De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, Book II (the allegory of the wedding), part 1 of 2 (about §§ 99-133)
But Night, recalling the gleaming stars, with Phoebus sunk, was climbing the pure heaven with her star-making reins. Then old Bootes kindled his lofty wagon, and stars shone in the coils of the grim Dragon, and he too blazed splendid in gilded arms who draws Sirius, gleaming at his heat-bringing rising, and that garland, scattered with Nysian flowers, burns, encircled with manifold light. Meanwhile the rumor of Jove glides through the virgin’s trembling ears, while it fills the roofs with a great roar. Finally Philologia herself, the decrees of the gods having been learned and the night now far advanced, wakeful, anxious with great care, turned over many things with herself: that she must first enter the senate of the gods and come before Jove in an unpremeditated sight, and leap up into the lot of the heavenly ones; then she must be joined to Cyllenius himself, whom, though she had always desired him with wondrous ardor, she had hardly seen, as he returned after the palaestral anointing, while she was herself plucking flowers, having first gathered certain little herbs. What of this? she was anxiously doubtful whether this nuptial grandeur would be of service to her, for she feared, with no empty opinion, that after she had ascended on high she would wholly lose the poetic myths, the delights of a varied kind, the Milesian tales, and the histories of mortals. And so she first inquires, from the agreement of nuptial number, whether the marriage is expedient and whether the winged rapidity of the ethereal summit would be coupled with her in a suitable compact. And soon she distributes her own name and the name of Cyllenius—not that which the discordant diversity of nations or the diverse rites of peoples fashioned according to the causes and cults of places, but that which, compacted at his birth by Jove himself in a starry naming and spread abroad only by the inventions of the Egyptians, the false curiosity of mortals asserts—into fingers and counters. From it she takes the final letter on each side, which closes the first and perfect limit of number. Then that by which in all temples the lord is adored with cubic solidity. She takes also the letter which the prudent Samian reckoned to assert the power of mortality, into the next place, and so a thousand two hundred and eighteen numbers shone forth. These, distributing them by the rule of nine and diminishing them by monads substituted for decads, she skilfully reduced to the third number. Her own name too, unfolded through seven hundred and twenty-four numbers, she led into the four, both numbers being signed by a reason fitting to both. For that one, because reason dispenses beginning, middle, and end, is certainly perfect, since it alone makes a line and without delay completes the faces of solids. For they are reckoned by length and depth. Then, because the tripling of the number first from the odds begets a cube. And who is ignorant of the three symphonies in music? And the odd number is assigned to males. All time also is varied in three turns. And the same number is the seedbed of perfect ones, namely of six and nine, by an alternate diversity of junction. Rightly, therefore, it is assigned to the god of reason. But Philologia, because she too is most learned, though she is reckoned by feminine numbers, yet is perfected by absolute reason. For the four by its parts fills the power of the decad itself, and therefore is perfect and is held to be square, as is Cyllenius himself, to whom the seasons of the year, the climes of heaven, and the elements of the world are fitting. Does that oath of the old man, who did not keep silent about the tetrad, confess anything but the number of perfect reason? For within itself it holds one, the second, the triad, and the twice-two itself, by whose comparisons the symphonies are accomplished. For three to four is called epitritus by arithmetical ratio and is called diatessaron in music. Likewise within it lie three to two, which is the form called hemiolios and renders the second symphony, which is called diapente. The third symphony, the diapason, is so called in melics, and is made by the double, that is, one compared with two. The number four, therefore, perfect by its parts, completes all the symphonies, and gathers all melodies by the distribution of harmonics. Discussing this congruence of number, the skilled virgin rejoices. Finally she unites both, and the triad united with the tetrad makes the heptad. Which number is the perfection of the higher reason, as that plenitude too teaches. Do the course of the fated temperament and the circles and motions of the stars testify to anything else, and mortality completed in the seventh month within the lurking places of the womb? Then, because the triad tripled makes nine numbers, and the four doubled makes eight, nine to eight makes the epogdoic joining of numbers and weighs as much in numbers as the diapason symphony in melics, which makes the tone, which is the continuous modulation of consonant unity. From this nothing is discordant or