Dante Book 1 Canto II Scene 1

 

Canto II.

The Journey began

Scene 1

 

“Oh, cruel Alexis, do you care nothing for my songs?

Have you no pity on me? You’ll force me to die at last.

Now even the cattle seek the coolness and the shade,

now even the green lizards hide themselves in the hedge,”

Excerpts from Eclogue II: Corydon’s Love for Alexis by Virgil the Poet; It was the works that contain ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue ("draft" or "selection" or "reckoning"), populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. 

“Dante, wake up. We need to move.” Dante heard the noise that took him from his idyllic rendezvous with the Muses; the nine beautiful young women who were the goddesses and embodiments of science, literature, and the arts. They were the daughters of Zeus with the Titaness Mnemosyne; nine conservative nights they had and birth the nine muses.

“Dante…”

“I am awake. No thanks to you, I have to leave the Muses alone.” Dante grumbled on his rude awakening. “Do you know with them I am most complete?”

“Muses… Could it be the Nine Muses? I heard or rather updated into my program the data. They were influential as the nine Muses who were created to give inspiration, knowledge, artistry, and music to the ancient world.” Virgil remarked out. “My creator was a reader of their works too.”

“I do admire that Zeus held many litters in the realm of his. He must have very busy nights or it could be days. Does wonder how he manages such a huge lineage and had time to govern the realm?” Virgil was into his sarcasm mode.

“I doubt you will ever know, being an inorganic sentient.” Dante snapped back.

“Undoubtedly truth. I do lack the design for anything besides my structural orb. However, you are sufficient yet you decline in that advancement. Was it your undeclared …”?

“Stop your analytics on my soul or body, Virgil. As a living organism with a soul, I have my reasons.” Dante was upset to be questioned about his lack of motivation in certain areas of life.

“Structurally defined, I will detest from remarking the advancement.” Virgil moved on from there to another subject. “We do have to move for we have a task on hand to perform. Or lack of actually performing it.”

“Why should we even do for we had tried for three days and …nights yet we yield no results? For all it may be of concern, the Volunteers could have won in the last advancement or wiped out by the others. For that, I may have failed to protect the flanking moves.”

“Yes, your first task. I have no intelligence on that and presumably, you are correct then we have only one task to perform. And we shall not falter in the progress.” Virgil hovered from right to left. “Move it, volunteer. We got works to do.”

Dante pushed himself up and then adjusted his body vest of the items he still beholds there. His food capsules were down to the bare. He looked to Virgil which was ahead. He followed on behind and determined to start a conversation.

“Tell me, Virgil. Why was I selected for the task? There could be others; more worthy learned persons.”

“The intellect you have finally surface,” Virgil replied with the usual snigger tone. “Well, you were selected by my creator among a long list. He was intrigued by your …upbringing, your sense of ‘why must we believe’ persona, and above all, you were also the choice of Empress Beatrice.”

“Me? The Empress selected me? But why?” Dante was surprised.

“Denial is not the move to take, Dante. You ought to know that she liked you before she was Empress.” Virgil raised itself above the tall branches. “I can tell you are elevated in your feeling that the Empress remembered you.”

“I was …” Dante paused in his reply.

“You were once close to her. Was I not correct to say that you met her for the first time fifteen years ago, when as a sturdy young man, you gave your first analogy on the existence of God in the forum of Theology? Your argument was intense and caused you to be evicted from the forum for being a miscreant. Well, Beatrice was there too.” Virgil recalled the event of how Dante was to meet the young lady named Beatrice; then a noble man’s daughter. She caught up with him outside and started a conversation that was soon to bring them close.

“Do you not believe in God?” Beatrice had asked.

“I do but I have to know why all these ages, we have never seen God but his name was on our lips every time we seek a prayer. Is God real or ….” Dante had taken the cue to reply but was cut off by the lady.

“Are we real? I mean we are seen physically, but a part of us was said to be spiritual, and where do we go when we are… asleep. Sleep is yet to be fully explored area of medicine and science, and yet do it when we have to. Our mind moves on but to where? What ….”

“Would you have a meal with me? I am hungry.” Dante has asked when he cut in. It was a simple meal for the two who went onto long conversations about life matters.

And soon to develop; the affection for each other.

It could not last.

A poet and a noble man’s daughter.

It was soon to break when Beatrice was to be wedded to the Emperor.

It drove Dante to delve into the one world he had left; poetry and theology. He had thought of himself to be a priest but he could not take the final vows. He became a preacher instead and was questioned on some of his sayings. When the war started, soon after the Emperor’s death, Dante assisted in the healing of the soldiers who returned with traumas but soon the needs of the war called for volunteers.

“We are diminished in the recruits. Do not despair us on our sacrifice. Volunteer to fight alongside us.” That was the call then and it took a while before Dante volunteered.

“It was the Empress who made the final selection. If I can recall from my data, you were selected not only because you knew her but there was a divine messenger that told her you were the one.” Virgil voiced out. “Empress Beatrice had a dream of your calling when a saint appeared to her in the dream. It was St. Lucia who was there at the request of Mother Mary. The message that they had seen your tribulations in life and wanted to give you an insight. Dante, you had the selection also by divinity. You are indeed blessed.”

“Spared me of your rhetoric’s. I have heard my share of it in my life.” Dante shrugged off those words.

“I am being truthful. After all, I am an inorganic creation, designed to speak the facts without any emotional attachment.” Virgil replied. “You were given this task by the Empress who still cares for you and her wish was affirmed by a divine vision.”

“Assuming you are right, how did your creator get my name on the list?” Dante asked then.

“He was in the same forum where you removed. He was on the panel of learned persons but had refrained from replying to your queries then.” Virgil told Dante.

“And we are here now.” Virgil stopped in its track.