Following Beatrice’s lament over the sad state of affairs on Earth, Dante sees deep within her magnificent eyes a tiny speck of light so powerful he cannot continue to look at it. Circling this small point are a series of nine fiery rings of light, each rotating slightly slower than the one ahead of it, the farthest out moving the slowest. Beatrice explains to Dante that these are the nine ranks of angels circling God. The inner ring, the Seraphim, moves the fastest because it is closest to God, and the rest move proportionately slower the farther they are from God (though all distance is relative here). Realizing that he sees the “model” of which our cosmos is but a “copy,” Dante is confused about why they don’t match. Again, Beatrice explains, and she also tells Dante that the angels’ motion is directly proportionate to their vision of the Godhead. Moreover, she tells him, the act of seeing God is first; only then does love follow. She ends by using Dionysius’ ordering and names each grouping of the angels.
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After Beatrice – who imparadised my mind – had brought to light the truth of our miserable state on earth, I was like one who unexpectedly sees in a mirror the reflection of a light behind him. Turning around to make sure of what he sees, he discovers that both image and reality match like notes and the rhythm of music. In this case, the mirror was actually Beatrice’s beautiful eyes, which divine Love had used to take hold of me, and when I turned around I saw what happens when one looks deeply into them.
There I saw a minute point of light that shot forth rays of light so intense the eyes are forced to close in the face of such power. Not only that, if we put smallest star we might see from earth alongside that point of light, like two stars, it would appear as big a moon.
Then, as a halo might appear not far from a star when seen through airy vapors, as close as that there whirled around this point of light a ring of fire spinning faster than our universe’s largest and fastest-moving sphere. And this one was circled by a second ring, and then a third, a fourth, a fifth after that, and then the sixth. The seventh ring spread so far out that Juno’s rainbow, if it went full-circle, could not contain it. Following this, the eighth and ninth rings completed the set, each ring spinning slower the farther it was from the first ring – and that one burning with the clearest flame because, I think, it rotates closest to the Essence of all Being and partakes the most of Its pure Truth.[1]We are in the Primum Mobile, and Beatrice has finished her apostrophe against greed that closed the previous canto. But before moving further into this canto, note that Dante uses another invented … Continue reading
She who saw both my eagerness to understand and my confusion said, “All of nature, all the heavens – everything, flows from that single Point. Do you see the flaming ring closest to it? It spins so fast because it is infused with the great fire of Love.”[2]Sensing that Dante needs a clear explanation of what he’s seeing, Beatrice tells him that the Point of light he sees is the source of everything in creation – The Creator, God. This is … Continue reading
And I asked: “If the universe was arranged the way I see those great whirling rings, I would have no question. But seen from here, it appears the other way around, that the farther the spheres are from the earth, the closer they are to God. So, standing here in this glorious temple of the angels, where love and light are its only boundaries, I wish to understand clearly why the model and the copy do not match. Left to myself, I cannot make sense of this.”[3]This is an important moment in the Paradiso. Until now, Dante has seen the physical cosmos as a privileged mortal, moving with Beatrice upward through the crystalline spheres. Now, having arrived at … Continue reading
Beatrice replied: “It is not surprising that you cannot untie a knot like this. It is so tight because you have never tried to loosen it. Listen to what I will tell you now, if you want to understand, and focus your mind on what I propose.[4]We can understand here that Dante sees the difficulty inherent in the problem of the correspondence between the model and the copy on the one hand, and the relationship between the physical and … Continue reading The path and size of these material spheres we have traveled through is larger or smaller depending on the power that flows down through all their parts. The greater the goodness, the greater the bliss. And greater bliss requires a greater body if its parts are equally perfect.[5]In Dante’s conception of the cosmos, each of the nine crystalline spheres has a specific relationship to one of the nine orders of angels – often referred to as “Intelligences.” (For one of … Continue reading So, this greatest and fastest sphere, which moves all the rest in the heavens, corresponds to the inner ring you see there, which moves the fastest because it is endowed with the most love and knowledge. Therefore, if you measure the power of those beings – that appear to you as rings – rather than their circumference, you will discover a wonderful order at work: the greater power of those angelic Intelligences corresponds to the greater or lesser closeness of each ring to the center point.”[6]The Primum Mobile, then, corresponds to the inner flaming ring of the Seraphim, who know and love God the most. The key, Beatrice tells Dante, is to think in terms of power not circumference. And … Continue reading