resounds in the middle, but all agrees in congruent yoking. The number of the aforesaid names, therefore, sang together. So the fixed association between them bound the nuptial union by true reason, and from it, glad, she stirred up the marriage most convenient to her with another many-colored wave of the mind. For, in no way distrusting herself in regard to the beauty of her form, she began to fear for her bodily substance. For she trembled, not in vain, at having to bear the globes of heavenly flames and the fires of burning stars in members still mortal and dried up with lean slenderness. But against these she had prepared a certain potion of the Abderite old man, for which he had gathered many things, mixed with pebbles and twigs of herbs and also of groves. A Colchian confidence, extended into a hundred voices, is signed with the impress of an adamantine summit, which kept off the fires above and the borders of the gods, prepared against neglect of grace, even by the light of beauty. Finally, for the body made to vibrate again, an ointment of dewy liquor was applied from the table. But while the virgin arranges such things, her attendant Periergia, whether sent by the virgin’s mother or on her own, being her foster-sister and anxious with trepidation, sees what she was doing. When she recognized, spying through the chinks from the door, that she was arranging the aforesaid things, she attacked another maidservant of hers, whose name is Agrypnia, and who was keeping watch within the chamber, reproving her that she had not allowed the virgin to rest a little for the sake of preserving her beauty, when she herself could accomplish all these things if Philologia enjoined them. For she says she had already gone around much and had found out what skill, what adornment, and what garments the dowry slaves were taking. Nor was it unknown to her what the bridegroom himself was doing, what was being done in Jove’s palace, whether Leucothea was kindling the torch and the purple light, and whether the oars of the Sun kept watch and the steeds of Phosphorus were being groomed. Countless things of this kind, which she had observed by curious investigation, she added. But Phronesis, the mother, suddenly burst into the secret of the chamber. When the virgin saw her, running to her and kissing her honored breast, she made her aware of the prepared poems. But she had brought her daughter’s garments and adornments, clad in which she would not fear to be joined to the assemblies of the gods. So she gave her a robe and a mantle shining like milk, which seemed to be of that wool of happy herbs with which, they say, the prophets of Indian wisdom and the dwellers of Mount Umbracius are clothed, and, as far as the use of that land brings, of the spinnings of gleaming byssus. Then she places on her head a virginal diadem, which shone chiefly with the light of its middle gem, in which a certain helmeted virgin, her face covered, like the Trojan secret, cut deeply in, gleamed. But the girdle with which she was to bind her breast the prudent mother loosed from herself, and lest Philologia lack the adornments of Phronesis herself, she places it on her breast, that it might adorn it more truly. She also bound on shoes woven of papyrus, lest any dead thing pollute her limbs. A censer heavy with much spice, and the same gleaming one, are laid on the virgin’s hands. And now Aurora had begun to underlay the stars with a rosy mantle, bringing forth ambrosial blush, when the kindly light glimmers dimly, when jeweled Dione shines, when Phosphorus gleams with his golden star: then the white frost congeals with tender dew, and the flocks shake the folds into the morning pastures: when biting cares strike languid hearts, and sleep, driven out, flees to the shores of Lethe.
At the doors a certain sweet sound, of manifold sweetnesses, is stirred up, which the chorus of the assembling Muses, standing over the nuptial rites, was setting in motion with the tinklings of an eightfold modulation. For neither the melodies of pipes nor the harmonic fullness of tone from strings was lacking, but, combined into a charming song and compacted with a regulated close, they made the voice of the maidens fixed for the span of its completion for those who knew. And then the whole chorus, with tuneful voices and sweet modulation, surpassed all instrumental sweetnesses, and as the numbers of the sacred song these words are poured forth: ‘Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Then Urania, the others keeping silent a little, began: ‘The starry assemblies and the sacred summits of the poles, now conjecturing nothing, trusting in the divinity, see, inquiring long ago what turns the linked orbs; now as president you yourself will give the causes of their motions. What web binds the circles, what bond shuts and encircles, and how great the globes the curved orbit surrounds, what compels the courses of the stars or what retards them, what ray kindles the Moon or diminishes her, what fuel makes the heaven starry, and how great things it revolves, what the care or measure of the gods is, you will behold. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact: your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Then Calliope, ever dear to the favored Muses, to whom the Magnesian cup, and the fount of the Gorgonean steed, gave to drink, summit of the Aonides, green with garlands, for whom Cirrha bursts into leaf as it prepares the violets: ‘You, with sweet Camenae, know the songs of the poets, and to render the Pindaric lyre; the strings at your dictation and the Thracian plectrum know how to sound the sacred song. Our light, accustom yourself to approve sacred songs and to bless the instrumental circles. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ And so Polymnia: ‘At last you reap the fruit of your labor, the shining ether and the seats of the gods, advanced to the company of Jove; and, the divinity imparted, you, long distended, who were wont to yoke the rhythmic and to separate the mixed by rule, soon what the triangle, lying down or yoked in line, recurves, and what the circle turns, accustomed to approve melody and tones and crusmata and all arts, and what can prepare the mind of the heavenly ones for the high summits. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Then Melpomene, accustomed to bring forth buskined songs on the stage and to bear the comic sock: ‘And to make resound the songs which we have borne with your care, the rhythmic melody favoring: now, virgin, I sing to you, our hope and assertion, turned in the course of the song. For it is a joy to crown the bridal chamber; you, may you please the garlands approved by your rites. May you always seem worthy of the marital Olympus and more comely than the heavenly ones. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ And so Clio: ‘You who in rhetorical train can sound forth and acquit the accused with raging breast, who now, binding horrid thoughts in knots, heaping the sorites by accessions of the pile, now what to compress by grammatical rule, what the skilled one wears down of the order of speech by ambiguities, to play with the doctor-like senses: now behold the starry lights of the pole and enjoy the sacred whiteness of the ether: which it is indeed worth knowing by the light. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Soon Erato: ‘Virgin, renowned in arts, to whom the hall of the Thunderer is opened, to you deservedly the orb, by reasons before found, is made subject:
why the sacred lightnings glow red, whence the thunderclap resounds, rebounding, what the moistures do through the open spaces now in the rain-bearing clouds, what the brightest things of spring recall as the storm-clouds go on in column, how the circle of the year rolls on, to close the hastening ages. What hidden things have of reason we sing, known to you alone. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ And then Terpsichore: ‘I rejoice: you behold the stars, virgin, by the merits of honor: this skill has bred in you genius and toils, this watchful care has bestowed on skilled lamps. For by day and by night busy with the sacred papers, whatever the Stoics, acting, give as foreknowledge for the future, you have borne always panting with learned fuel. For what vapor the swift altars of the Sabaeans give out, what smoky air the incense-burning flames prepare, or what sure omens they bring by augured voices, fearless and not doubting, you have forestalled by your utterances. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Then Euterpe: ‘Virgin skilled, forerunner of the lot, who were able to ascend heaven and bear sacred doctrines to the chaste, those who could know themselves, and who, seeing by bright light the divinities of fate, discern also the faces of the geniuses, and you who gave which stars are the minds of Plato and Pythagoras, and who, the cloud removed, discern for the perishable mortals the divinities of the just heaven: by right ascend the senate of the Thunderer, you whom it befits alone to be joined by Mercurial compact. Ascend the temples of heaven, virgin worthy of so great a compact. Your father-in-law Jupiter bids you approach the lofty stars.’ Then Thalia: ‘Blessed virgin, who in such dances of the stars take the marital chamber, and so, the world favoring, are added as bride to the Thunderer: it has befallen you to be wife of that god by whose passing wing, who alone, flying past the stars of the world, goes on vigilant in swift storms, who, when he swims the upper seas, returns to Tartarus, who alone before the chariot and the white yoke of the high parent, able to stir the mindful rod, Osiris gladly repairs, whom the father of the gods knows, the genital sowings having been found, to whom his stepmother gladly gave the milky breast, at whose vigorous rod dire venom is stunned, for whom all poison makes the world twin to him who speaks. He is learned of the gods, but the girl more learned. Now, now are the arts blessed which both of you so consecrate that they let go to heaven, open the stars to the perishable, and let pious vows fly up as far as the lucid ether. Through you vigilant and fitting Nous fills the depths of the mind, through you the approved tongue bears glories through the age: you consecrate all the disciplines, and us, the Muses.’
