lock: Dante was not a mystic in the pure sense of the word, but all mystics have stressed the ineffability of the mystical experience. How does one convey any rapturous experience once the rapture is over? William James in his Varieties of Religious Experience offers a fine introductory discussion of this question. as our intellect draws near its goal: The goal of intellect is God.

 

13-36. THE INVOCATION. Heretofore, Dante has invoked the Muses. Now he invokes Apollo himself as the God of Poetry, and as the father of the Muses. Note, too, that Apollo is identified with the Sun and that Dante has consistently used the Sun as a symbol for God.

 

15. crowned with bay: The laurel wreath awarded to poets and conquerors. See also line 29 and XXV, 1-12.

 

16. one peak of cleft Parnassus: Parnassus has two peaks: Nisa, which was sacred to the Muses; and Cyrrha, which was sacred to Apollo. Heretofore Nisa has been enough for Dante’s need, but for this last canticle he must summon aid from both peaks (i.e., from all the Muses and from Apollo as well).

 

20-21. Marsyas: The satyr Marsyas challenged Apollo to a singing contest and was defeated. Ovid (Metamorphoses. VI, 382-400) recounts in gory detail how Apollo thereupon punished him by pulling him out of his skin leaving all the uncovered organs still functioning.

Note that in this godly sport the skin was not pulled off Marsyas but that Marsyas was pulled out of his skin. In citing this incident Dante may be praying that he himself, in a sense, be pulled out of himself (i.e., be made to outdo himself), however painfully. Its sheath: its skin.

 

23-27. make clear even the shadow: Sense: “Lend me enough power to make clear so much as the shadow of the ineffable light, and your power and my lofty theme will win me a laurel crown.” your dear grove: The grove in which grows the sacred laurel. or bay.

 

31. the glad Delphic god: Apollo.

 

32. Penetan frond: The laurel or bay, so called for Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus. Cupid, to avenge a taunt, fired an arrow of love into Apollo and and an arrow of aversion into Daphne. Fleeing from the inflamed Apollo, Daphne prayed to her father and was changed into a laurel tree.

 

36. Cyrrha will reply: Cyrrha, Apollo’s sacred peak, is here taken for Apollo himself. If Apollo does not heed his prayer, Dante will at least show the way, and perhaps a better poet will come after him and have his prayer answered by Apollo, whereby Paradise will at last be well portrayed.

 

37-42. THE POSITION OF THE SUN AT THE VERNAL EQUINOX. Short of pages of diagrams, there is no way of explaining Dante’s astronomical figure in detail. A quick gloss must do: the lamp: The Sun. various stations: various points on the celestial horizon from which the sun rises at various times of the year. four circles with three crosses: The four circles here intended are: (1) the celestial horizon, (2) the celestial equator, (3) the ecliptic, and (4) equinoxial colure. The equinoxial colure is the great circle drawn through both poles and the two equinoxial points (the solsticial colure, similarly, passes through both poles and the two solsticial points). Since the equinox occurs when the sun crosses the celestial equator both equinoxial points must lie on the equator and the equinoxial colure must be at right angles to the celestial equator.