Paradiso, Canto 2

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Summary

Beatrice gazes upwards into the heavens and Dante fixes his eyes upon her. By this means they rise beyond the sphere of fire into the First Heaven, where they enter the moon. Dante asks Beatrice for an explanation of the markings which are visible from earth on the face of the moon and which popular fancy identifies as Cain and the thorn bush. Refuting Dante’s own suggestion that they may be due to a variation in density of the moons substance, Beatrice explains that they derive ultimately from varying degrees of power residing in the Angelic beings which move the nine heavens. The moon, being the furthest removed from the Empyrean, receives from it less of excellence than the other planets, with the result that the very parts of the moon so differ from one another that they receive and reflect the light of the sun unequally. 

The Prepatory Lecture

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Questions for Reflection

• Why does Dante open this canto with nautical imagery (1-18)? How does this recall us to the story of Ulysses in Inferno 26? What other famous sailor does Dante evoke in line 16?
• Why does Dante warn that some readers may not be able to follow him into the dizzying heights of Paradiso (2.4-6)? Is Dante being demeaning toward those who might not be as intellectually equipped as he is or is there something more going on here? How does this warning contrast with Ulysses?
• How does the fact that Dante and Beatrice are substantially conjoined to the moon raise the question of the incarnation of Christ (2.37-42)?
• How does Beatrice’s discourse on the nature of the moonspots point to the limitations of empirical knowledge and suggest the need for broader understanding of the world?
• One aspect of this infamous canto is the way that Beatrice disproves Dante’s earlier philosophical argument about the moonspots from his Convivio. This isn’t the last time in Paradiso that Beatrice will correct Dante’s earlier ideas. Why might it be so important for his project in Paradiso for Dante to highlight his past intellectual errors?

Paradiso, Canto 2 © Jan Hearn

The Images

The Moon. In the story, the moon is the first stage in Dante’s journey through the heavens, for in the natural universe it is the planet nearest the earth. In the allegory, the moon symbolizes a tendency in the soul towards inconstancy, or a will insufficiently steadfast to withstand coercion. 

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