As when a northeast wind from Boreas will make the skies clear and tranquil, purifying the air so that the heavens can be seen in all their glory, such was my mind when I heard Beatrice’s explanation. The truth of what she said shone like a lovely star in the heavens.[7]When Dante tells Beatrice that her explanation is as clear as the sky after a good wind (Boreas, the god of the north wind), he’s not only speaking for himself but making an act of faith that his … Continue reading
Then, at that moment, from each of those fiery rings there came an immense burst of sparks as though molten iron were being poured out. Each spark stayed with its own fiery ring, but the number of them was thousands more than if you doubled each square on a chessboard! Then I heard that choir of countless spirits, with one voice, sing “Hosanna” to that Fixed Point which holds each spirit where it was and where it will be forever.[8]Wonderfully, Dante is now treated to another spectacular paradisial show, this time emanating from the spiritual cosmos. All the angels, countless numbers of them, each within their own fiery ring, … Continue reading
And she who could read my mind saw that I was now confused by what I saw. “The first and second ring,” she said, “contain the Seraphim and Cherubim. They spin within their circles at such great speed longing to become as much as possible like that Great Light. And they do so in proportion to their sight. Completing the first triad of God’s angelic family is the third circle of those angelic loves, called the Thrones of the Divine Aspect. Know this: all the angels exist in joy beyond measure according to how deeply their vision enables them to fathom that Truth wherein all minds find rest. In this way, you now understand that their eternal happiness rests first on the act of seeing God; only then do they love Him – which is the second step. In accord with Divine Grace and their good will is their vision ranked, and thus they proceed outward from choir to choir.[9]Here Beatrice names the first three orders of the heavenly hierarchy: First are the Seraphim, then the Cherubim, and third are the Thrones. Note the Trinitarian connotation here, but not just here. … Continue reading
“The second triad blossoms here in heaven’s eternal springtime where no frost ruins the buds, and forever they sing out their three-fold “Hosanna!” In this arrangement of blessed angels are found the Dominions first, then the Virtues, and third the Powers. The outer triad of dancing spirits is comprised of the Principalities first, followed by the Archangels, and the last joyful choir – the Angels.[10]Having explained the nature of the nine fiery circles of angels around the central Point, and how they are arranged by virtue of their ability to see and then love God, Beatrice continues, naming the … Continue reading
As each rank of angels looks upward toward the Divinity, it pours downward upon the rest the power it receives from above – all drawn toward God.[11]As noted in earlier cantos, the physical structure of Dante’s cosmos is a series of nine nested crystalline spheres surrounding the Earth. In addition to their names (see the chart below), he also … Continue reading Dionysius, who spent his life in zealous contemplation of all God’s holy ministers, named and ordered them the same way I do.[12]This is a reference to Dionysius the Aeropagite, an Athenian convert of St. Paul’s, most likely the first bishop of Athens and, in Dante’s time, believed to be the author of the authoritative … Continue reading Much later, Pope Gregory made changes in this ordering, but when he died and came to Heaven, he laughed at his error when he saw the truth.[13]As noted above, Dante followed the order of Dionysius the Aeropagite. Pope St. Gregory the Great (pope from 590-604) had a slightly different ordering of the angelic hierarchy. Whether Dante knew … Continue reading If you wonder how a living mortal received these heavenly truths, they and many other truths about the angels were revealed to him by St. Paul who witnessed what he spoke about.”[14]In his Second Letter to the Corinthians (12:2ff), Paul writes that in an ecstatic experience he cannot fully grasp he was once caught up into Heaven where he saw and heard things that are … Continue reading
The Legend of the Chessboard. [15]The Legend of the Chessboard A story comes to us from ancient times that Sissa ben Dahir, the Grand Vizer to the Indian king, Shirham, presented his latest creation to his ruler. It was a game … Continue reading
Notes & Commentary
