What It Is
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 of Mars make him exclaim "O Elios," a name that the commentators read as God's or the Sun's. Within the rays appears the cross, which the poet says was lighting up Christ, so that he cannot find a worthy example. The lights sparkle as they gather and as they pass, like the particles of bodies in the sunbeam that streaks the shadow, and a melody rises up the cross that carries the pilgrim away, though he does not understand the hymn. He hears only two words, rise again and conquer. In canto XV, one light runs from one of the arms down to the foot of the cross: it is Cacciaguida. In XVIII, it is in the arms of the cross that he shows those who had great voice on earth, and each name makes a light run along the cross like swift fire in a cloud.
Where It Appears
The cross appears in canto XIV:
Qui vince la memoria mia lo ’ngegno; / ché quella croce lampeggiava Cristo, / sì ch’io non so trovare essempro degno, here my memory overcomes my wit, for that cross was flashing Christ, so that I cannot find a worthy example.
The hymn that the pilgrim hears without understanding:
Ben m’accors’ io ch’elli era d’alte lode, / però ch’a me venìa «Resurgi» e «Vinci» / come a colui che non intende e ode, I well perceived that it was of high praise, because "Rise again" and "Conquer" came to me, as to one who hears without understanding.
In canto XV the light of his great-great-grandfather runs from the arm to the foot of the cross like sudden fire in a serene sky, and the greeting recalls the meeting of Aeneas and Anchises:
Sì pïa l’ombra d’Anchise si porse, / se fede merta nostra maggior musa, / quando in Eliso del figlio s’accorse. / «O sanguis meus, o superinfusa / gratïa Deï, sicut tibi cui / bis unquam celi ianüa reclusa?», so pious did the shade of Anchises extend himself, if our greatest muse deserves faith, when in Elysium he recognized his son. "O my blood, O grace of God superinfused, to whom, as to you, has the gate of heaven been opened twice?"
In canto XVIII the names of the warriors make the lights run along the cross, from Joshua to Robert Guiscard, and Cacciaguida mingles with the other lights before the ascent to Jupiter.
What It Means
The cross says that the Christian's victory passes through sacrifice, and that rising again and conquering are the same word of Easter. It is also the place where Dante, in explaining why he had placed Beatrice's eyes second to it, discovers that the living seals of all beauty act more the higher one climbs. On Mars, the cross orders the heaven: the lights of the warriors of the faith run along its arms, and from one of them comes the great-great-grandfather.
The image has two readings. The cross of lights is that of holy war, of the crusading great-great-grandfather and of Joshua, and it is that of resurrection, the one that gives Dante a hymn he only understands through its two words. The poem joins the two in the same figure, without saying which weighs more.
Relationships
- Default themes: Faith, God and the divine.
- Themes of the work: Faith, God and the divine.
- Characters: Cacciaguida, Dante, Beatrice.
- Neighboring symbols: the eagle of justice, which Dante sees in the next heaven.