Venus, before sunrise on the fourth morning, is seen among the stars of Pisces;[521] and she is also mentioned as a morning star before sunrise on the seventh day.[522] Saturn is in Leo. “Il petto del Leone”[523] may mean the western part of the Lion, the part which first rises and contains the head and breast, or it may refer to the star Regulus, which is called by Ptolemy and Alfraganus “Cor Leonis.”[524] “Sotto il petto”[525] may mean the position of the planet as seen projected in the sky or a map, that is, a little south of this part of the constellation; more probably, perhaps, Dante is thinking of the supposed position of Saturn’s sphere _below_ that of the stars.[526] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [521] _Purg._ i. 21. [522] _Purg._ xxvii. 95. [523] “The Lion’s breast.” _Par._ xxi. 14. [524] “The Lion’s Heart.” [525] “Beneath the breast.” [526] _Cf. _Purg._ xxxii. 56, 57, where the sun is spoken of as under another star. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mars is spoken of as having returned to his own Lion a number of times: “al suo Leon ... venne,”[527] but this does not necessarily imply that he was in that constellation at the time. Mercury and Jupiter are not noted as seen anywhere in the sky, nor does Dante say in what constellation they were when he entered them with Beatrice. There are a number of pitfalls into which Dante might have stumbled, with this disposition of the skies, and the change to the southern hemisphere; and that he has avoided all is as clear a proof of his familiarity with astronomical phenomena as the positive evidence of his truthful, consistent descriptions. For instance, he might very well have represented the cold planet Saturn as actually aiding the cold moon in driving away the heat of the day during the night, in _Purg._ xix. 1-3, instead of only saying “talor da Saturno;”[528] but if so, this would have been inconsistent with the position of Saturn in Leo, since Leo was below the horizon when dawn was drawing near and Pisces was rising. Again, we have already mentioned that he evidently did not forget that it was autumn in the southern hemisphere. He never suggests that it was spring in Purgatory, and in the passage quoted above, where he describes sunrise at the March equinox, saying that the sun then moves “con miglior corso e con migliore stella,”[529] this happiest effect on the world is restricted to “mortals,” who as he thought all dwelt in the northern hemisphere, “surge ai mortali.”[530] I do not mean that the expression was used for this reason, but it is an example of how instinctively he avoided mistakes into which any other author would almost certainly have fallen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [527] “To his Lion has come.” _Par._ xvi. 37, 38. [528] “Sometimes by Saturn.” [529] “With a better course and better star.” _Par._ i. 40.