 --> 06:31.509 for instance, divisions and boundaries that 06:31.507 --> 06:36.477 Dante establishes even when talking about continents. 06:36.480 --> 06:40.910 You remember in Canto VI of Paradise when there's the 06:40.908 --> 06:45.338 story of the eagle of the Roman Empire Dante goes on talking 06:45.338 --> 06:49.918 about the periphery of Europe where the Justinian and the bird 06:49.916 --> 06:55.686 of the empire had nestled; the eastern part of the empire. 06:55.690 --> 07:00.790 That was the periphery of Europe and we have been talking 07:00.790 --> 07:06.070 about the whole how in Canto XII of Paradise meeting 07:06.072 --> 07:07.172 Dominic, St. 07:07.165 --> 07:12.535 Dominic, Dante talks about the western part of Europe. 07:12.540 --> 07:16.380 He goes out of the way to mention this idea so there are 07:16.377 --> 07:19.027 always divisions that always buries. 07:19.028 --> 07:24.408 He seems to believe that Rome and the history of Rome really 07:24.408 --> 07:27.598 escapes this logic of separation. 07:27.600 --> 07:30.940 In effect, this I know that I mentioned to you, 07:30.939 --> 07:34.259 in Monarchia, the political track that he 07:34.262 --> 07:38.052 writes, he does stress the fact that 07:38.053 --> 07:41.803 Aeneas is really a Roman and not; 07:41.800 --> 07:43.700 for instance, he cannot really be thought of 07:43.697 --> 07:45.127 as an Asian, which he was, 07:45.125 --> 07:47.535 nor can he be thought of as a European, 07:47.540 --> 07:50.580 and he stresses the fact that he has a kind of some-- 07:50.579 --> 07:54.419 there is a sort of universalizing history in him, 07:54.420 --> 07:58.070 a universalizing impulse in the measure in which he married 07:58.071 --> 08:01.031 three women from three different continents, 08:01.028 --> 08:05.218 Creusa from Asia, Dido from Africa, 08:05.220 --> 08:08.690 and Lavinia from Europe. 08:08.689 --> 08:10.689 He does distinguish between a kind-- 08:10.689 --> 08:15.119 a sort of--the history that transcends barriers but also an 08:15.122 --> 08:19.862 idea which is really heroic here of a history that manages-- 08:19.860 --> 08:22.890 what keeps barriers, that these are people who 08:22.887 --> 08:24.567 fought at the crusades. 08:24.569 --> 08:29.359 These are the--many of them such as Joshua and Judah 08:29.355 --> 08:31.525 Maccabaeus, but Charlemagne, 08:31.526 --> 08:34.526 not of the crusades but against a Muslim named Roland, 08:34.529 --> 08:37.759 but Godfrey of Bouillon and so on. 08:37.759 --> 08:40.979 We'll see what the consequences of this may be. 08:40.980 --> 08:45.050 Now another conceptual thread, I'm really going around two or 08:45.048 --> 08:49.388 three--I think I'm keeping two or three themes in my head now. 08:49.389 --> 08:55.149 Another conceptual thread between XVII and the remaining 08:55.148 --> 08:59.748 part of XVIII, XIX and XX which is the Heaven 08:59.754 --> 09:03.524 of Jupiter, is the question of a very 09:03.520 --> 09:06.450 abstract question that Dante asks. 09:06.450 --> 09:08.390 What is a place? 09:08.389 --> 09:15.059 That was the underlying problem in XV, XVI, and XVII. 09:15.058 --> 09:19.528 In XV Dante tries to determine whether his history could be 09:19.525 --> 09:24.455 reduced to the boundaries of his own native town and decides that 09:24.455 --> 09:28.455 that was no longer possible for him to conceive. 09:28.460 --> 09:33.300 The famous chronicles, he tries to figure out where 09:33.302 --> 09:37.082 exactly he can be in the history of-- 09:37.080 --> 09:43.860 in the midst of Florence itself and decides that he is an exile. 09:43.860 --> 09:47.390 That was the final prophecy of Cacciaguida. 09:47.389 --> 09:50.919 Exiled is a word that means--it's a Latin word, 09:50.916 --> 09:54.896 in Italian or in English, it comes "being out of 09:54.903 --> 09:56.823 one's own soil." 09:56.820 --> 10:00.080 That's what the meaning is so that in the Middle Ages they 10:00.076 --> 10:03.616 never really thought of exile as just a spiritual condition. 10:03.620 --> 10:06.980 That is to say I feel dislocated, I am-- 10:06.980 --> 10:11.780 my personal existential predicament is that of feeling 10:11.778 --> 10:14.908 that I'm out of it, that I don't belong, 10:14.905 --> 10:17.445 or that kind of-- that was not the conventional 10:17.445 --> 10:18.225 understanding. 10:18.230 --> 10:22.440 Dante changes this meaning of exile in making it into a 10:22.442 --> 10:24.162 spiritual condition. 10:24.158 --> 10:29.188 It's the condition of--it's the pre-condition for his writing 10:29.186 --> 10:33.376 poetry to begin with, so that poetry and exile seem 10:33.375 --> 10:35.465 to be going together. 10:35.470 --> 10:39.040 In XVIII, the real issue that he raises is what is a place? 10:39.038 --> 10:41.988 I am an exile, I do not belong anywhere, 10:41.991 --> 10:46.381 what is--how do we understand here and how do we understand 10:46.381 --> 10:47.141 there? 10:47.139 --> 10:48.849 What does it mean? 10:48.850 --> 10:49.930 What are these terms? 10:49.928 --> 10:53.638 At any rate, he starts and enters now into 10:53.642 --> 10:59.352 canto with the remaining part of Canto XVIII, he enters into the 10:59.346 --> 11:01.336 Heaven of Jupiter. 11:01.340 --> 11:08.400 A heaven of white light which he links with geometry. 11:08.399 --> 11:10.509 You know what geometry is? 11:10.509 --> 11:15.909 A science, very complex science, it encompasses-- 11:15.908 --> 11:18.618 what it means is the measurement of the Earth, 11:18.620 --> 11:22.840 it's the whole Earth that anyone can measure with medieval 11:22.844 --> 11:23.664 geometry. 11:23.658 --> 11:27.218 It means--it implies the presence of perspective within 11:27.224 --> 11:31.154 it, with the idea that geometry is 11:31.153 --> 11:38.583 what regulates the idea of space and the arrangement of space it 11:38.577 --> 11:43.537 implies altimetry, it implies the measurement of 11:43.541 --> 11:45.341 the depths and so on. 11:45.340 --> 11:51.100 It is, as you know, traditionally linked to ethics. 11:51.100 --> 11:55.130 It has a profound intimate linkage with ethics for the 11:55.133 --> 11:59.093 simple reason--well, when Dante discusses justice; 11:59.090 --> 12:02.280 for instance, in cantos--in Inferno he 12:02.278 --> 12:05.538 distinguishes between distributive justice. 12:05.538 --> 12:10.038 Remember Inferno VII, the god is fortuna who 12:10.038 --> 12:15.008 manages to distribute with some idea of impenetrable occult, 12:15.009 --> 12:18.709 equity a cold justice the goods of the Earth, 12:18.710 --> 12:24.050 though she's blindfolded and moves the wheel around so there 12:24.046 --> 12:28.336 can be some kind of uniform-- If you are up you are not going 12:28.336 --> 12:30.436 to be up all the time, you may be down, 12:30.443 --> 12:33.013 etc., and if you are down you eventually-- 12:33.009 --> 12:36.429 if you are on the shifty curve of fortune you are going to be 12:36.433 --> 12:36.723 up. 12:36.720 --> 12:41.670 It's a sort of arithmetical notion of equity. 12:41.668 --> 12:45.168 If you have--sometimes you have five then you lose three and you 12:45.168 --> 12:47.728 get to have two, whoever have one will get two, 12:47.725 --> 12:48.165 etc. 12:48.168 --> 12:52.098 The other form of justice was also geometric justice which 12:52.101 --> 12:56.241 Dante describes in the so called rule of the counterpart, 12:56.240 --> 12:58.900 counter passion, in the contrapasso in 12:58.904 --> 13:01.874 Inferno XXVIII when he has to establish the 13:01.873 --> 13:04.663 relationship between crime and punishment. 13:04.658 --> 13:08.088 It could not be an even one, one and one; 13:08.090 --> 13:11.970 you cannot pluck someone's eye because someone has plucked your 13:11.971 --> 13:14.351 eye, that's not necessarily justice. 13:14.350 --> 13:18.020 You cannot cut someone's arm off because you have perpetrated 13:18.017 --> 13:21.437 that crime or kill because you just have been killed, 13:21.440 --> 13:23.390 there should be some kind of proportionality, 13:23.389 --> 13:24.469 is the argument. 13:24.470 --> 13:27.520 The idea is that geometry is always part, 13:27.519 --> 13:35.589 geometry in fact is related to ethics simply because its 13:35.592 --> 13:44.252 extension always implies a point which is the beginning of a 13:44.253 --> 13:49.673 geometric reflection, always implies the existence of 13:49.674 --> 13:51.644 other points; it establishes relations 13:51.640 --> 13:52.210 therefore. 13:52.210 --> 13:54.060 That's the language. 13:54.058 --> 13:58.378 In this canto Dante discusses primarily justice. 13:58.379 --> 14:00.519 What is justice? 14:00.519 --> 14:02.809 That's the idea that runs through this. 14:02.808 --> 14:04.248 The other thing that you have to be-- 14:04.250 --> 14:06.860 as you read these cantos, and I hope you read them with 14:06.861 --> 14:11.121 care, and I will not say much about 14:11.121 --> 14:16.721 it, is that he deploys-- Dante deploys the language of 14:16.720 --> 14:17.500 geometry. 14:17.500 --> 14:20.030 Now you know that this is a technique of his. 14:20.028 --> 14:24.728 If he were dealing with arithmetic he would do music, 14:24.729 --> 14:28.889 he would do that, but I just want to give you a 14:28.886 --> 14:31.866 few examples of these issues. 14:31.870 --> 14:35.730 For instance, just let me open here and the 14:35.727 --> 14:38.937 notion of God, the geometer, 14:38.937 --> 14:43.627 he will go on talking for instance, 14:43.629 --> 14:53.259 this is in Canto XIX, anywhere really, 14:53.264 --> 14:55.874 line 90. 