An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text
Dante Alighieri · en
Upon entering in, Enoch came to a spacious mansion, built of crystal
and with a crystal floor, surrounded by a flame as hot as fire and as
cold as ice.[81] After this, he came to another mansion, resembling
the first, but surpassing it in all respects. Rivers of fire issued
from out of it; in the midst of it a throne was set, whereon One sat
in glory, clad in a robe brighter than the sun, and whiter than the
snow (c. 14). Further, Enoch was instructed at length by his guide as
to the significance of many parts of the Old Testament record, and
was taken to view the several heavens, the heavenly bodies, and the
universe in general, the nature and motions of which were explained to
him by the Archangel. He was conducted to Sheol, the temporary abode of
departed souls until Judgment, which is situated in the West (c. 17),
and was shown a mountain which was reserved for the life that shall be
after God’s coming. Hereon stood the Tree of Life, which was to afford
sustenance to the righteous of its fruit and fragrance (cc. 24-5). In a
second vision, the last things and other divine mysteries were revealed
to him by means of parables. In his Vision of Judgment he beheld,
first, the spirits of the guilty stars condemned; after them, the
unfaithful shepherds that misled the sheep, and then the wicked sheep
themselves; after which he beheld a mansion greater than the former,
supported on ivory pillars, wherein were assembled the sheep that were
saved (c. 89).
Here we find the Vision legend brought to a high stage of development,
and containing many features which recur throughout the whole course of
the Vision literature. In several of these traces of an Oriental origin
are apparent. Similar creations of the Rabbinical imagination occur
in various writings belonging to the earlier centuries of our era,
which, though composed in Christian times, and in some cases claiming
a place among the sacred books of the Christian Church, embody Jewish
traditions. Of such was the tradition current in those centuries, and
quoted in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (Part II. c. 19), relating
how Adam, when at the point of death, despatched Seth to the gate of
Paradise in quest of the oil of the Tree of Life, or ‘Tree of Mercy,’
wherein, as before noted, we have a variant of Ishtâr’s visit to Hades
in quest of the Waters of Life.