The Earthly Paradise is the summit of the mountain, Eden: a divine forest of air that never changes, which Matelda says was given to man as a pledge of eternal peace and lost through his own fault. It lies above the point where the gate closes, free of the exhalations of the earth, and it holds the river of two waters, the procession, and the reunion with Beatrice. It occupies cantos XXVIII to XXXIII.
Term