14:55.870 --> 14:57.890 Look at this, "The Primal Will, 14:57.885 --> 14:59.955 which in itself is good, from itself, 14:59.960 --> 15:02.150 the Supreme Good, never was moved; 15:02.149 --> 15:05.809 whatever accords with it is in that measure just;" 15:05.808 --> 15:08.958 the language of measure, "no created good draws it 15:08.957 --> 15:11.287 to itself, but it, raying forth"; 15:11.288 --> 15:14.048 "ray," which in Italian is both 15:14.048 --> 15:16.698 radius, it's the ray of the sunlight 15:16.695 --> 15:20.945 but also the radius of a circle, "creates that good. 15:20.950 --> 15:23.350 As the stork circles," there it goes, 15:23.350 --> 15:26.230 even the very shapes, "circles over the 15:26.230 --> 15:29.580 nest," and then a little bit further down, 15:29.580 --> 15:34.740 "Wheeling, it sang, then spoke," 15:34.743 --> 15:41.673 wheeling again a circular motion and this continues-- 15:41.669 --> 15:43.899 literally continues throughout. 15:43.899 --> 15:53.049 I want to find for you the image of the compass that I 15:53.048 --> 15:57.708 thought was in Canto XIX. 15:57.710 --> 16:00.820 It's not, we'll get to that, we'll find it. 16:00.820 --> 16:05.740 There are a number of these geometrical terms. 16:05.740 --> 16:12.270 However, the most important thing here in Canto XIX is that 16:12.272 --> 16:19.252 as soon as he enters the heaven of geometry now we encounter in 16:19.254 --> 16:24.104 Canto XVIII, we come across a plane, 16:24.096 --> 16:30.196 a divine spectacle, it's a sort of--the heavens are 16:30.195 --> 16:36.935 a sacred theatre where God will go on speaking to human beings 16:36.936 --> 16:43.396 by using to us on Earth-- by using the souls of the 16:43.404 --> 16:44.624 blessed. 16:44.620 --> 16:48.950 This is the passage, "I saw," 16:48.952 --> 16:53.172 Canto XVIII line 70 and following, 16:53.168 --> 16:56.798 "I saw in that torch of Jove the sparkling of the love 16:56.802 --> 17:00.472 that was there, trace out our speech to my eyes; 17:00.470 --> 17:03.650 and as birds risen from a river-bank, 17:03.649 --> 17:05.769 as if rejoicing together over their pasture, 17:05.769 --> 17:08.729 make of themselves, now a round flock," 17:08.730 --> 17:11.210 that's a geometric image for you, 17:11.210 --> 17:14.710 "now another shape, so within the lights holy 17:14.708 --> 17:18.918 creatures were singing as they flew and made themselves, 17:18.920 --> 17:23.400 in the figures they formed, now D, 17:23.401 --> 17:26.651 now I, now L. 17:26.650 --> 17:29.260 First, singing, they moved to their own notes; 17:29.259 --> 17:33.229 then, becoming one of these shapes, they paused for a little 17:33.226 --> 17:34.836 and were silent." 17:34.838 --> 17:39.488 Within the heaven of geometry, even the letters of the 17:39.489 --> 17:44.539 alphabet draw geometrical lines, the semi-circle of D, 17:44.535 --> 17:48.575 the two--the perpendicular line of the L, 17:48.578 --> 17:51.208 and the perpendicular line of the I, 17:51.210 --> 17:56.810 we are--we really discover that the beauty of geometry underlies 17:56.813 --> 18:00.463 the rigor of the alphabet so to speak, 18:00.460 --> 18:04.160 but more importantly, we discover that these souls 18:04.163 --> 18:08.473 that dispose themselves in letters are really God's way of 18:08.472 --> 18:09.912 speaking to us. 18:09.910 --> 18:14.560 The language that Dante--that God uses is the language of 18:14.563 --> 18:15.813 human beings. 18:15.808 --> 18:20.028 We are the syllables, we are the letters disposed in 18:20.029 --> 18:24.499 order to convey this--whatever God's message may be. 18:24.500 --> 18:27.690 "They showed themselves, then, in five times seven 18:27.692 --> 18:30.802 vowels and consonants, and I noted them severally, 18:30.800 --> 18:32.830 and what they seemed to me to mean. 18:32.829 --> 18:35.029 DILIGITE IUSTITIAM." 18:35.029 --> 18:40.159 They spell out a line taken from the book--a verse from the 18:40.163 --> 18:43.223 Book of Wisdom; love, justice, 18:43.220 --> 18:48.980 diligite iustitiam, you who judge the Earth. 18:48.980 --> 18:54.450 That's another reference to the actual ultimate measurement of 18:54.454 --> 18:56.434 geometry, the Earth. 18:56.430 --> 19:01.360 That's the meaning of geometry, the measuring of the Earth, 19:01.356 --> 19:05.776 so geography in a certain way is part of the world of 19:05.775 --> 19:06.875 geometry. 19:06.880 --> 19:10.290 Then Dante goes on describing a metamorphosis, 19:10.288 --> 19:13.538 how "in the M of the fifth word they kept their 19:13.536 --> 19:15.666 order, so that Jupiter seemed there 19:15.665 --> 19:19.075 silver pricked out with gold; and I saw other lights descend 19:19.080 --> 19:21.920 on the very summit of the M and settle there, 19:21.922 --> 19:24.542 singing, I think, of the good that draws them to 19:24.540 --> 19:25.210 itself. 19:25.210 --> 19:29.530 Then, as when burning logs are struck rise innumerable sparks, 19:29.528 --> 19:32.498 from which the foolish are accustomed to make auguries, 19:32.500 --> 19:35.900 so more than a thousand lights appeared to rise again from 19:35.897 --> 19:38.677 there and to mount, some much, some little, 19:38.681 --> 19:41.241 as the Sun that kindles them appointed; 19:41.240 --> 19:42.560 and when each had settled in its place," 19:42.558 --> 19:42.738 etc. 19:42.740 --> 19:46.420 I know that some of you are working on the aesthetics of 19:46.417 --> 19:49.317 colors; I would point out this scene to 19:49.324 --> 19:52.004 you and the complications of color. 19:52.000 --> 19:54.810 The white of Jupiter, the gold of the letters, 19:54.808 --> 20:01.448 the red of the flames, there is a kind of chromatic-- 20:01.450 --> 20:06.250 a deployment of chromatic elements within this grand 20:06.250 --> 20:07.380 spectacle. 20:07.380 --> 20:13.140 Dante is indicating directly and indirectly this chromatic 20:13.135 --> 20:17.445 symbolism, so this is what we--the way the 20:17.452 --> 20:21.522 heavens speak to us on Earth and to the-- 20:21.519 --> 20:27.609 and the rulers of the Earth and then Dante goes on in the next 20:27.611 --> 20:32.341 Canto XIX, wondering what is this idea of 20:32.339 --> 20:33.369 justice. 20:33.369 --> 20:35.309 What does it mean? 20:35.309 --> 20:39.659 20:39.660 --> 20:44.750 He'll ask, Canto XIX, line 28, "I know well that 20:44.748 --> 20:50.228 though the Divine Justice is mirrored in another realm of 20:50.228 --> 20:54.728 heaven yours apprehends it without a veil. 20:54.730 --> 20:59.070 You know with what intentness I am prepared to listen, 20:59.065 --> 21:03.885 you know what is that doubt which is old a fast in me." 21:03.891 --> 21:07.921 He's hungry; Dante's hungry to know what 21:07.923 --> 21:09.843 Divine Justice is. 21:09.838 --> 21:19.918 What we hear is the bird, the eagle goes on saying, 21:19.920 --> 21:22.910 "He that turned His compass," 21:22.907 --> 21:26.257 that's God, that's the geometer, 21:26.256 --> 21:31.756 an image that clearly echoes two biblical texts. 21:31.759 --> 21:35.709 One is of Job 38, a famous passage, 21:35.708 --> 21:38.378 some of you may know. 21:38.380 --> 21:40.320 Dante returns to it repeatedly. 21:40.318 --> 21:44.538 "Where were you when I drew the boundaries of the 21:44.541 --> 21:47.651 Earth," that's the geometrical, 21:47.650 --> 21:57.160 the matrix so to speak, of this metaphor of God the 21:57.157 --> 21:59.247 geometer. 21:59.250 --> 22:05.010 And the other one is in the Book of Wisdom that goes on 22:05.007 --> 22:09.157 talking about, "I was there with him and 22:09.163 --> 22:13.703 I was His delight when He was drawing the circle around the 22:13.695 --> 22:14.785 deep." 22:14.788 --> 22:20.068 Those are two biblical passages that insist on this-- both the 22:20.074 --> 22:22.764 geometric and then aesthetic. 22:22.759 --> 22:27.299 A theatre, the idea that through the shapes of the world 22:27.299 --> 22:32.009 are really the representations of this perfection of God's 22:32.006 --> 22:33.076 geometry. 22:33.078 --> 22:36.098 They are two metaphors that Dante goes on deploying but 22:36.098 --> 22:39.118 let's see what the substance of the argument now is. 22:39.118 --> 22:41.468 "He that turned his compass," 22:41.474 --> 22:45.074 we understand why he uses the word compass and the image of 22:45.069 --> 22:46.929 the compass, that's clear. 22:46.930 --> 22:50.030 "Not remain in infinite excess," 22:50.029 --> 22:53.889 that's to me another geometrical language though the 22:53.886 --> 22:58.576 two words are slightly redundant because excess means something 22:58.575 --> 23:00.915 which is measure or less. 23:00.920 --> 23:07.110 The language of measure, the language of accounting, 23:07.108 --> 23:11.288 and the language of limits is set against this idea of 23:11.288 --> 23:15.248 something not finite, something that escapes the 23:15.253 --> 23:19.063 logic of geometry, the logic of measurement, 23:19.058 --> 23:21.178 an infinite and excess. 23:21.180 --> 23:25.110 In fact, I find the phrase deliberately redundant, 23:25.105 --> 23:29.665 it's not only infinite but it's also excessive idea of the 23:29.673 --> 23:32.643 infinite to drive the point home; 23:32.640 --> 23:36.440 "and manifest, could not make His Power to be 23:36.438 --> 23:39.848 so impressed on that whole universe." 23:39.848 --> 23:43.818 Even the word universe is--as much as a poetic term we speak 23:43.824 --> 23:47.604 of verse in poetry and I wonder how many of you have ever 23:47.596 --> 23:51.476 wondered whether that stuff-- that word comes from? 23:51.480 --> 23:54.010 It comes from geometry because it implies a turning. 23:54.009 --> 23:56.449 You come to the end of the line and you turn, 23:56.450 --> 23:59.170 and you draw a geometrical figure, and so does the 23:59.167 --> 23:59.887 universe. 23:59.890 --> 24:02.480 It's one turning, it's the sphere, 24:02.483 --> 24:06.893 you can have hemispheres but the two hemispheres make the 24:06.886 --> 24:07.906 universe. 24:07.910 --> 24:11.850 These are all, as you see--I hope you enjoy 24:11.846 --> 24:16.156 them as I enjoy them telling you about this. 24:16.160 --> 24:19.190 "And, in proof of this, the first proud spirit," 24:19.185 --> 24:23.145 Lucifer, now that's geometry of the 24:23.153 --> 24:28.233 soul, the first proud spirit who was-- 24:28.230 --> 24:31.920 as you know Dante connects pride and geometry or 24:31.919 --> 24:34.509 perspective, as we said before. 