Even among Dante’s most enthusiastic admirers, I suppose none will be found to-day to support this view; but many think that he must have heard of the Cross from travellers. True, these stars are visible during at least part of the year in all places south of 34° north, and therefore in North Africa, and they had been catalogued by Ptolemy as part of the Centaur, so that no astronomer could take them to be a newly-found constellation, but might not some unscientific traveller like Marco Polo have brought a vague report of their position? [Illustration: MAP OF STARS VISIBLE BEFORE DAWN IN PURGATORY. _To face p. 295_] To this we might reply that Dante never says his four stars were in the form of a Cross; that there had to be four to represent the four Pagan virtues, the other constellation of three representing the three Christian virtues (compare the group of four handmaidens who sing, “Noi siam qui ninfe, e nel ciel siamo stelle,”[293] and are followed by a group of three);[294] and that this other constellation was certainly imaginary, since there is no group of three bright stars anywhere near the south pole. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [293] “We are nymphs here, and in heaven we are stars.” _Purg._ xxxi. 104-106. [294] _Purg._ xxxi. 111. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ But the fact is that conjectures and arguments are unnecessary, since Dante has expressly said that his four stars had never been seen before by anyone except the first people—“non viste mai fuor che alla prima gente,” (_Purg._ i. 24)—that is, our first parents, in that Eden of his imagining which was in the southern hemisphere, and on the island where he was then standing in his vision. As a matter of curiosity I have included a map showing what stars would have been really visible to Dante at the supposed latitude of Purgatory, when Pisces was on the eastern horizon, as described in _Purg._ i. It will be seen that the Southern Cross is low, and would have been hidden behind the Mountain of Purgatory at five o’clock in the morning.[295] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [295] Antonelli thinks the four stars were α and β Crucis, α and β Centauri, all of which had been mentioned by Ptolemy, and all lie near the circle which marks the limit of circumpolar stars in the supposed latitude of Purgatory (32° south). The three stars he says were ζ Navis, Canopus, and Achernar:—Antonelli, _Accenni alle Dottrine Astronomiche nella Divina Commedia_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------