| ↑1 | We are in the Primum Mobile, and Beatrice has finished her apostrophe against greed that closed the previous canto. But before moving further into this canto, note that Dante uses another invented term, (‘mparadisa), to describe the effect she has on him: she “imparadizes” him. In other words, this is a way of describing her role as his guide through the celestial realms. Like everyone else in Heaven, she is enjoying the Beatific Vision at the same time she is with Dante. Representing Divine Revelation, she mediates that vision by her presence at his side, explaining what and who he sees, sometimes asking questions for him, always moving him upward toward the goal of his journey. The higher they rise into the heavens, the more beautiful she becomes – eyes, mouth, face – reflecting the love of God as a way of accustoming Dante to the ultimate vision that awaits him. Then, looking into her eyes, he sees a light reflected there that causes him to turn around to make sure of what it is. (Recall how he did this same thing when in Canto 2 at the Moon when he first saw Piccarda Donati.) What he thought he saw reflected in her eyes (the mirror) turns out to be what he saw when he turned around (“image and reality match”). Mark Musa notes this in his commentary here: “The light and its reflection in the mirror are brought together as one in the eyes of the beholder just as singing and musical accompaniment become one in the rhythm.” Now looking deeply into her eyes (he likened them to emeralds in Purgatorio 31:116) Dante sees a tiny point of light (nowadays, one might think of a laser), so unbelievably bright one would need to look away. The smallest star in the heavens, he tells us, would look like a large moon by comparison. Then, step by step, he explains what he sees as he continues to stare back into Beatrice’s eyes. First, he sees what might look like a kind of halo surrounding a star (the bright point of light). But no, it’s a ring of fire (though they are not fire, think of the rings of Saturn) spinning around that point of light at an unbelievable speed – faster than the Primum Mobile itself! As he continues to contemplate this most unusual sight, Dante sees that this first ring of light is surrounded by a second one. And the second one by a third, until there are nine of them, each spinning slower the farther out they are from the tiny point of light. What the Poet wants us to understand here, and what will become clear as he continues his narrative, is that the tiny point of powerful light is God, and the nine fiery rings are the nine orders of angels. The first (inner) ring burns with the purest and brightest flame because it is the closest to God Himself and (risking heresy here) virtually partakes of His Being. |
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| ↑2 | Sensing that Dante needs a clear explanation of what he’s seeing, Beatrice tells him that the Point of light he sees is the source of everything in creation – The Creator, God. This is Aristotle’s “unmoved mover” in his Metaphysics (XII,7): “It is on such a principle, then, that the heavens and the natural world depend.” And if we continue to think of creation as an act of Divine Love, the ring of flame closest to the Point spins as fast as it does because of its proximity to the source of Love Itself. “Flame” or “fire” here can be understood literally, but they’re also metaphors for (L)love. Robert Hollander provides a fine analysis of Beatrice’s explanation in his commentary here: “It may be noted that here begins, for the reader, the sure experience of a ‘turning inside-out’ which is the culmination, in a sense, of the other experience of ‘turning upside-down’ (recall the upward ‘snowfall’ of the Saints in Canto 27). The reader is led into this through Dante’s puzzlement and Beatrice’s explanation, and the whole matter can be most simply stated in terms of circumference and center. Up to now we have been moving with the wayfarer within a universe that has the motionless earth as the center, and the ‘mind of God,’ the Empyrean, as the circumference. [In this symbolic vision, Dante sees that the center of all is a single point – that is, God.] Around this center [at the outside] is the circumference, consisting of the angelic orders who govern the sphere of the moon. And the earth? It is not part of this vision at all.] This experience, as it is prepared for and then finally achieved, is one of the most impressive of the whole poem.” |
| ↑3 | This is an important moment in the Paradiso. Until now, Dante has seen the physical cosmos as a privileged mortal, moving with Beatrice upward through the crystalline spheres. Now, having arrived at the outer edge of the physical cosmos (the Primum Mobile, “this glorious temple of the angels”), he sees a kind of reverse image of the physical cosmos. In the physical structure, the earth is at the center, and one would think being at the center is significant. But when he sees the spiritual cosmos, he realizes that the center is not the earth, but God. In the physical cosmos, each sphere beyond the earth is closer to God until one reaches the Primum Mobile, the boundary between the physical and the spiritual worlds. The patterns are similar, but the correspondence between them isn’t. This is a great intellectual challenge for Dante, and here’s where the experience of turning inside-out is needed – replacing mortal sight with immortal vision. As he will learn, he’s actually seeing is the original “model,” as it were. What he’s seen throughout the Paradiso so far is just the “copy.” Imagine what he must be feeling at this point. |