24:34.509 --> 24:38.539 "The first proud spirit, who was in the highest of all 24:38.538 --> 24:42.498 creatures, fair and ripe," what a great adjective. 24:42.500 --> 24:50.510 Lucifer falls unripe because grace implies ripeness. 24:50.509 --> 24:55.379 The idea that you are ripe when you have been touched by grace, 24:55.382 --> 24:59.782 ripeness is all one could say using another--referring to 24:59.782 --> 25:02.222 another text, not by Dante. 25:02.220 --> 25:05.510 "Through not waiting for light," that's Lucifer, 25:05.509 --> 25:08.809 "from which it is plain that every lesser nature is too 25:08.810 --> 25:11.610 scant a vessel for that good which has no limit and 25:11.609 --> 25:13.959 measures," I'm not going indicate that 25:13.960 --> 25:16.310 anymore, "itself by itself. 25:16.308 --> 25:19.328 Thus our vision, which must needs be one of the 25:19.327 --> 25:22.607 rays of the Mind of which all things are full, 25:22.608 --> 25:24.988 cannot by its nature be of such power that it should not 25:24.988 --> 25:27.668 perceive its origin to be far beyond all that appears to it. 25:27.670 --> 25:32.470 Therefore," and that seems to be the 25:32.470 --> 25:35.470 essence, the brunt of the argument, 25:35.474 --> 25:39.494 "the sight that is granted to your world penetrates within 25:39.492 --> 25:42.542 the Eternal Justice as the eye into the sea; 25:42.538 --> 25:46.168 for though from the shore it sees the bottom, 25:46.166 --> 25:51.026 in the open sea it does not, and yet the bottom is there but 25:51.030 --> 25:53.670 the depth conceals it." 25:53.670 --> 25:58.260 The idea that we can see justice only when we have a very 25:58.259 --> 26:01.819 superficial, we see just as we see the 26:01.818 --> 26:06.198 bottom of the sea when we are near the shore, 26:06.200 --> 26:10.530 only when we have a superficial understanding of-- 26:10.528 --> 26:13.528 do we see the bottom otherwise we don't. 26:13.528 --> 26:19.978 God's justice is as imponderable and unfathomable as 26:19.983 --> 26:26.443 the sea floor can be out in--away from the shore. 26:26.440 --> 26:28.640 "There is no light there but that which comes from the 26:28.637 --> 26:30.227 clear," and so on and the changes-- 26:30.230 --> 26:35.050 then Dante complicates the issue a little bit and he really 26:35.051 --> 26:37.381 asks where is the justice. 26:37.380 --> 26:41.890 Is justice limited to a place, to a continent, 26:41.891 --> 26:47.811 to the economy of Christian Europe, and how is it related to 26:47.805 --> 26:49.505 other places? 26:49.509 --> 26:54.229 We have a notion of what nowadays we call alterity; 26:54.230 --> 26:57.280 you must have heard that term, "the other," 26:57.280 --> 26:58.690 the idea of the other. 26:58.690 --> 27:01.870 In the Middle Ages, by the way, it was not alien to 27:01.868 --> 27:03.648 this thought of the other. 27:03.650 --> 27:10.480 I can give you a few titles of Aquinas writing a track against 27:10.483 --> 27:15.693 the errors of the Greeks; that's a sense of idleness. 27:15.690 --> 27:18.460 Establishing, that is to say differences, 27:18.460 --> 27:20.960 or Aquinas writing a suma against the 27:20.961 --> 27:23.491 Gentiles, the pagans who usually--who 27:23.491 --> 27:26.481 actually were the philosophers of the time. 27:26.480 --> 27:31.050 Those who do not have excess or exceed or want to exceed to 27:31.047 --> 27:32.147 Revelations. 27:32.150 --> 27:34.850 They have an idea of otherness and the idea of otherness is 27:34.848 --> 27:37.548 always that of acknowledging that particular difference. 27:37.548 --> 27:40.058 I do not see, at this point yet, 27:40.063 --> 27:44.853 any substantial deviation on the part of Dante from the myth 27:44.846 --> 27:48.086 and the examples of the heroic life. 27:48.088 --> 27:51.518 The examples of the heroic life are those who literally 27:51.516 --> 27:54.966 establish boundaries, who within those boundaries 27:54.972 --> 27:59.202 manage to live according to the fullness of their virtues. 27:59.200 --> 28:02.060 That's the heroic life and that's really the boundary that 28:02.057 --> 28:02.907 he establishes. 28:02.910 --> 28:06.490 Now Dante asks what is that boundary. 28:06.490 --> 28:11.960 I understand that Divine Justice is impenetrable but then 28:11.962 --> 28:17.342 he asks this extraordinary question, what is a place? 28:17.338 --> 28:21.408 This was a--a man is born at the bank of the Indus, 28:21.410 --> 28:25.860 line 72, I think this is the most complex and the most 28:25.864 --> 28:30.154 extraordinary question in the whole of the Divine 28:30.150 --> 28:35.950 Comedy from the point of the awareness of let's say alterity. 28:35.950 --> 28:39.990 "A man is born on the bank of Indus," 28:39.987 --> 28:43.097 Asia, "and none is there to 28:43.097 --> 28:46.257 speak, or read, or write of Christ, 28:46.259 --> 28:51.529 and all his desires and doings are good so far as human reason 28:51.531 --> 28:55.471 sees, without sin in life or speech. 28:55.470 --> 28:59.900 He dies unbaptized and without faith. 28:59.900 --> 29:03.320 Where is this justice that condemns him? 29:03.318 --> 29:07.048 Where is his fault if he does not believe? 29:07.048 --> 29:11.498 Now, who art thou that wouldst sit upon the bench and judge a 29:11.497 --> 29:15.127 thousand miles away," more geometry here, 29:15.130 --> 29:20.130 more space, more distance comes to be not only one of depth, 29:20.130 --> 29:24.750 now one of huge distances in space "with a site short of 29:24.752 --> 29:25.912 a span." 29:25.910 --> 29:29.440 The span, by the way, it's a great--it's a 29:29.444 --> 29:32.554 measurement, a geometric term too. 29:32.548 --> 29:36.148 That's the span, the distance that goes from the 29:36.151 --> 29:40.061 tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. 29:40.058 --> 29:43.988 This is technically Italian, spanna and the English 29:43.989 --> 29:45.919 is span, it comes from it. 29:45.920 --> 29:48.320 "Assuredly, for him that would reason it 29:48.320 --> 29:50.760 out with me, if the Scriptures were not set 29:50.762 --> 29:53.792 over you there would be abundant room for question," 29:53.794 --> 29:56.884 and then he goes on talking and as the storks circle, 29:56.880 --> 30:03.560 and Dante's clearly circling of--himself over these issues 30:03.557 --> 30:09.587 and we have a return to Europe, the whole of Europe now appears. 30:09.588 --> 30:16.908 The whole of canto's [line] 100 until the end; 30:16.910 --> 30:19.490 let me just read this passage where, 30:19.490 --> 30:23.130 the eagle, the Roman symbol, Dante goes out of the way to 30:23.125 --> 30:25.275 say, "When these shining fires 30:25.276 --> 30:29.646 of the Holy Ghost had paused, still in the sign that made the 30:29.653 --> 30:33.583 Romans reverend to the world, it began again," 30:33.580 --> 30:36.680 with allusions therefore to the Romans as if to-- 30:36.680 --> 30:40.700 as a kind of idea, Rome to Dante has become an 30:40.703 --> 30:44.173 idea, an idea of universality. 30:44.170 --> 30:48.240 "To this kingdom none ever rose who did not believe in 30:48.239 --> 30:52.379 Christ, either before or after He was nailed to the tree. 30:52.380 --> 30:54.480 But note, many cry Christ, 30:54.476 --> 30:55.586 Christ ! 30:55.588 --> 30:59.758 who shall be far less near to Him at the Judgment than such as 30:59.761 --> 31:02.841 know not Christ, and such Christians." 31:02.838 --> 31:07.158 The Ethiopians, Africa is being mentioned, 31:07.160 --> 31:10.250 "shall condemn when the two companies are parted… 31:10.248 --> 31:12.718 What can the Persians," Asia once again, 31:12.720 --> 31:14.950 the three continents are going to be-- 31:14.950 --> 31:19.150 there are divisions of belief now and these divisions of 31:19.148 --> 31:23.348 belief seem to lose all consistency because you may be a 31:23.347 --> 31:27.697 European and there is a moral alterity within Europe. 31:27.700 --> 31:32.850 Alterity is not just a question of geographic disposition. 31:32.849 --> 31:36.209 It's not part of the economy; someone who is a Persian is 31:36.213 --> 31:38.883 other me; it is, but there is in terms of 31:38.875 --> 31:41.665 the moral life, clearly there is an alterity 31:41.673 --> 31:42.783 within Europe. 31:42.779 --> 31:46.019 In fact Dante does not--he starts with a Kingdom of Prague, 31:46.019 --> 31:49.649 lines 118, "Albert… by which the Kingdom [of 31:49.654 --> 31:52.034 Prague] shall be made desolate," 31:52.032 --> 31:54.602 and then to France, then shall be the seen the 31:54.598 --> 31:55.728 misery brought on this." 31:55.730 --> 31:58.170 Count all the countries; by the way, he seems to know 31:58.173 --> 32:00.243 the history of, "on the Seine from the 32:00.238 --> 32:02.768 debasement of the currency by him that shall die from the 32:02.767 --> 32:03.667 charge of a boar. 32:03.670 --> 32:07.370 There shall be seen the pride that makes men thirst and so 32:07.371 --> 32:10.441 maddens the Scot, and the Englishman that neither 32:10.439 --> 32:12.379 can keep within his bounds." 32:12.380 --> 32:15.910 There is a history of violence that transgresses also 32:15.913 --> 32:19.863 boundaries, and that can be violence, and I will give you a 32:19.855 --> 32:21.755 little story about that. 32:21.759 --> 32:25.099 "It will show the wantonness and soft living of 32:25.095 --> 32:27.965 him of Spain, and of him of Bohemia who never 32:27.972 --> 32:29.872 knew worth nor sought it. 32:29.868 --> 32:32.978 It will show for the Cripple of Jerusalem his goodness marked 32:32.983 --> 32:35.473 with an I, while an M will mark the 32:35.474 --> 32:36.154 opposite. 