The Scorpion and the Archer are next each other in the heavens. The lines express in a somewhat bizarre manner the effect of the outpouring of life on the stars. _Aldebaran_, a reddish star of the first magnitude in the constellation of Taurus. _Céphée_. Cepheus is the name of a constellation, as also is Perseus. _des espaces vermeils_. See note on AYMERILLOT. L. 232. _Zoroastre_. Zoroaster was the founder of the Persian religion. He was a great observer of the stars. L. 245. _Fatalité_. In Victor Hugo the word denotes, not so much destiny, as the feeling or the doctrine that man is the helpless victim of an unseen and cruel power. It is a gloom which overhangs human life, from which in the progress of the ages man will be delivered. Compare _La Vision d'où sortit ce livre_, where the spirit of 'Fatalité' is associated with paganism and contrasted with the spirit of religion. In _Dieu_ again 'Fatalité' is one of the three sombre deities of paganism, the other two being Venus, the goddess of pleasure, and Hecate, the goddess of death. Cf. also the following lines from _La Fin de Satan_, put into the mouth of man's evil angel:-- Je suis Lilith-Isis, l'âme noire du monde. Tremble! l'être inconnu, funeste, illimité, Que l'homme en frémissant nomme Fatalité, C'est moi. Tremble! Ananké, c'est moi. Tremble! Le voile C'est moi. And again in Satan's speech to the Almighty:-- Tu seras Providence et moi Fatalité. _Notre-Dame de Paris_ is based upon this theme. See especially Livre VII. iv. L. 255. For the metaphor compare 'la fausse clef du fatal gouffre bleu', l. 37, and the following passage in _L'Ane_ about the prison of life:-- La porte en est massive et la voûte en est dure; Tu regardes parfois au trou de la serrure, Et tu nommes cela science; mais tu n'as Pas de clef pour ouvrir le fatal cadenas. L. 273. Cf. the well-known line in _Les Contemplations: Ce que dit la Bouche d'Ombre_:-- Le fauve univers est le forçat de Dieu. Man is likened to a convict, in that he is undergoing punishment, not in that he deserves it. _Allioth_, a star of the first magnitude in the Great Bear. _J'en arrive_: 'Tis from there I come. _la pesanteur_. Gravity symbolizes the forces which keep man down. _guèbres_, fire-worshippers, i.e. the Persians, who still adhere to the ancient religion of Zoroaster. The word itself is Persian. _Thalès_ (English Thales), one of the seven wise men of Greece. L. 317. An allusion to the well-known doctrine of the music of the spheres, enunciated by Plato. _chouette_. The owl, as a bird of darkness, was to Hugo suggestive of evil things. Cf. _La Confiance_. _frisson des roseaux_, i.e. a trembling like that of reeds. _Spinosa_ (English Spinoza) (1632-77), the Jewish philosopher, whose rationalistic views would be evidence to Hugo of his need of faith.