Dante, Inferno
The Return to the Stars
A brooklet’s sound reveals a passage through the rock beyond the centre. Virgil and Dante enter the hidden way and climb without pausing, the guide first and the traveller following. The lights of heaven appear through a circular opening, and the travellers emerge to see the stars again. The closing passage completes the departure from this volume’s depths without narrating the later ascent of Purgatorio.
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In the sources
The encounter
LiteraryA brooklet’s sound reveals a passage through the rock beyond the centre. Virgil and Dante enter the hidden way and climb without pausing, the guide first and the traveller following.
Further detail
LiteraryThe lights of heaven appear through a circular opening, and the travellers emerge to see the stars again. The closing passage completes the departure from this volume’s depths without narrating the later ascent of Purgatorio.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows the supplied Thompson & Thomas edition of H. F. Cary’s translation. It describes Dante’s literary vision, distinguishing its assignments and reported claims from historical biography, other classical traditions and independently established accounts of an afterlife.
Original passages
Source 1
Dante's Inferno
sound of brooklet, that descends This way along the hollow of a rock, Which, as it winds with no precipitous course, The wave hath eaten. ByOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante’s Inferno, Cary translation; active reader leaf 237
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0082-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0082-E001-P0237
- Original scan leaf
- 244
- Recorded leaf number
- 244
- Current Reader position
- 236
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Dante's Inferno
again beheld the stars.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Dante’s Inferno, Cary translation; active reader leaf 237
Passage read in the exact edition’s extracted canto text; whitespace-normalised anchor and original-leaf mapping checked. Associated plates separately inspected.
- Edition
- IMJ-0082-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0082-E001-P0237
- Original scan leaf
- 244
- Recorded leaf number
- 244
- Current Reader position
- 236
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
Continue exploring
Crossing the Centre of the World
Virgil’s reversal while climbing Lucifer explains the change from descent to ascent.
Shared source pageJudecca, the Innermost Ice
The final frozen division, where the souls are entirely enclosed and Lucifer occupies the centre.
Same subject and traditionAgnello’s Merged Form
A man and serpent lose their distinct outlines in the thieves’ ditch.
Same subject and traditionAlichino and Calcabrina’s Quarrel
The failed pursuit that sends two guardians into their own sticky pool.