32:36.150 --> 32:39.200 It will show the avarice and cowardice of him that holds the 32:39.204 --> 32:41.074 island of the fire," Sicily, 32:41.068 --> 32:44.348 "where Anchises ended his long life; 32:44.348 --> 32:47.448 and to make plain his insignificance his records shall 32:47.452 --> 32:50.792 be in contractions that will note much in little space; 32:50.788 --> 32:54.168 and manifest to all shall be the foul deeds of his uncle and 32:54.173 --> 32:57.563 his brother, by whom a lineage so illustrious and two crowns 32:57.557 --> 33:01.287 have been dishonoured; and he of Portugal and he of 33:01.285 --> 33:05.145 Norway shall be known there, and he of Russia," 33:05.152 --> 33:08.462 meaning literally Russia, "who to his own hurt has 33:08.458 --> 33:09.818 been the coin of Venice. 33:09.818 --> 33:12.598 'Oh happy Hungary," the irony is heavy, 33:12.603 --> 33:15.713 "if she no longer let herself be wronged! 33:15.710 --> 33:18.780 And happy Navarre, if she arm herself with the 33:18.776 --> 33:20.816 mountains that surround her! 33:20.818 --> 33:23.808 And, for earnest of this, all men shall know that Nicosia 33:23.808 --> 33:26.798 and Famagosta lament and complain of their own beast, 33:26.798 --> 33:28.428 which keeps its place beside the rest.'" 33:28.430 --> 33:30.920 The whole of Europe, this is now the history of 33:30.917 --> 33:33.197 Europe, in a way that Dante has given 33:33.200 --> 33:36.120 the history of the empire, Roman Empire, 33:36.115 --> 33:40.775 but this is the history of Europe and a history of 33:40.776 --> 33:44.196 desolation and moral dereliction. 33:44.200 --> 33:51.350 These are the terms of--what is here and what is there? 33:51.348 --> 33:53.578 What is within an economy of redemption? 33:53.578 --> 33:56.048 What is not out of the economy of redemption? 33:56.048 --> 34:00.788 This is exactly the question that Dante asks and the answer 34:00.787 --> 34:02.827 is that we do not know. 34:02.828 --> 34:08.788 We do not know how this salvation is going to work out. 34:08.789 --> 34:13.049 No one can claim, therefore, to decide what exact 34:13.050 --> 34:18.110 moral boundaries can exist between a place and another. 34:18.110 --> 34:24.450 That seems to be the idea that he tempers therefore the notion, 34:24.449 --> 34:26.359 on the one hand, the idea of boundaries and on 34:26.356 --> 34:29.946 the other hand, there is also this notion that 34:29.949 --> 34:35.239 boundaries are political but they are not nor can they be 34:35.235 --> 34:39.005 thought of as being moral boundaries; 34:39.010 --> 34:42.860 so he distinguishes the two issues. 34:42.860 --> 34:43.950 What is his answer? 34:43.949 --> 34:45.239 What is he trying to say? 34:45.239 --> 34:48.029 Before I try to tell you about this, let me tell you about a 34:48.027 --> 34:50.627 little text that has nothing to do with the Middle Ages, 34:50.626 --> 34:52.276 but I'm sure you know the text. 34:52.280 --> 34:55.870 It's that little story that Herodotus, 34:55.869 --> 35:00.779 who is a great Greek historian, tells this story in the 35:00.780 --> 35:05.200 Histories, in the year before the Greeks 35:05.199 --> 35:09.769 are getting ready to invade Egypt, going to Egypt. 35:09.768 --> 35:15.628 He really writes the story to warn them about what the dangers 35:15.630 --> 35:21.490 that they might be surprised by or the dangers wherever you go 35:21.492 --> 35:26.492 across boundaries that-- and violate boundaries. 35:26.489 --> 35:29.639 It's really an argument in favor of boundaries. 35:29.639 --> 35:34.059 And he tells the story of a king, the King of Egypt, 35:34.059 --> 35:37.729 Calloderus, I think his name is who was, 35:37.730 --> 35:43.010 who not a very sharp man, a very bright man, 35:43.010 --> 35:43.330 not only was he not a very bright man, 35:43.329 --> 35:47.979 he also had a very beautiful wife and he was so taken with 35:47.983 --> 35:52.883 the beauty of his wife that he wanted everybody to know about 35:52.882 --> 35:57.772 it but he can't tell everybody; but he tells his advisor and 35:57.768 --> 36:00.448 his advisor was a very prudent man, 36:00.449 --> 36:02.699 says, "sire, your majesty I don't want to 36:02.695 --> 36:04.885 know, I believe you, don't tell me more about 36:04.891 --> 36:05.641 this." 36:05.639 --> 36:08.549 "But you've got to know, you've got to hear me, 36:08.547 --> 36:11.857 because you know not only you got hear me I want you to see 36:11.855 --> 36:13.675 the naked beauty of my wife. 36:13.679 --> 36:17.729 It's beyond belief and I want you to see it because human 36:17.728 --> 36:21.778 beings tend to trust their eyes more than what they hear, 36:21.777 --> 36:24.017 more than their ears." 36:24.018 --> 36:28.518 We don't really believe what we hear, but what we see is direct 36:28.518 --> 36:31.058 and we want to have access to it. 36:31.059 --> 36:35.169 The counselor very prudently says, 36:35.170 --> 36:36.490 "no sire, this is really too much 36:36.487 --> 36:38.467 trouble, I cannot disobey you but you 36:38.467 --> 36:40.677 are forcing me to really insist that-- 36:40.679 --> 36:43.509 I believe you completely, you can go on telling me about 36:43.509 --> 36:45.439 her beauty, I don't want to see it." 36:45.440 --> 36:48.520 "No, I'm arranging this" and he contrives a 36:48.519 --> 36:49.349 little plot. 36:49.349 --> 36:53.859 The wife has to go bathing in a room next to the bedroom. 36:53.860 --> 36:58.050 He, the King, leaves the door ajar, 36:58.050 --> 37:02.550 open for her to come in the bedroom door, 37:02.550 --> 37:07.170 and so while she's away he allows the counselor to hide in 37:07.170 --> 37:11.130 the shadows of the room, in a little corner. 37:11.130 --> 37:15.820 The queen comes in, undresses, the counselor sees 37:15.817 --> 37:21.967 her naked and very quickly walks out, hoping silently and hoping 37:21.969 --> 37:24.509 not to have been seen. 37:24.510 --> 37:30.540 The morning after the queen was a sharp queen calls him into her 37:30.541 --> 37:33.381 office and says, "I saw you, 37:33.384 --> 37:36.014 tell me what you were doing there." 37:36.010 --> 37:42.220 The counselor has no choice but saying, "your majesty the 37:42.215 --> 37:46.075 king, your husband, asked me to come in 37:46.081 --> 37:47.711 there." 37:47.710 --> 37:51.070 The queen says, "I imagined that that's 37:51.074 --> 37:56.004 really what happened but at this point one of you two is one too 37:56.003 --> 37:57.493 much--too many. 37:57.489 --> 38:01.419 One of you--either you kill the king or you kill yourself. 38:01.420 --> 38:06.470 The idea that I have been ashamed and been seen naked by 38:06.472 --> 38:09.782 two men is unbearable to me." 38:09.780 --> 38:16.910 And the counselor does what I'm sure all of you would do, 38:16.914 --> 38:19.594 he became the king. 38:19.590 --> 38:23.470 By the way, Herodotus goes on even saying, that he lived a 38:23.465 --> 38:26.775 very undistinguished life; it was not a big deal, 38:26.775 --> 38:30.545 but he's warning, Herodotus is really warning us 38:30.550 --> 38:34.650 to understand that there is always a limit to-- 38:34.650 --> 38:38.980 that we have to set up and protect between what we say me, 38:38.980 --> 38:42.770 or mine, I, and what I say you, this is the language that Dante 38:42.768 --> 38:44.968 uses at the beginning of Canto XX. 38:44.969 --> 38:48.809 They say "I and mine" when they mean "we and 38:48.813 --> 38:52.183 our"; this is a very thin line that 38:52.177 --> 38:53.947 has to be observed. 38:53.949 --> 38:57.039 The king, of course, just to finish that little 38:57.043 --> 38:59.033 story, the king was a fool, 38:59.030 --> 39:02.340 he had no prudence, he had no sense of the 39:02.335 --> 39:07.225 difference between the private life and the public needs. 39:07.230 --> 39:10.380 He had no idea that there are things that you keep to yourself 39:10.376 --> 39:12.126 and you don't share with others. 39:12.130 --> 39:17.090 One can go on complicating the problem but the issue is that he 39:17.090 --> 39:18.690 understood limits. 39:18.690 --> 39:23.220 You are going on into another man's country you have to act as 39:23.221 --> 39:26.491 if you don't have to go too deep into it, 39:26.489 --> 39:28.809 and you don't have to try to violate its-- 39:28.809 --> 39:34.149 a country's a woman's nakedness meaning the essential-- 39:34.150 --> 39:36.930 the private sense of oneself. 39:36.929 --> 39:41.989 I do not know that Dante would really agree with Herodotus in 39:41.989 --> 39:45.489 these cantos, but what he has been doing is 39:45.485 --> 39:49.255 literally setting up a needed cultural difference. 39:49.260 --> 39:53.360 Somehow there is a--they exist, cultural differences, 39:53.356 --> 39:58.076 and at the same time allow for a kind of moral circulation of 39:58.081 --> 39:58.871 ideas. 39:58.869 --> 40:02.729 Let me put in general medieval terms to tell you what I think 40:02.728 --> 40:05.428 he has been doing because the argument-- 40:05.429 --> 40:09.369 when he makes this argument a man is born on the river of the 40:09.369 --> 40:12.269 Indus, he does not know anything about 40:12.271 --> 40:16.191 Christian faith and baptism, dies, why should he be 40:16.188 --> 40:17.408 condemned, etc. 40:17.409 --> 40:20.859 He has been living decorously and rationally, 40:20.856 --> 40:23.126 why should he be not saved? 40:23.130 --> 40:25.060 That's the question he asks. 40:25.059 --> 40:29.759 What he is taking on there would seem to be what we call, 40:29.764 --> 40:34.054 in medieval terms, a Pelagian, a Pelagian stance. 40:34.050 --> 40:37.360 You know now, I think I have said before, 40:37.360 --> 40:40.990 but let me just repeat this, Pelagian is an adjective that 40:40.985 --> 40:44.035 comes from the name of a British monk of the-- 40:44.039 --> 40:45.629 roughly the time of St. 40:45.628 --> 40:48.388 Augustine, the fifth century Pelagius, 40:48.389 --> 40:51.689 who really maintained that by the exercise of-- 40:51.690 --> 40:54.520 through works, through good works human 40:54.516 --> 40:58.016 beings, living according to principles 40:58.023 --> 41:01.163 of nature, human beings can be saved. 