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4: Limbo of Sinless Pagans

A thunderclap jerked me at last awake 1

and upright, as if lifted by strong arms.

I found myself on a tremendous height

above so vast a slope of falling ground 4

it vanished under clouds beneath my sight.

I knew this pit must be the last abode

of every sinner cast away by God. 7

My guide, reading my thought, said, “It is so.

Here we must now descend, so let us go.”

His face was deathly pale. I cried aloud, 10

“Master, I dare not! Surely you must see

I cannot follow where you fear to tread.”

“Not fear but pity blanches me,” he said, 13

“pity for those beneath. We’ve far to go,

so onward, come!” He led me straight ahead

onto the widest ledge circling the pit 16

where twilit air was tremulous with sighs –

no other sounds of suffering were there.

My sadly smiling guide asked, “Do you know 19

who dwell within this painless part of Hell?

This is my place, with those who did not sin,

22 born before Jesus, therefore not baptised.

Limbo is where all sinless pagans dwell

outside the radiance of gospel’s grace.

25 Lacking baptism, you see, we did no wrong,

but cannot truly love the Trinity

and give to it the praise that is its due.

25 This is the only cause of our distress.”

That noble souls are thus condemned to pain

forever, and condemned to it in vain

31 depressed me for a while, and so I said,

“Now tell me, sir, please tell me, Master dear . . .”

(for now I needed utter certainty

34 about our faith which strikes all error dead)

“. . . has no one any time escaped from here

by their own virtue, or by virtue lent?”

37 My guide exactly knew just what I meant.

“Soon after I entered this zone of Hell,”

he said, “a Hero crowned with victory

40 passed through and down to pull out of the pit

Adam and Eve and all His ancestry –

Abel their first born son of righteous mind –

43 Noah the just whose ark preserved mankind –

Abraham patriarch of everyone –

Rachel whom Heaven put such cares upon

46 and wife of Jacob renamed Israel –

lawgiver Moses, psalmist David too –

and many more than I could tell or see

He raised to Heaven where I will never be.” 49

We passed as he was speaking through a crowd –

men, women, infants who forlornly stood

like rustling trees within a twilit wood, 52

but gradually between them there appeared

a light that grew much brighter as we neared,

until I saw it was a dome of light 55

with such fine folk inside I asked my guide,

“Why are these brightly lit and set apart?”

Said he, “Heaven ratifies the glory 58

given by art and story.” A great shout

rang out: “The prince of poetry is home,

returned to us from distant wandering!” 61

Four solemn figures came towards us then

with neither joy nor sorrow in their looks.

My guide explained, “Their leader with the sword 64

first sang of warfare – also was the first

to have his verse immortalised in books.

His name is Homer. Horace close behind 67

brought wit and satire into poetry;

next, Ovid, singer of love’s mysteries

and those transformed by angry deities; 70

and lastly Lucan, singer of civil strife

who knew that One in Heaven is lord of life.

These four are reigning kings of poetry 73

yet think (for it is true) I am the best.

I must confer with them, which is their due.”

76 The band of poets gathered round my guide.

He spoke with them and then at his request

made me the sixth in that small company

79 of eagle-winged strong souls whose poetry

outsoars the rest. My master smiled at this.

We walked together, these wise men and me,

82 slowly upon our way to better light,

talking of things profound and good to say,

six kindred souls within that gracious place

85 until a splendid city came in sight,

a stream of pure clear water flowing round.

We walked on it as though it were dry ground

88 then faced a gateway in a lofty wall

with seven towers. Passing between two,

I found a lovely space of smooth green lawn

91 where noble people, moving gracefully,

spoke to each other very quietly.

I asked my guide, “Master of every art,

94 what privileges these majestic folk, apart from obvious nobility?”

He said, “Their names still famously resound

97 on earth, and heavenly powers respect them too,

believing privileges are their due.”

We two then walked a little way apart

100 up a small hill. Good light allowed a view

of these great ghosts. Nothing so thrills my heart

as thinking of these spirits I have seen:

Electra, and the heroes she conceived; 103

Hector; Aeneas ancestor of Rome;

Caesar in armour with his hawk-like eye;

huntress Camilla; Amazon warrior 106

Penthesilea; first Latin king Latinus,

with daughter Lavinia; Brutus who

expelled Rome’s last king Tarquin; Julia – 109

Lucretia – Cornelia – Marcia –

standing apart, the mighty Saladin.

Raising my eyes I saw the kings of mind: 112

Aristotle master of those who know;

Socrates close behind; Plato also;

Democritus who said atoms and chance 115

made everything; cynic Diogenes;

Anaxagoras; the herbal healer

Dioscorides; Thales; Orpheus; 118

Tully; Livy; moralist Seneca;

geometer Euclid; geographical

astronomer Ptolemy; the doctors 121

Galen and Hippocrates; and the best

of Aristotle’s great expositors:

Avicenna and Averroes. O! 124

I cannot tell you all I saw because

too many times my words demean my thought.

My company was growing very small. 127

Our group of six had dwindled into two.

My bold wise guide and I at last withdrew

into a place where nothing shines all. 130