| ↑4 | We can understand here that Dante sees the difficulty inherent in the problem of the correspondence between the model and the copy on the one hand, and the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds on the other. Beatrice tells Dante it’s a knot that has become tighter over time because no one (philosophers and theologians) has tried to loosen it. Let us see what Dante learns from her. |
| ↑5 | In Dante’s conception of the cosmos, each of the nine crystalline spheres has a specific relationship to one of the nine orders of angels – often referred to as “Intelligences.” (For one of the finest all-in-one diagrams of Paradise see Michelangelo Caetani’s “Order of Paradise” in the Canto 28 Art” section of this website and use the zoom feature in your computer’s image program.) These Intelligences mediate or facilitate the creative power of God throughout their assigned spheres. Thus, the Primum Mobile, which is the highest and largest sphere in the material cosmos is guided, as it were, by the Seraphim, the highest order of angels and closest to God – those in the ring of fire closest to the Point of light at the center of the spiritual cosmos. It receives the most power or spiritual energy, as it were, from God, and thus it is not only the largest but it spins the fastest. The next lowest sphere, the Heaven of the Fixed Stars is guided by the Cherubim, the next order of angels, and so on down to the lowest sphere, that of the Moon. |
| ↑6 | The Primum Mobile, then, corresponds to the inner flaming ring of the Seraphim, who know and love God the most. The key, Beatrice tells Dante, is to think in terms of power not circumference. And thus the power of the angelic Intelligences (the orders of angels) corresponds to their position among the fiery rings circling the Point of light. This is opposite of what Dante sees in the physical cosmos. Soon she will list and name the nine orders. The fact that, among the orders of angels, some love and know God more than others, should not distract us. The angels, as we will soon learn in the next canto, are ordered by their capacity to know and love God, and this capacity was fixed at their creation as they turned toward God. To use an image of “volume,” each angel (a volume) is filled to its capacity with the love and knowledge of God. John Ciardi, in his commentary here, offers an excellent summary of Beatrice’s “lesson”: “The gist of Beatrice’s reply is that Dante is to observe a marvelous correspondence between each of the physical spheres and its assigned Angel Intelligence. Yet the juxtaposition of these two, so to speak, mirror images, speaks a masterful conception. God conceived as the center of the Angel Hierarchy and God conceived as the circumference of the physical universe, are not two but one, twin manifestations of one creative force; and the interplay of these two images is powerfully relevant to Dante’s belief that physical and spiritual law co-exist and interplay as twin manifestations of one will. God is the radiating center of all spiritual energy and He is simultaneously the all-containing bound and limit of physical creation.” |
| ↑7 | When Dante tells Beatrice that her explanation is as clear as the sky after a good wind (Boreas, the god of the north wind), he’s not only speaking for himself but making an act of faith that his Reader (his alter ego), especially a first-time Reader, not only grasps what is going on here, but stands in awe at what he is doing. Because we have reached the boundary of the physical cosmos does not mean that the Poem is over. But, with Dante, we have reached a major transition point of crossing between the material cosmos, which we’ve become used to throughout the Paradiso so far, and the spiritual cosmos through which we (he, the Poem) must now continue the journey. |
| ↑8 | Wonderfully, Dante is now treated to another spectacular paradisial show, this time emanating from the spiritual cosmos. All the angels, countless numbers of them, each within their own fiery ring, fly out like the showers of sparks when molten iron is being processed. Dante had evidently seen this in a foundry. Accompanying this ardent display, the angels cry out to God, singing “Hosanna.” And here, Dante turns this moment into a sacred ritual because this is the acclamation that concludes the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer at every Liturgy. The priest ends the prayer by saying: “And so, with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of Your glory, as without end we acclaim”… And here the congregation joins in saying or singing: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts! Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest!” In addition to the Liturgy, Dante probably has in mind passages from the Bible. In the Book of Daniel (7:10) we read: “Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him.” And in the Book of Revelation (5:11): “I looked again and heard the voices of many angels who surrounded the throne and the living creatures and the elders. They were countless in number.”And in Matthew 21:9, at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, we read: “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” As if this weren’t enough, Dante uses the image of a chessboard to merely approximate the number of angels he saw, and to exemplify the impossibility of the human mind to comprehend the depths of the spiritual universe. If one were to sequentially double each square on the chessboard, you would come up with an unbelievably large number. In other words, adding 1+2+4+8+16 through the 64 squares will lead you to the number 18,446,744,073,709,551,615! As Ronald Martinez notes in his commentary: “the number of the angels checkmates human calculation” For a charming story which Dante may have known, see the Legend of the Chessboard in the notes at the end of this canto. |
| ↑9 | Here Beatrice names the first three orders of the heavenly hierarchy: First are the Seraphim, then the Cherubim, and third are the Thrones. Note the Trinitarian connotation here, but not just here. As we will see, there are nine orders of angels, three sets of three. But there is more to this than just names and ranks. A common denominator among all the angels is that all of them “exist in joy beyond measure.” What differentiates one group from another, however, is the depth of their vision of God. And here we come upon something new. The angels are ranked by their vision of God. To the extent that they see God, to that extent do they love Him. This determines the amount of their joy. Basically, then, as Beatrice tells Dante, seeing leads to love or, as the saying goes, “Love at first sight.” Dante may well be influenced by Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Book I, 980a) here, where the philosopher states: “All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight.” The value of sight here is that it helps us to know and differentiate more than the other senses. At the same time, Dante the Poet seems to follow St. Thomas Aquinas in his presentation here. And in her commentary here, Dorothy Sayers notes: “The question which Beatrice settles here is this: does love of God spring from knowledge of Him, or does knowledge of God arise from love of Him? It is a matter which was debated by theologians and Dante has come down firmly on the side of St Thomas Aquinas, who says: ‘Ultimate and perfect bliss can only be in the vision of God in His essence.’” |
| ↑10 | Having explained the nature of the nine fiery circles of angels around the central Point, and how they are arranged by virtue of their ability to see and then love God, Beatrice continues, naming the angels in the second and third triads of angels. Some readers will find this naming and hierarchical listing of angels new and fascinating. In addition to St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the Poet’s main sources here would have been On the Celestial Hierarchy, believed to have been written by St. Paul’s Athenian convert, Dionysius the Areopagite (see Acts 17:34), though scholars believe this to be a fifth- or sixth-century text whose author is referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius. Both Aquinas and Dionysius list the hierarchy that Dante/Beatrice uses here. All the angels are spiritual beings, God’s first creations, higher than humans, and their mention in sacred literature pre-dates the later literature and traditions of the three major western religions: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic. Throughout the Bible they often act as God’s messengers and intermediaries. In the New Testament the most outstanding example of this is found in the story of the Annunciation, the “announcing” to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she was to be the mother of Jesus. (See the Canto 28 Art section of this website.) This story is found in the Gospel of St. Luke (1:26-38). Note also the springtime imagery at the beginning of this section, an eternal springtime where the reader is encouraged to imagine all things perpetually new and fresh. An anonymous translator playfully embellishes Beatrice’s description of the second triad this way: “The other triad, blossoming this way in the eternal springtime that no shadowed Ram can ever strip away, unceasingly sends forth its ‘Hosanna’ in threefold harmony, sounding through three choirs of gladness, from which joy folds ever deeper into itself, spiraling inward yet shining all the brighter.” The word “hosanna,” comes from the Hebrew and Aramaic: hôšîaʿ (save) –nāʾ (now), as in “Save us, now!” or “Save us, we pray.” This word originates in Psalm 118:25, “Lord, grant salvation.” By the time it moves from a Jewish liturgical acclamation into Greek in the New Testament, it becomes the shout of the crowds who welcomed Jesus as the Messiah into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:9): “Salvation is here!” And, soon enough, it finds its way into the Christian liturgy as an acclamation by the congregation before the most sacred part of the Mass – the consecration of the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord. Mark Musa refers to the angels’ singing as “warbling” like birds. |