41:01.159 --> 41:04.129 It would seem almost that Dante's taking that position 41:04.132 --> 41:06.112 to-- a position by the way which he 41:06.114 --> 41:09.074 probably even held in the philosophical text called the 41:09.072 --> 41:10.062 Banquet. 41:10.059 --> 41:13.109 That was one of--it's one of either-- 41:13.110 --> 41:18.150 I don't agree with that but it's--there seems to be such an 41:18.146 --> 41:23.526 emphasis on the ability of human beings to live rationally that 41:23.532 --> 41:28.482 the demands of grace and the demands of faith are somewhat 41:28.483 --> 41:31.353 bracketed and a little dim. 41:31.349 --> 41:33.169 Nonetheless, I think that they are there, 41:33.170 --> 41:35.130 only that he is talking as a philosopher. 41:35.130 --> 41:39.130 The issue is this--that Dante here is asking for a 41:39.126 --> 41:42.716 conversation between philosophy and theology, 41:42.715 --> 41:44.995 within reason and faith. 41:45.000 --> 41:49.190 In the sense that, he really understands that 41:49.190 --> 41:55.280 philosophy without theology ends up in a sort of labyrinth of its 41:55.284 --> 41:59.384 own constructions and may lose the way. 41:59.380 --> 42:02.560 In theology, without philosophy, 42:02.557 --> 42:08.087 may end up in mere opinion which has no validity at all 42:08.094 --> 42:13.634 on--for people who believe in the power of reason. 42:13.630 --> 42:17.700 Now, to connect it with the previous cantos, 42:17.701 --> 42:23.101 I think that Dante has been literally extending this whole 42:23.099 --> 42:26.129 problem about what exile is. 42:26.130 --> 42:31.340 An exile, which does not mean the random movement, 42:31.340 --> 42:38.520 but always a kind of--a sense of the problematical qualities 42:38.519 --> 42:45.949 of a place in the world and the relationship that we have with 42:45.945 --> 42:49.835 ourselves and our own ideas. 42:49.840 --> 42:51.820 I know that this is starting to get-- 42:51.820 --> 42:56.380 that I--it has taken me away from the other cantos but let me 42:56.382 --> 43:00.642 just read XXI and the cantos and I just want to turn very 43:00.641 --> 43:04.571 briefly-- I don't think that XXI and XXII 43:04.572 --> 43:07.992 which are cantos where Dante meets. 43:07.989 --> 43:12.839 It's the Sphere of Saturn, which as you know, 43:12.840 --> 43:16.480 is the heaven of contemplation. 43:16.480 --> 43:22.490 The word Saturn--the myth of Saturn is the myth of time 43:22.494 --> 43:28.514 devouring everything that it engenders that's what-- 43:28.510 --> 43:31.950 remember that time is the first cannibal of history, 43:31.949 --> 43:33.849 eating up what it produces. 43:33.849 --> 43:36.859 This is the minutes that are just taken in. 43:36.860 --> 43:41.380 It's--the name seems to come from the saturation of time. 43:41.380 --> 43:45.450 Dante is coming to--this is the last planet and it's also the 43:45.447 --> 43:48.837 heaven of astronomy, so he's forcing on us the idea 43:48.835 --> 43:50.255 of contemplation. 43:50.260 --> 43:53.960 Here he finds the contemplatives and among them 43:53.956 --> 43:58.536 there is the soul of a founder by the name of Benedict. 43:58.539 --> 44:02.639 The first from the contemplative order. 44:02.639 --> 44:06.219 The word contemplation really implies two things if you ask 44:06.219 --> 44:08.319 "what is a contemplation" 44:08.318 --> 44:11.778 because there is always a debate as to whether Dante is a 44:11.775 --> 44:13.695 mystic, or he's not a mystic, 44:13.697 --> 44:16.367 I think that if there is anything that he has it's-- 44:16.369 --> 44:19.889 he's a contemplative in the true sense of the word. 44:19.889 --> 44:23.649 The word contemplation translates the Greek theory 44:23.648 --> 44:28.558 which is really the turning of the mind toward the essentials; 44:28.559 --> 44:31.119 theory, a contemplation. 44:31.121 --> 44:35.071 The word comes from templum, 44:35.070 --> 44:37.990 contemplation which is, as you know, 44:37.989 --> 44:42.219 the Latin word for temple, but also from the Latin word 44:42.215 --> 44:45.655 for tempus, they are the same word. 44:45.659 --> 44:50.219 The word for temple and the word for time have the same 44:50.224 --> 44:52.844 origin, and they both come from the 44:52.838 --> 44:56.818 Greek word called temno, the Greek work is temno, 44:56.824 --> 44:58.714 which means "to cut." 44:58.710 --> 45:03.880 Saturn, time, with a side cuts; the contemplatives are those 45:03.876 --> 45:07.356 who cut a space of time and privilege it, 45:07.360 --> 45:12.300 or a space in place, and cut it off from the flow of 45:12.300 --> 45:18.110 history and the flow of profane place and make it the sort of 45:18.112 --> 45:23.732 ground for turning the minds to the consideration of higher 45:23.730 --> 45:24.990 things. 45:24.989 --> 45:28.469 This is the point that Dante is driving. 45:28.469 --> 45:32.629 He is going to discuss the degeneracy of the order but I 45:32.632 --> 45:37.102 want to really end with you and I really meant to talk about 45:37.099 --> 45:41.869 this final image at the end of Canto XXII where Dante now-- 45:41.869 --> 45:46.049 has really reached the periphery of the planetary 45:46.045 --> 45:49.315 system; now he will go into the stars, 45:49.318 --> 45:51.888 the heaven of the fixed stars. 45:51.889 --> 45:55.469 We have a little bit of time so I can go slow here. 45:55.469 --> 46:03.969 Lines--Canto XXII, lines, let's say 126; 46:03.969 --> 46:07.179 this is Beatrice speaking, "'Thou art so near to the 46:07.175 --> 46:09.345 final blessedness,' Beatrice began, 46:09.349 --> 46:13.549 'that thou must have thine eyes clear and keen." 46:13.550 --> 46:20.760 That's--Dante's--he will deploy this language of visionariness, 46:20.760 --> 46:26.050 and the language of visionariness will start with 46:26.052 --> 46:32.892 the emphasis on purifying one's and refining one's own eyes and 46:32.891 --> 46:35.981 one's physical eyesight. 46:35.980 --> 46:39.340 "Therefore, before you go farther into it, 46:39.342 --> 46:40.662 look down." 46:40.659 --> 46:45.759 Beatrice, it's one of the two invitations by Beatrice now to 46:45.755 --> 46:49.125 turn back-- to turn the eyes back and have 46:49.130 --> 46:52.770 a contemplation, and Dante will contemplate so 46:52.771 --> 46:57.081 to speak the Earth, not up where the heavens turn. 46:57.079 --> 46:59.839 "Therefore, before you go farther into it 46:59.838 --> 47:03.578 to look down and see how much of the universe I've already put 47:03.579 --> 47:06.929 beneath thy feet, so that with all fulness of joy 47:06.934 --> 47:10.824 thy heart may present itself to the triumphal host that comes 47:10.817 --> 47:13.467 rejoicing through this rounded ether.' 47:13.469 --> 47:17.409 With my sight," Dante now is engaged in this 47:17.411 --> 47:20.861 retrospective glance down to the Earth, 47:20.860 --> 47:23.700 "I returned through every one of the seven spheres, 47:23.699 --> 47:27.229 and I saw this globe such that I smiled," 47:27.230 --> 47:29.720 our Earth, "at its paltry 47:29.722 --> 47:31.042 semblance." 47:31.039 --> 47:37.929 The perspective is that of space. 47:37.929 --> 47:41.169 I wouldn't call it infinite space but a vast distance of 47:41.168 --> 47:41.638 space. 47:41.639 --> 47:44.839 I don't call it infinite space because Dante's notion of the 47:44.835 --> 47:46.835 universe is not that it's infinite. 47:46.840 --> 47:54.790 Dante has the notion of the universe as a bounded but vast 47:54.791 --> 47:58.141 connect--vast enclave. 47:58.139 --> 48:00.709 It's really like a book, that's the image that he uses. 48:00.710 --> 48:03.530 "And that judgment which holds it for least, 48:03.527 --> 48:06.347 I approve as best, and he whose thought is on the 48:06.346 --> 48:08.926 other things may rightly be called just. 48:08.929 --> 48:12.569 I saw Latonia's daughter," the Moon, "growing, 48:12.567 --> 48:16.667 without that shadow for which I once believed her to be rare or 48:16.668 --> 48:18.968 dense; thy son's aspect, 48:18.969 --> 48:23.829 Hyperion, I endured there, and I saw how Maia and Dione 48:23.827 --> 48:27.447 move in their circles," meaning Mercury, 48:27.449 --> 48:30.299 "near him; from thence appeared to me the 48:30.300 --> 48:33.370 tempering of Jove, between his father and his son, 48:33.367 --> 48:36.677 and from thence the changes were clear to me which they make 48:36.675 --> 48:40.115 in their positions; and all seven showed me what is 48:40.123 --> 48:44.203 their magnitude and what their speed, and at what distance 48:44.195 --> 48:45.905 their stations." 48:45.909 --> 48:49.729 We have an astronomy here, the heaven of astronomy, 48:49.730 --> 48:53.100 but we have an astronomy which is indicated mythically, 48:53.099 --> 48:57.309 and not only mythically but also through a process of 48:57.306 --> 49:01.446 affiliation; it's the daughter of Latonia, 49:01.452 --> 49:05.742 the son of Hyperion, a process of affiliation, 49:05.735 --> 49:10.685 it's really as if the universe itself has followed the logic of 49:10.686 --> 49:13.716 generation of production as being-- 49:13.719 --> 49:19.599 producing and reproducing itself and then he continues, 49:19.599 --> 49:22.289 Dante goes back to looking at the Earth. 49:22.289 --> 49:26.239 "All seven showed to me what is the magnitude and what 49:26.244 --> 49:29.794 their speed, and at what distances their stations. 49:29.789 --> 49:33.939 The little threshing-floor that makes us so fierce all appeared 49:33.942 --> 49:36.092 to me from hills to river-mouths, 49:36.085 --> 49:39.295 while I was wheeling with the eternal Twins. 49:39.300 --> 49:44.830 Then to the fair eyes I turned my eyes again." 