18. Ascending the Spheres

In this lecture, we discuss the general contours of Paradise, the third canticle of the Divine Comedy. We discuss how Dante’s encounter with the souls of the saved in heaven is different from his previous encounters in hell and purgatory. The souls he meets here have as their dwelling the mystical rose surrounding God’s throne, yet at the same time, they appear to Dante to be inhabiting the various spheres of the Ptolemaic universe, each according to the kind of life lived on earth. We discuss the opening of the Paradiso, with its emphasis on light imagery as a clue to meaning for the entire poem. We look at the character of Piccarda Donati in Canto 3 and the discussion of free will in Canto 5 as further clues to the nature of paradise.