Canto XXV
CANTO XXV
As the three Poets climb single-file up the stairs, Dante, encouraged by his Master, asks how shades, who have no need of food, can be lean. Virgil metaphorically suggests that the relation between the soul and its aerial body resembles that between the firebrand and Meleager, whose life depended on it, or a body and the mirror image that mimics it, but then turns the question over to Statius for a rational explanation (1–30). Relying on medieval physiology, Statius then expounds how purified blood is transformed into semen, which then commingles as an active principle with the passive menstrual blood in the uterus to coagulate into fetal matter, which the semen’s formative virtue quickens first with a vegetative, then with a sensitive soul (31–60). When the articulation of the brain is completed in the embryo, God, the First Mover, breathes into it a rational soul, which becomes the one form of the body and subsumes the vegetative and sensitive functions of the lower soul into itself (61–78). The soul contains at death its vegetative and sensitive powers virtually within itself whereas its rational powers become more acute in their exercise. When it arrives at its place of eternal or temporal punishment, the soul then forms a “body” for itself from the surrounding air, somewhat as the sun’s rays form a rainbow in the humid atmosphere. This aerial body provides the soul with the organs of sense and the means of self-expression. Hence, the leanness of these spirits is not the result of starvation, but the outer manifestation of inner desire (79–108). By the time Statius has finished his disquisition, the three Wayfarers have arrived at the seventh and final terrace, where flames of fire shoot out from the inner wall and are blown upwards by a blast at the cornice edge, forcing the Travelers to tread on the extreme outer fringe. Within the wall of fire, Dante hears the spirits of the lustful chant the hymn “God of Supreme Clemency” and recite an example of the chastity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, then repeat the hymn and follow it with the example of the goddess Diana’s virginity, and finally reiterate the hymn to close with shouts in praise of conjugal fidelity (109–139).
1 Our climb could now brook no delay below:
The sun’s meridian was left behind
To Taurus and the night’s to Scorpio.[424]
4 Thus, like a man who does not stop, inclined
To go his way whatever may appear,
If but the goad of need should prick his mind,
7 We made our entrance through a gap found near
As one by one we took the stairs up high,
Whose narrowness dispairs the climbers here.
10 And as a fledgling stork that longs to fly
Will lift its wing but dare not leave the nest
And lets it drop again, so too was I:
13 My will to ask flared up and was suppressed,
Not going past the movements made inside
Of one who’s just preparing his request.
16 And my sweet Father, though with rapid stride,
Did not forbear: “Speak up; discharge the bow
That, drawn up to the iron, you have plied.”
19 Assured, I opened up my mouth and so
My words began: “How can they be so lean
When there’s no need of nourishment to grow?”
22 “Recall how Meleager once was seen[425]
To perish as an ember was consumed,
And this,” he said, “won’t be so hard to glean.
25 Think how your every movement is resumed
As in the glass your image moves abreast,
And what seems hard is easily assumed.
28 But that in your desire you may find rest,
Here’s Statius; I call on him and sue
That by this healer now your wounds be dressed.”
31 “If I interpret the eternal view”
So Statius replied, “while you are near,
Excuse me, but I can’t say ‘no’ to you.”
34 He then began: “Son, if your mind should hear
And keep the words I speak, it will perceive
A light to make the ‘how’ you ask for clear.
37 The perfect blood, which thirsty veins will leave[426]
When it has not been drunk and which remains
Like food that from the table you retrieve,
40 Finds in the heart informing pow’r it gains
To shape the body’s members, like the flood
That flows, becoming limbs, throughout your veins.
43 Once more digested, downwards it will scud
To what is best unmentioned, and from there
It drips in nature’s vase on other’s blood.[427]
46 So, one is mingled with the other’s share,
With one disposed to suffer, one to act,[428]
Pressed out from such a perfect place; and where[429]
49 The two are joined, it starts to work in fact
By clotting first, then quickening the store
Of what as matter it had made compact.
52 The active force becomes a soul once more,
Like that of plants, yet differing indeed:
While this still journeys, that is at the shore.
55 It acts so that it moves and senses need,
Like sponges, and forms organs by its art[430]
For faculties of which it is the seed.
58 The virtue from the generator’s heart
Now goes unfolding and extending from
Its place, where Nature sees to every part.
61 How speaking ones from animals may come[431]
You don’t yet see; one wiser would commit[432]
An error here—this point made him succumb—
64 For, in his teaching, from the soul he split
Potential intellect who could not show
That any organ was assumed by it.[433]
67 Unlock your breast for truth to come and know
That when articulation of the brain
Has been perfected in the embryo,
70 The Primal Mover turns to it with plain
Delight in Nature’s art, while breathing in
New soul, one filled with powers that remain.
73 What it finds active there it draws within
Its substance, making all the soul be one,
Which lives, perceives, returns to self therein.
76 But that my words may give you less a stun,
Behold the solar heat that turns to wine
When joined with juices that the vine lets run.[434]
79 When Láchesis has no more thread to twine,[435]
The soul is loosed from flesh but bears en route,
In potency, the human and divine.[436]
82 With all the other powers turning mute,
The memory, intelligence, and will
Are in their action even more acute.
85 It does not rest, but falls of self until
It wondrously alights on either shore[437]
And there first learns which road to travel still.
88 When circumscribed by space as once before,
The forming power radiates around
The shape and size its living members wore.
91 And as when moisture in the air is found,
It is adorned with diverse colors where
Another’s rays reflecting there abound,
94 So also in this place the nearby air
Will shape itself so as to form a frame
By virtue of the soul that’s halted there.
97 And as the fire is followed by the flame,
No matter where the fire may move to light,
So soul is followed by new form the same.
100 And since it has its semblance thus, it’s right
To call it “shade”; from air it fashions then
The organs for each sense, including sight.
103 By this we speak, by this we laugh, like men;
By this we weep the tears and sigh the sighs
You may have heard around the mount. And when
106 The soul’s desires and other passions rise,
Affecting us, our shadows then will wear
These shapes, and that’s the cause of your surprise.”
109 By now we’d reached the final turning where,
When we had shifted towards the right-hand flank,
We were intent upon another care.
112 And here a flame shot outwards from the bank;
The terrace edge sent out an upward blast,
Which bent it back to leave a pathway blank,
115 So, one by one, on its free side we passed.
I feared the fire upon the left-hand side,
And on the right I feared to fall, aghast.
118 “While moving through this place,” so spoke my Guide,
“The reins must be held tight when eyes are spurred,
For one with ease could take an erring stride.”
121 “Summae Deus clementiae,” I heard[438]
Sung from the bosom of a mighty heat,
At which no less desire to turn was stirred.
124 I saw souls walking on the flaming street;
From time to time, distributing my view,
I looked at them and then upon my feet.
127 And finishing, each time the hymn was through,
First “Virum non cognosco,” they cried out;[439]
Then softly they began the hymn anew.
130 “Diana held the woods and put to rout
Bold Hélice, who’d felt the poisoned throes
Of Venus,” at the end came one more shout.[440]
133 They turned to sing again, then cry of those
Good wives and husbands who were ever chaste
As virtue and as marriage both impose.
136 I think this fashion lasts for those here placed
For all the time they feel the fires that burn:
Such cures they take and such repasts they taste[441]
139 So that the final wound may heal in turn.