49:44.829 --> 49:48.299 I want to draw your attention to line 151, 49:48.300 --> 49:50.030 where Dante says, "The little 49:50.032 --> 49:53.292 threshing-floor that makes us so fierce all appeared to me, 49:53.289 --> 49:59.069 l'aiuola che ci fa tanto feroci." 49:59.070 --> 50:01.650 "Ci fa," look at that line, 50:01.650 --> 50:03.790 look at it, "to me from little hills, 50:03.789 --> 50:06.709 to little mountains while I was wheeling with the eternal 50:06.713 --> 50:07.553 Twins." 50:07.550 --> 50:15.990 Dante, in many ways has now-- that's part of his view of 50:15.987 --> 50:17.827 astronomy. 50:17.829 --> 50:21.999 He's giving his horoscope indirectly here. 50:22.000 --> 50:27.680 This idea of the Twins being the sign under which he was 50:27.682 --> 50:29.992 born, it doesn't really imply any 50:29.989 --> 50:33.799 astrological lapse on his part, it's now that he can be free 50:33.795 --> 50:36.855 and he has determined the limitations of-- 50:36.860 --> 50:40.670 astrological determinations he can go on alluding to his birth 50:40.672 --> 50:41.112 sign. 50:41.110 --> 50:45.390 I want to draw--I just want to draw the attention to this whole 50:45.394 --> 50:49.274 point about the "ci" where Dante says "the 50:49.266 --> 50:52.856 little threshing-floor that makes us so fierce," 50:52.860 --> 50:58.130 because for all its distance, Dante says, distance as it can 50:58.130 --> 51:03.230 be--for all the distance which is implied by this poetic 51:03.226 --> 51:06.656 fiction, he's distant from the Earth as 51:06.663 --> 51:07.673 he ever was. 51:07.670 --> 51:11.590 This pronoun, ci, us, 51:11.592 --> 51:17.842 the pronoun strains to have it both ways; 51:17.840 --> 51:21.130 on the one hand Dante asserts distance, 51:21.130 --> 51:27.460 the claim of a perspective of eternity on the world and-- 51:27.460 --> 51:31.430 but he does not, that's the other way, 51:31.429 --> 51:38.599 he does not want to surrender his place in time and in 51:38.597 --> 51:39.947 history. 51:39.949 --> 51:44.869 He is part of us so at the end of all this great gyration 51:44.871 --> 51:49.681 through the universe, Dante again claims and reclaims 51:49.681 --> 51:54.741 for himself a place with us in the world of history and the 51:54.737 --> 51:56.217 world of time. 51:56.219 --> 52:00.699 The synthesis of the two, the claim of eternity and the 52:00.704 --> 52:05.944 sense of contingency of the self in time is the ultimate goal of 52:05.936 --> 52:11.086 the poem, and the ultimate goal of the 52:11.094 --> 52:12.384 journey. 52:12.380 --> 52:15.220 That for Dante will be, as we shall see maybe next 52:15.217 --> 52:17.707 week, the very vision of the incarnation. 52:17.710 --> 52:21.470 The two--the idea where these two, this structure, 52:21.465 --> 52:25.835 the immutable structure of history and the process of time 52:25.835 --> 52:27.595 will come together. 52:27.599 --> 52:31.779 Let me stop here and see if there are questions that I 52:31.780 --> 52:35.960 would--about some of these issues that I raised that I 52:35.963 --> 52:38.413 would welcome them, please. 52:38.409 --> 53:14.459 53:14.460 --> 53:18.350 The passage, by the way, may be we should 53:18.351 --> 53:21.241 even-- the passage about where Dante 53:21.240 --> 53:25.830 talks about his own horoscope was given a little bit earlier, 53:25.829 --> 53:30.179 line 112 of Canto XXII, where Dante says, 53:30.179 --> 53:33.359 "O glorious stars, O light pregnant with mighty 53:33.358 --> 53:36.008 power, from which I acknowledge all my 53:36.012 --> 53:37.652 genius, whatever it be, 53:37.648 --> 53:40.388 with you was born and with you hidden, 53:40.389 --> 53:44.089 he that is the father of each mortal life when I first tasted 53:44.090 --> 53:46.720 the Tuscan air; and after, when grace was 53:46.717 --> 53:50.497 granted me to enter into the high wheel that bears you round, 53:50.503 --> 53:52.653 your region was assigned to me. 53:52.650 --> 53:56.700 To you my soul now sighs devoutly that it may gain 53:56.697 --> 54:01.567 strength for the hard task that draws it to itself." 54:01.570 --> 54:05.740 This is the--Dante abolishes the differences between 54:05.735 --> 54:07.855 astronomy and astrology. 54:07.860 --> 54:11.420 From this point of view he belongs fully to his time where 54:11.418 --> 54:14.608 there is no intrinsic-- we think of them as 54:14.614 --> 54:17.374 astrologists, of superstition, 54:17.369 --> 54:23.449 and astronomy is the science that was not the case for Dante. 54:23.449 --> 54:33.969 Another little detail since I'm introducing the question of 54:33.967 --> 54:43.757 visionariness now in cantos--with the contemplation. 54:43.760 --> 54:48.800 Let me just mention this initial image to give you an 54:48.798 --> 54:51.608 idea of how Dante proceeds. 54:51.610 --> 54:56.770 The initial image at Canto XXI of--the very beginning of Canto 54:56.768 --> 54:59.088 XXI, Dante is in the sphere of 54:59.092 --> 55:03.322 Saturn where the contemplatives are and he sees the ladder, 55:03.320 --> 55:07.640 the ladder of ascent but before we get there this is the 55:07.643 --> 55:10.323 passage, "Already my eyes were 55:10.315 --> 55:13.565 fixed on the face of my Lady, and within my mind, 55:13.565 --> 55:16.215 which was withdrawn from every other thought; 55:16.219 --> 55:20.979 and she did not smile, but 'Were I to smile' she began 55:20.981 --> 55:26.461 to me, 'thou wouldst become like Semele when she was turned to 55:26.460 --> 55:28.310 ashes; for my beauty, 55:28.313 --> 55:32.273 which thou hast seen kindle more the higher we climb by the 55:32.268 --> 55:36.838 stairs of the eternal palace, is so shining that if it were 55:36.842 --> 55:41.332 not tempered thy mortal powers in its blaze would be as a 55:41.327 --> 55:43.967 branch split by a thunderbolt. 55:43.969 --> 55:47.569 We have risen to the seventh splendour, which beneath the 55:47.572 --> 55:51.822 breast of the burning Lion rays down now mingled with its power. 55:51.820 --> 55:55.750 Set thy mind behind thine eyes and make of them mirrors to the 55:55.753 --> 55:59.433 shape which in this mirror will appear to thee.'" 55:59.429 --> 56:04.349 This is an extraordinary image, the image of the myth of 56:04.349 --> 56:08.999 Semele, the young woman who fell in love with God. 56:09.000 --> 56:13.880 That would seem to be, of course, an extraordinary 56:13.878 --> 56:15.668 spiritual story. 56:15.670 --> 56:18.590 Ovid tells it as a very carnal story, 56:18.590 --> 56:23.410 she wants to love Jupiter, and Jupiter will agree to love 56:23.413 --> 56:29.803 Semele back on one condition, that she never ask the god to 56:29.798 --> 56:34.178 show himself forth for what he is. 56:34.179 --> 56:37.999 She has to accept his--the god's disguises. 56:38.000 --> 56:41.610 A variant, if you wish, of what later will appear with 56:41.612 --> 56:44.992 Apuleius, the idea of Eros and Psyche, 56:44.994 --> 56:49.364 you remember the love of-- the relationship with the mind 56:49.360 --> 56:49.990 and love. 56:49.989 --> 56:54.859 Love does not want to be seen for what it is, 56:54.862 --> 57:00.842 and always Simulacra and deceptive figures to cover its 57:00.840 --> 57:02.170 essence. 57:02.170 --> 57:04.090 This is the same thing that he's asking, 57:04.090 --> 57:08.460 that Dante's recalling, and of course what happens in 57:08.458 --> 57:13.098 Ovid is that Semele, in love, and because of love, 57:13.097 --> 57:17.677 love impels curiosity, she wants Jupiter to show 57:17.682 --> 57:23.352 himself forth for what he is, mindless of the danger that 57:23.347 --> 57:27.637 Jupiter had predicted this would befall-- 57:27.639 --> 57:31.019 and the danger of the death that would befall her. 57:31.018 --> 57:34.608 In fact, he shows himself and she cannot bear the 57:34.614 --> 57:39.114 extraordinary beauty of the god and gets destroyed and turned 57:39.106 --> 57:40.226 into ashes. 57:40.230 --> 57:43.350 That's the myth that Dante is recalling, 57:43.349 --> 57:46.219 so that the inevitable question for us is, 57:46.219 --> 57:50.879 why would Dante recall this story here at the beginning of 57:50.884 --> 57:53.344 the cantos on contemplation. 57:53.340 --> 57:58.210 The answer that I could give you is that Dante does so 57:58.211 --> 58:03.361 because he's aware of the dangers of visionary claims. 58:03.360 --> 58:06.930 This is--if you read the Bible, for instance, 58:06.929 --> 58:10.409 you do know that there is a tradition in the Bible among the 58:10.407 --> 58:13.257 Jews to turn their back, for instance, 58:13.262 --> 58:17.932 to even the passing of what is viewed as holy, 58:17.929 --> 58:21.469 to be the Holy Arc, or they cover themselves in-- 58:21.469 --> 58:28.009 because of the wisdom or the tradition of not seeing, 58:28.010 --> 58:32.790 or never trying to have mixed the profane and the sacred, 58:32.789 --> 58:35.919 that of the sense of the danger that would befall the-- 58:35.920 --> 58:41.450 those who are in the space of--the profane space, 58:41.449 --> 58:43.509 they were outside of the sanctuary. 58:43.510 --> 58:48.860 Dante is making this--or Beatrice is telling him that he 58:48.856 --> 58:54.006 has to endure the limitations of his human nature, 58:54.010 --> 58:58.340 and that his human nature, the trait of his mortality 58:58.342 --> 59:03.342 which is that of seeing through images and through ubiquitous 59:03.340 --> 59:05.590 cannot yet be given up. 59:05.590 --> 59:10.090 He does this as he enters the heaven of the contemplatives, 59:10.090 --> 59:14.510 who they themselves were longing and desiring to see God, 59:14.510 --> 59:20.480 but accepted this longing as the sign of God's presence and 59:20.483 --> 59:22.033 gift to them. 59:22.030 --> 59:25.480 This is an extraordinary passage in terms of what Dante 59:25.476 --> 59:29.116 thinks of contemplation and clearly the danger of thinking 59:29.117 --> 59:32.497 of contemplation as the condition that would allow and 59:32.501 --> 59:34.801 bring about the vision of God. 59:34.800 --> 59:36.850 Such a vision, Dante is saying, 59:36.847 --> 59:40.737 is not going to be possible while we are here on Earth. 