While the Muses thus now alternated, now sang together, and sweet melodies were repeated in turn, behold, certain matrons, praiseworthy for sober comeliness, not painted with studied devices about the face, but shining with a certain simple graciousness, came together into the virgin’s dwelling and chamber. One of them, intent on most cautious circumspection and discerning all things by watchful distinction, was said to be called Prudence. Her sister, assigning to all their own and wronging no one with what he did not deserve, was reported to have received the name of Justice. But the third, to be proclaimed for her contemplative gifts and abstinence, had received her name from the temperance of her morals. The one who remained, most brave, never broken in enduring all adversities, ready also by strength of body for undergoing labors, possessed the name of Fortitude. These betook themselves to her embrace and kiss, and when they saw her within the chamber wholly trembling, and, as if shunning the light, numb with hesitations, handling her breast and face they compelled her to come into the sight of all and into public view. After these there entered a certain grave and long-haired woman, exceedingly glorious because through her Jupiter had granted to all the ascent to the heights. When the virgin saw her she ran to her with all zeal and affection, since in a certain confidence of what she had found she herself had foretold that heaven must be climbed by the other, and Maia’s son had now been sent by him to summon her to the wedding. Besides, three girls of like face and comeliness and radiant with grace, bound with garlands, their hands linked in turn, and crowned with spikes of roses, came together to the virgin. One of them kissed Philologia’s forehead there where the smooth space divides the growth of the brows, another her mouth, the third her breast: namely, the first that she might breathe honors upon her eyes, the second inspired grace in her tongue, the third courtesy in her mind. They were called the Graces, and whatever they touched they made lovely. When they had filled the virgin with light, mingled with the Muses they also gave harmonious gestures and wedding dances.
But behold, with a great clash of the timbrel and the jingling of rattles, all things leap about, so that the song of the Muses was made somewhat duller by the booming of the timbrel; and with a sound there is carried in a litter inlaid with stars, before which, by mystic rite, rattles sounded, in which it had been the custom for brides who were goddesses to come to the fellowship of the heavenly chamber. Before it a woman of more august countenance, resplendent with sacred and ethereal light, stood foremost in venerable priesthood, whom all who were present, seeing, revered as the famous majesty and guardian of all the gods and of the world. Her name was Athanasia. ‘Virgin,’ she said, ‘the father of the gods has commanded that you be borne up into the palaces of heaven on this royal litter, which it is not lawful for any earth-born to touch, nor even for you yourself before our cup.’ And with the words she gently touched with her right hand the beat of her heart and her breast, and, looking at it distended with some inward fullness and great swelling, said: ‘Unless you vomit forth, by the most forced discharge, these things with which you bear your breast full, and pour them out, you shall in no way obtain the seat of immortality.’ And she with all effort and great force vomited up whatever she had ever felt within her breast. Then that nausea and retching, laboriously wrought, was turned into stores of letters of every kind. One could see what books and how great volumes, how many works of how many tongues flowed from the virgin’s mouth. Some seemed of papyrus that had been smeared with cedar, others were books wrapped in linen rolls, many of every kind of hide, but some rare ones marked on the bark of the linden. And there were some colored with a sacred blackness, whose letters were believed to be the likenesses of living creatures; and Athanasia, seeing these marks of the books, ordered them to be inscribed on certain projecting rocks and to be placed within a cave among the shrines of the Egyptians, and, calling these same rocks stelae, commanded them to hold the genealogies of the gods. But while the virgin was thus vomiting in waves, very many girls, of whom some were called Arts, others Disciplines, gathered in turn what the virgin had poured from her mouth, each of them seizing it for her own necessary use and ability. The Muses themselves also, especially Urania and Calliope, heaped countless volumes in their laps. In some, pages were divided and drawn out to tone; in others, circles and lines and hemispheres with triangles and squares and many-angled figures, formed by the diversity of propositions or elements. Then a picture combined the limbs of animals of many kinds into one form. There were also books which displayed the melodies of sounds, the signs of numbers and certain works of singing. After the virgin, bending forward, had poured out that library-store from the depths, worn out with exhausted pallor, she begged the aid of Athanasia, who had been aware of so great a labor. Then she said: ‘That you may be refreshed and climb to heaven on high, take this to sip.’ And then, from her mother Apotheosis, who had chanced to meet her and had long since been touching with her hand the books that had flowed from Philologia’s mouth, counting and consecrating them, taking away a certain globular and living roundness, she took it and held it out to the virgin to drink. But the form of the egg was, within, smeared with saffron color, and outside it gleamed ruddy, and then transparent in its void and whitish with moisture within, yet in the middle it appeared more solid. When Philologia received it, since after the afflictions of so great a labor and the heat of her mind she thirsted greatly, having opened the secrets of that roundness, after she found it a most sweet thing she drank it all without delay, and at once her limbs are strengthened with new vigor, and the slender leanness perishes, earthly force yields, and an ethereal age comes without the laws of death.