| ↑11 | As noted in earlier cantos, the physical structure of Dante’s cosmos is a series of nine nested crystalline spheres surrounding the Earth. In addition to their names (see the chart below), he also places each of these spheres under the guidance of a particular “angelic intelligence,” one of the nine orders we saw above:
In their role as celestial guides, these groups of angels also act as links, mediators, or collaborators between God and the material world, translating the Love and Power of God from the Empyrean on-/into the movement of the spheres and acting as agents of divine influence upon them. Here, Dante the Poet mirrors a Christianized Aristotlean notion, found in his Metaphysics, of “moving intelligences” that give motion to the structure of the cosmos. Aristotle posits that the heavens are eternal and the movements of the heavens can be traced back to the “First (unmoved) Mover.” But there are also other movers (the various orders of angels) responsible for all the stars, planets, and virtually every other aspect of the workings of the cosmos, all pointing back to the First Mover. |
| ↑12 | This is a reference to Dionysius the Aeropagite, an Athenian convert of St. Paul’s, most likely the first bishop of Athens and, in Dante’s time, believed to be the author of the authoritative text on celestial lore, On the Celestial Hierarchy. This text was later ascribed to a fourth- or fifth-century Neo-Platonic scholar now referred to as Pseudo-Dionysius. |
| ↑13 | As noted above, Dante followed the order of Dionysius the Aeropagite. Pope St. Gregory the Great (pope from 590-604) had a slightly different ordering of the angelic hierarchy. Whether Dante knew this or not, Pope Gregory revised his earlier order to match that of Dionysius, and Beatrice makes an interesting story out of this. Apparently, after he died, and as he passed into the Empyrean, the Abode of God, he saw the order of angels as it truly is and laughed at himself. |
| ↑14 | In his Second Letter to the Corinthians (12:2ff), Paul writes that in an ecstatic experience he cannot fully grasp he was once caught up into Heaven where he saw and heard things that are inexpressible. The Poet seems to presume that St. Paul told Dionysius what he saw and that Dionysius used this in his book on the Celestial Hierarchy. |
| ↑15 | The Legend of the Chessboard
A story comes to us from ancient times that Sissa ben Dahir, the Grand Vizer to the Indian king, Shirham, presented his latest creation to his ruler. It was a game called chess. The king was so pleased, that he told Sissa he could name his own reward. Sissa replied, “Majesty, give me the sum of 10,000 rupees; or give me some wheat in the following manner: I need 1 grain to place on the first square of the chessboard, 2 grains to place on the second square, 4 grains for the third square, and 8 grains for the 4th square; and to continue in like manner, oh Mighty and Generous One, let me cover each of the 64 squares of the board.” Apparently, Shirham was not too good at arithmetic, but his realm was famous for its wheat production; the storage bins were always full. And as many kings are, he did not wish to part with his money. So he decided on the choice of the wheat and exclaimed, “Is that all you wish, Sissa, you fool? I shall grant your wish of the wheat.” So the king ordered a bag of wheat to be brought to the throne room, and the counting began. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and so on. Before long the bag was empty. And then one bag, two bags, four bags, and so on were soon necessary, sometimes not even being sufficient for one square. This process did begin to take a long time; in fact, they soon quit counting individual grains, instead they were counting by bags. Later, believe it or not, even an entire granary bin wasn’t sufficient. When the king began to realize just how much wheat was involved, his heart sank. He knew it was he who was the fool. Sissa then admitted, “Oh Sire, I have calculated that more wheat is needed than you have in your kingdom, nay, more wheat than there is in the entire world, verily, enough to cover the whole surface of the earth to the depth of the twentieth part of a cubit.” At this point in the legend, nothing more is known of the whereabouts of that clever inventor of chess or whatever happened to him. There is no mention of his name in the official court records. Kings are not known for treating their subjects in a kindly and loving manner when the latter have made fools of them! Some stories state that Sissa was banished from the kingdom forever. Others that he languished in a dark and remote prison. Still others, who know more about the inner workings of the court are sure that Sissa was beheaded. |