59:40.739 --> 59:46.839 This is the--a number of ambiguities about this problem 59:46.838 --> 59:53.498 and then we could also mention why Benedict--why is Benedict 59:53.503 --> 59:54.523 here? 59:54.518 --> 59:58.878 The figure that appears in Canto XXII as the example of-- 59:58.880 --> 1:00:01.880 first of all he is the founder, as I said, 1:00:01.880 --> 1:00:06.790 of the life of contemplation, but a life of contemplation 1:00:06.788 --> 1:00:10.818 that appears as the danger of contemplation; 1:00:10.820 --> 1:00:15.890 of course, Dante goes on talking about the decadence of 1:00:15.893 --> 1:00:20.113 the contemplative order, which is by the way, 1:00:20.106 --> 1:00:23.426 quite true and what-- that which occasions 1:00:23.429 --> 1:00:27.349 historically the foundation of the mendicant orders. 1:00:27.349 --> 1:00:30.529 Those Franciscans and Dominicans whom we already have 1:00:30.525 --> 1:00:34.305 encountered who want to be part of the world and roam around in 1:00:34.313 --> 1:00:37.113 the world, but the danger of the 1:00:37.108 --> 1:00:42.028 contemplation though is that they can bypass and drive a 1:00:42.030 --> 1:00:47.400 wedge between the contemplative life and the active life. 1:00:47.400 --> 1:00:52.160 The ideal of Benedict has been betrayed because what he wants 1:00:52.161 --> 1:00:55.101 is an action and a life of action, 1:00:55.099 --> 1:00:59.049 the life of contemplative prayer, so that's one of the 1:00:59.045 --> 1:01:02.465 causes of the degeneracy that Dante pursues. 1:01:02.469 --> 1:01:06.889 With that we enter the world of--now where Dante returns and 1:01:06.889 --> 1:01:11.459 this is what we are going to do next time to what I call basic 1:01:11.460 --> 1:01:12.210 words. 1:01:12.210 --> 1:01:16.910 Somehow the whole compass of knowledge, 1:01:16.909 --> 1:01:20.989 the whole idea of geography and spiritual geography, 1:01:20.989 --> 1:01:24.999 the whole idea of how--of what triggers the writing of a poem, 1:01:25.000 --> 1:01:28.750 that has been taken care of, or at least Dante seems to have 1:01:28.751 --> 1:01:32.631 been phasing and delivering to us his particular understanding 1:01:32.630 --> 1:01:34.030 of these problems. 1:01:34.030 --> 1:01:37.130 Now the question is, with all of this in mind, 1:01:37.130 --> 1:01:41.690 what is the meaning of the basic words we use, 1:01:41.690 --> 1:01:44.620 and the basic words we use, and that's what we are going to 1:01:44.617 --> 1:01:48.677 talk about next time, are going to be love, 1:01:48.682 --> 1:01:52.982 hope, and faith, what we call the three 1:01:52.976 --> 1:01:54.736 theological virtues. 1:01:54.739 --> 1:01:58.409 They are basic words because there is no such a thing as a 1:01:58.409 --> 1:02:01.629 life without trust, or the difficulties of the life 1:02:01.630 --> 1:02:02.790 without trust. 1:02:02.789 --> 1:02:06.369 There is no possibility of a life without hope and certainly 1:02:06.369 --> 1:02:09.889 that which for Dante remains the biggest mystery of all; 1:02:09.889 --> 1:02:12.549 there is never the possibility of thinking about a life or 1:02:12.550 --> 1:02:13.250 without love. 1:02:13.250 --> 1:02:16.860 It becomes a mystery because he can define the other two words; 1:02:16.860 --> 1:02:21.060 he never-- he escapes the responsibly of defining love. 1:02:21.059 --> 1:02:25.829 It is as if that were really the biggest mystery throughout 1:02:25.829 --> 1:02:29.859 the Divine Comedy and in his experience. 1:02:29.860 --> 1:02:40.190 Let me see if there are some questions now that I have thrown 1:02:40.186 --> 1:02:49.306 a lot--put a lot of chestnuts on the fire as we say so 1:02:49.307 --> 1:02:51.887 let's--yes. 1:02:51.889 --> 1:02:55.609 Student: In one of your earlier lectures you were 1:02:55.606 --> 1:02:59.656 talking about the whole comedy that it was a physical journey 1:02:59.663 --> 1:03:02.303 and in hell we could see that was-- 1:03:02.300 --> 1:03:06.930 he emphasized his weight and the Earth and smells of things 1:03:06.931 --> 1:03:09.761 and so forth, and now that we're in 1:03:09.764 --> 1:03:13.104 Paradise it's more vision and light, 1:03:13.099 --> 1:03:17.489 and color, and is he trying to characterize God or God's 1:03:17.485 --> 1:03:22.025 relation to Earth somehow by contrasting them that way? 1:03:22.030 --> 1:03:26.260 Prof: The question is that in the previous lectures I 1:03:26.257 --> 1:03:31.237 discussed-- would talk of hell as the place 1:03:31.244 --> 1:03:36.404 where the smells, the concrete particulars of the 1:03:36.396 --> 1:03:41.126 Earth would be mentioned and it would be part of Dante's 1:03:41.130 --> 1:03:44.830 warehouse in the representation of hell. 1:03:44.829 --> 1:03:46.749 Now that we are talking--we are entering the world of 1:03:46.746 --> 1:03:48.176 Paradise, we have been discussing 1:03:48.184 --> 1:03:51.894 Paradise, Dante seems to separate himself 1:03:51.889 --> 1:03:57.269 from the aesthetics, the sensual aspects of hell and 1:03:57.271 --> 1:04:00.321 talk more-- which is still sensual though, 1:04:00.318 --> 1:04:05.368 colors, light, colors and visionariness. 1:04:05.369 --> 1:04:10.489 Then the question becomes does this mean that Dante is clearly 1:04:10.494 --> 1:04:15.364 finding a distinction between Earth and Heaven that this is 1:04:15.364 --> 1:04:19.484 really the-- am I rephrasing it accurately? 1:04:19.480 --> 1:04:20.320 Student: Yes. 1:04:20.320 --> 1:04:23.790 Is he trying to--I mean, because clearly it's not that 1:04:23.786 --> 1:04:27.966 he's trying to separate God from physical reality because what we 1:04:27.971 --> 1:04:31.961 see and colors are still very physical descriptions so what is 1:04:31.960 --> 1:04:34.250 the distinction between them? 1:04:34.250 --> 1:04:39.590 Prof: Yeah well I-- the answer would be this, 1:04:39.592 --> 1:04:45.042 that in Paradise you do have a lot of what we call 1:04:45.043 --> 1:04:49.503 earthly experiences, that's the only way he can 1:04:49.501 --> 1:04:53.581 really understand anything about Paradise. 1:04:53.579 --> 1:04:56.469 There are dances, there are songs, 1:04:56.474 --> 1:05:00.514 you do have--there are games that they play. 1:05:00.510 --> 1:05:05.510 You do have the language of playfulness in the forms of 1:05:05.505 --> 1:05:06.795 simulations. 1:05:06.800 --> 1:05:10.640 Simulation is very--it's a form of game, 1:05:10.639 --> 1:05:15.049 it's a reduction of the world to unseriousness, 1:05:15.050 --> 1:05:19.110 the game, the play, and in the form of the 1:05:19.108 --> 1:05:22.798 degradation of, the noble idea of play because 1:05:22.795 --> 1:05:24.865 play is-- see these things are all very 1:05:24.871 --> 1:05:25.471 ambivalent. 1:05:25.469 --> 1:05:29.349 We are dealing with the same reality only seen from different 1:05:29.349 --> 1:05:31.649 perspective, and I mention play because 1:05:31.652 --> 1:05:33.502 Paradise is all about play, 1:05:33.500 --> 1:05:39.290 it's about playing, about the dance of the stars, 1:05:39.289 --> 1:05:42.469 about the spectacle, the theatre which he just-- 1:05:42.469 --> 1:05:47.089 Dante has just seen a little performance put out for him. 1:05:47.090 --> 1:05:50.120 Can you imagine the dance of the stars that go on? 1:05:50.119 --> 1:05:56.119 It's like seeing the spectacle of the Olympics in China; 1:05:56.119 --> 1:05:59.979 they go on with distribution of shapes and forms, 1:05:59.981 --> 1:06:02.641 that is play, it's aesthetics so I 1:06:02.635 --> 1:06:07.135 don't--there is no difference there between the two. 1:06:07.139 --> 1:06:09.699 I don't see a difference there. 1:06:09.699 --> 1:06:12.699 Of course that has nothing to do, whatever he is seeing in 1:06:12.699 --> 1:06:15.069 Paradise, has really nothing to do with 1:06:15.068 --> 1:06:17.068 the understanding of the divinity. 1:06:17.070 --> 1:06:18.970 I am not even--I haven't decided yet, 1:06:18.969 --> 1:06:22.939 not for any reason but because there may not really be time and 1:06:22.936 --> 1:06:26.176 I could-- I wouldn't be doing justice to 1:06:26.181 --> 1:06:28.811 the difficulty of the problem. 1:06:28.809 --> 1:06:32.299 I haven't decided whether to discuss the whole-- 1:06:32.300 --> 1:06:34.630 the cosmology of Paradise, 1:06:34.630 --> 1:06:39.000 of the universe that appears in Canto XXIX of Paradise 1:06:39.000 --> 1:06:42.860 where Dante goes on talking about two universes, 1:06:42.860 --> 1:06:45.460 for instance, so there is the physical 1:06:45.461 --> 1:06:49.401 universe that somehow he has traversed only to understand 1:06:49.400 --> 1:06:52.850 that when he goes there, there is another universe which 1:06:52.851 --> 1:06:55.541 is completely spiritual and it's not the platonic idea of an 1:06:55.538 --> 1:06:58.158 inverted-- you know Plato has this idea of 1:06:58.155 --> 1:07:01.095 an inverted cosmos, but we are in the world which 1:07:01.103 --> 1:07:03.453 is really the projection, a projection, 1:07:03.454 --> 1:07:08.204 an unreal projection, projection meaning a shadow of 1:07:08.197 --> 1:07:09.997 the real cosmos. 1:07:10.000 --> 1:07:13.130 It's not really that there are two adjacent cosmos, 1:07:13.128 --> 1:07:16.628 both very real and that's the--where we live and where we 1:07:16.630 --> 1:07:20.690 don't live; beyond that as really a speck 1:07:20.690 --> 1:07:22.520 of sand he says. 1:07:22.518 --> 1:07:29.038 There is a light that clearly is the light from which whole or 1:07:29.041 --> 1:07:33.531 creation emanates, so God remains forever a 1:07:33.532 --> 1:07:35.352 transcendent. 