Symbols

The reader's little boat The reader's little boat is the image with which the poem speaks to the reader and divides him in two. At the start of canto II, before any scene, Dante turns to whoever follows him in a small boat behind his ship and tells them to return to the shores they... The cross of Mars The cross of Mars is a cross made of lights that move from end to end and between the high and the low, in the heaven of those who fought for the faith. Dante sees it in canto XIV, after climbing with Beatrice, when two bright and ruddy rays within the star... The eagle of justice The eagle is the sign of the Roman empire and, in Paradise, the sign of justice. It appears at two moments that the poem links: in the mouth of Justinian, in the heaven of Mercury, who recounts his history since Constantine turned it against the course of... The ladder of Saturn The ladder of Saturn is a ladder the color of gold, raised so high that Dante's sight does not follow it, and down which splendors descend, like jackdaws that move together at daybreak to warm their cold feathers. It appears in the seventh heaven, that of... The point of light and the nine choirs The point of light is the way Dante sees God on leaving the heaven of the fixed stars and reaching the Primum Mobile. Beatrice has just denounced the present life of wretched mortals, and the pilgrim turns to her eyes as one who checks in a mirror the flame... The celestial rose The celestial rose is the form that light takes in the Empyrean to show the court of the blessed. When Dante drinks from the river of light and the flowers and sparks exchange places in a greater festival, he sees the light that makes the creator visible to... The three circles and the wheel The three circles and the wheel are the two images with which the poem closes. The three circles appear in the deep and clear substance of the high light, of three colors and of one measure: one reflected from the other like a rainbow of a rainbow, and the...