Derrida and Dante: Differance and the Eagle in the Sphere of Jupiter

Abstract

In Cantos XVIII through XX of the Paradiso, Dante draws an unusual image in the Heaven of Jupiter. The living lights in this sphere first mark out or trace (segnare) for Dante's eyes the shape of the individual letters, one by one and in succession, of the opening phrase of the Book of Wisdom, DILIGITE JUSTITIAM, QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM. The shape of the last letter, "M," is held while other souls (altre luci) descend on it to form a lily. Then, "piui di mille / luci" (Par. XVIII, 11. 103-4)1 from the "M" form the head and neck of an eagle, with the souls who form the lily completing the design (la 'mprenta). The distinctiveness of this image is not due to its being an eagle: other eagle images have appeared in the Paradiso and throughout the Commedia.2 Its unusualness lies rather in its formation, transformation, and representational function at this particular moment in the Paradiso. Dante himself clearly intends the eagle as the symbol of Divine Justice,3 and most commentators speak from this vantage.4 However, John Freccero uses different tactics in his introduction to Ciardi's translation of the Paradiso. For Freccero this third cantica should be studied as poetry, since "few of us still believe in a paradise in any form, much less in the possibility of reaching it in this life."5