1:07:35.349 --> 1:07:39.989 What Dante does see at the end is he sees this image in-- 1:07:39.989 --> 1:07:43.019 his own image in the plural, our image, 1:07:43.018 --> 1:07:48.118 which to me implies the idea that as Christians read the 1:07:48.123 --> 1:07:51.653 whole notion of Genesis is that in-- 1:07:51.650 --> 1:07:56.720 since we are shaped in God's image there is our image in God. 1:07:56.719 --> 1:08:00.649 There is a human component in God, so that's all he sees; 1:08:00.650 --> 1:08:05.860 he sees maybe the incarnation but it's--all of that is all 1:08:05.862 --> 1:08:10.252 wrapped in a kind of extraordinary and deliberate 1:08:10.253 --> 1:08:13.183 fogginess of representation. 1:08:13.179 --> 1:08:18.479 The paradise that he describes is not the paradise of sensual 1:08:18.479 --> 1:08:21.779 delights, of the Qu'ran for instance, 1:08:21.779 --> 1:08:25.179 but there's a lot of game and play and-- 1:08:25.180 --> 1:08:30.540 the stars, the amorous discourse of paradise engages 1:08:30.543 --> 1:08:33.703 and involves even the stars. 1:08:33.698 --> 1:08:37.898 They go on wooing each other, it's as if literally the whole 1:08:37.904 --> 1:08:42.044 cosmos is involved in this extraordinary dance of love that 1:08:42.039 --> 1:08:46.499 keeps it together, makes it cohere as opposed to 1:08:46.502 --> 1:08:52.052 say Lucretius' idea of an anarchic universe forever on the 1:08:52.048 --> 1:08:54.578 verge of falling apart. 1:08:54.578 --> 1:08:58.748 These are the real models of the cosmos. 1:08:58.750 --> 1:09:01.230 Let's call it Lucretius and Virgil, 1:09:01.229 --> 1:09:08.519 Epicurus and Plato, this is Dante and heavy, 1:09:08.520 --> 1:09:11.570 the heavy traditionalist, it's very heavy the tradition 1:09:11.569 --> 1:09:12.529 of materialism. 1:09:12.529 --> 1:09:18.239 The spiritual tradition is very small in comparison to the 1:09:18.235 --> 1:09:23.765 heaviness of the physical, of the scholars of physics who 1:09:23.769 --> 1:09:27.449 want to see the cosmos in physical terms. 1:09:27.448 --> 1:09:31.958 But Dante opposes it and somehow he finds a kind of-- 1:09:31.960 --> 1:09:34.590 that's what the universe--that's what keeps the 1:09:34.586 --> 1:09:38.126 universe together is really love and that's what we're going to 1:09:38.127 --> 1:09:38.867 find out. 1:09:38.868 --> 1:09:40.878 That I will read, the rest I don't know. 1:09:40.880 --> 1:09:44.530 1:09:44.529 --> 1:09:45.979 Other questions? 1:09:45.979 --> 1:09:47.139 Please. 1:09:47.140 --> 1:09:50.650 Student: When Beatrice is wanting Dante not to look 1:09:50.648 --> 1:09:54.218 directly at her face because he might become like Semele and 1:09:54.217 --> 1:09:58.047 just turn to ashes, do you think Dante is trying to 1:09:58.051 --> 1:10:02.591 elude back to Medusa and the danger of just looking directly 1:10:02.585 --> 1:10:07.035 into the face of something so powerful and being reduced to 1:10:07.041 --> 1:10:09.501 something that isn't human? 1:10:09.500 --> 1:10:12.620 I was reading that and she said, "Set thy mind behind 1:10:12.622 --> 1:10:15.692 thine eyes and make of them mirrors to the shape which in 1:10:15.692 --> 1:10:18.542 this mirror will appear to thee," as if like the 1:10:18.542 --> 1:10:20.602 mirror, so the mirror is like the eyes 1:10:20.603 --> 1:10:22.893 like the intermediary just like the shield that is the 1:10:22.886 --> 1:10:24.306 intermediary for maybe Medusa. 1:10:24.310 --> 1:10:25.640 Prof: Very good. 1:10:25.640 --> 1:10:27.890 The question--let me just recall the question. 1:10:27.890 --> 1:10:33.640 The image of Beatrice as Semele, whose smile could 1:10:33.641 --> 1:10:40.801 potentially destroy the lover, the pilgrim who were to look at 1:10:40.802 --> 1:10:43.502 her face; the question is, 1:10:43.500 --> 1:10:46.060 is that supposed to be a sort of, 1:10:46.060 --> 1:10:51.390 let's call it palinodic variant, a version of the scene 1:10:51.391 --> 1:10:56.451 of Medusa in Inferno IX, who threatened also, 1:10:56.447 --> 1:11:00.607 in that case the pilgrim, with petrification, 1:11:00.610 --> 1:11:05.740 with a turning into stone, the intellect would petrify, 1:11:05.740 --> 1:11:10.910 that's really the allegory and there of course in the canto of 1:11:10.907 --> 1:11:14.207 Medusa there was always the shield, 1:11:14.210 --> 1:11:17.500 the shield of poetry, the shield of Perseus, 1:11:17.500 --> 1:11:21.860 and the answer is yes absolutely, this is exactly what 1:11:21.863 --> 1:11:23.103 is happening. 1:11:23.100 --> 1:11:27.610 I think that this is--if you are thinking as I think you are 1:11:27.612 --> 1:11:31.592 of writing about--are you thinking of writing--no. 1:11:31.590 --> 1:11:34.380 About Medusa? No. 1:11:34.380 --> 1:11:35.300 Student: I was just >. 1:11:35.300 --> 1:11:37.610 Prof: Okay, well if you're thinking about 1:11:37.608 --> 1:11:40.358 writing about Medusa I think that you are absolutely-- 1:11:40.359 --> 1:11:43.199 you would--the two scenes you would be absolutely correct. 1:11:43.198 --> 1:11:47.578 The story of Medusa is--what is interesting-- 1:11:47.578 --> 1:11:49.628 the story of Medusa is the story of-- 1:11:49.630 --> 1:11:52.510 we could view it--we viewed it, as you remember, 1:11:52.510 --> 1:11:55.130 the temptation of looking at the past, 1:11:55.130 --> 1:11:58.110 a way of Orpheus, a turning--Dante who casts 1:11:58.113 --> 1:12:00.923 himself as Orpheus, Orpheus, you know, 1:12:00.920 --> 1:12:04.900 who is told not to look back and yet Orpheus stands for a 1:12:04.903 --> 1:12:08.723 sort of impatience, a kind of skepticism about the 1:12:08.722 --> 1:12:11.082 injunction, the fear that Eurydice may not 1:12:11.078 --> 1:12:13.718 really be following him, he turns and loses her, 1:12:13.722 --> 1:12:16.572 some modern mythographers even see that look. 1:12:16.569 --> 1:12:19.219 I'm thinking about a man by the name of Blanchaux, 1:12:19.220 --> 1:12:22.810 he really wanted to lose Eurydice because he saw-- 1:12:22.810 --> 1:12:23.890 because this way he could write poetry, 1:12:23.890 --> 1:12:27.700 so that poetry can become the perpetual voice of absence. 1:12:27.698 --> 1:12:32.038 Dante does not go that far but it's clear that it's time to--a 1:12:32.042 --> 1:12:34.252 poetic experience of his own. 1:12:34.250 --> 1:12:39.080 The interesting thing about what you are saying and we could 1:12:39.078 --> 1:12:43.088 go into that maybe in a conversation later because 1:12:43.091 --> 1:12:45.591 it's-- it would take me too far, 1:12:45.585 --> 1:12:49.945 is that this enigmatic-- the double face of Beatrice 1:12:49.947 --> 1:12:53.727 comes to the fore here that she has-- 1:12:53.729 --> 1:13:00.259 she was confronting the siren and threatens against the siren 1:13:00.256 --> 1:13:07.106 and now she also appears as the sorcery and danger of beauty. 1:13:07.109 --> 1:13:10.059 Beauty that is that which was--the language here is 1:13:10.060 --> 1:13:13.000 beauty, beauty which can--which we 1:13:12.997 --> 1:13:18.317 hunger after and yet it's that which can destroy us and this 1:13:18.323 --> 1:13:24.333 seems to me to be-- I put that in the consciousness 1:13:24.332 --> 1:13:27.762 of Dante's-- of the contemplatives that 1:13:27.759 --> 1:13:30.909 Dante represents, this doubleness that you're 1:13:30.908 --> 1:13:33.898 wrong to see and yet you may not have to-- 1:13:33.899 --> 1:13:37.549 you are better off in not seeing, but it's true that it 1:13:37.545 --> 1:13:41.455 appears also with the ambiguity of beauty and the beauty of 1:13:41.460 --> 1:13:43.550 Beatrice that it would be true. 1:13:43.551 --> 1:13:44.161 Yes. 1:13:44.158 --> 1:13:47.098 Student: So if the mirror is sort of like the 1:13:47.104 --> 1:13:49.204 intermediary just like the shield, 1:13:49.198 --> 1:13:53.458 what role does vision and the eyes play in mediating between 1:13:53.456 --> 1:13:57.636 what you see in the world and the mind that it protects? 1:13:57.640 --> 1:14:01.720 Prof: Well Dante will--is now slowly preparing 1:14:01.716 --> 1:14:06.106 for this final vision and it's going to have intermediate 1:14:06.106 --> 1:14:06.966 stages. 1:14:06.970 --> 1:14:12.070 When he will see, at the end he will see not God; 1:14:12.069 --> 1:14:18.139 he will see his own image within the beatific vision. 1:14:18.140 --> 1:14:21.620 This is how far he will go, not only that, 1:14:21.618 --> 1:14:26.288 he will go also--there is an eclipse of the inner eye of 1:14:26.286 --> 1:14:27.216 memory. 1:14:27.220 --> 1:14:31.560 Memory is thought of as being the inner eye of the 1:14:31.564 --> 1:14:36.624 imagination, that's the classical definition of memory. 1:14:36.618 --> 1:14:38.688 That too will be completely eclipsed, 1:14:38.689 --> 1:14:42.009 he will forget, so that at the end of all of 1:14:42.009 --> 1:14:46.559 these experiences we are ending up with forgetfulness with a 1:14:46.563 --> 1:14:48.573 fall from that vision. 1:14:48.569 --> 1:14:51.379 I don't know that I'm answering exactly your question but I 1:14:51.381 --> 1:14:53.571 don't know that I-- I haven't understood what you 1:14:53.570 --> 1:14:58.170 really want to know, what you're really asking so-- 1:14:58.170 --> 1:14:59.670 Student: I guess I'm just asking more about the role 1:14:59.668 --> 1:15:00.658 of vision like it makes more sense-- 1:15:00.659 --> 1:15:02.919 Prof: Vision-- okay. 1:15:02.920 --> 1:15:06.280 Student: Yeah, just like I'm--is the eye 1:15:06.282 --> 1:15:10.572 supposed to be an intermediary or a protection of the mind to 1:15:10.573 --> 1:15:14.753 let you think or-- Prof: The eye--what is 1:15:14.746 --> 1:15:20.056 the eye, is it the intermediary or an extension of the mind? 1:15:20.060 --> 1:15:23.070 That's really what the eye is, but the vision that he will 1:15:23.068 --> 1:15:25.388 have is not going to be a physical vision. 1:15:25.390 --> 1:15:29.600 It cannot be a physical vision; it has to be a spiritual vision 1:15:29.600 --> 1:15:31.750 and so there are the limitations of the eye. 1:15:31.750 --> 1:15:36.370 Let me leave it at that. 1:15:36.368 --> 1:15:38.588 Okay, thank you, see you next time. 1:15:38.590 --> 1:15:44.000