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Canto 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradiso, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Earthly and Heavenly Justice
Creation and God’s Providence
God’s Character and Will
Vision, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of God
Language and the Ineffable
Summary
Analysis
The eagle’s voice falls silent; yet, gradually, the individual souls within the eagle break into sweet song, like the murmur of a river. As the song rises up the eagle’s neck and out its beak, Dante listens. The eagle instructs Dante to examine its eye, where the greatest representatives of justice reside. In its pupil resides King David, “singer of the Holy Ghost.” Along the eagle’s brow are five other figures: Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William of Sicily, and Rhipeus.
Some of the just figures in the eagle’s eye are relatively simple to explain. David, the king of Israel and author of the biblical Book of Psalms, represents the combination of just spiritual and temporal rule to Dante; he established Jerusalem as a place of God’s worship. Hezekiah was a king of Judah whose service to his people was graciously permitted to extend when Hezekiah on his deathbed. Constantine was the Roman Emperor whose legal recognition of Christianity transformed the Empire and the future of all Christendom. William was a 12th-century king of Naples and Sicily who was known for his compassion. Yet the remaining two figures, Trajan and Rhipeus, present a challenge to Dante, which the eagle is about to address.
Themes
Sensing Dante’s bewilderment over what he’s seeing, the eagle speaks again, explaining that the kingdom of Heaven “will submit to force / assailed by warmth of love.” The eagle knows that Dante is especially confused about why Trajan and Rhipeus are in Heaven. He explains that, because of others’ fervent prayers, God granted Trajan the ability to believe in him and come back to life for long enough to be baptized. And Rhipeus was so righteous in his lifetime that God opened his eyes to belief. The eagle exhorts Dante and all mortals to show restraint in their judgments—nobody can presume to peer into the mysteries of predestination. Dante is comforted by this answer, realizing that God’s will is always good and ultimately triumphs.
Trajan was a Roman emperor from 98–117 C.E. In legend, Trajan was known for exemplary compassion during life, and it was said that when St. Gregory prayed for the dead Trajan, Trajan’s soul was temporarily restored so that he could believe in Christ and be baptized, thereby gaining entrance to Heaven. Rhipeus was described in Virgil’s Aeneid as being the most just of the Trojans. The salvation of both of these non-Christian souls shows Dante that God’s grace operates in ways he cannot understand. It’s also another example of God’s inscrutable justice at work.
Themes
