Commentary Par I 91-93

For a study devoted to the paradoxes that flow from Dante's combined corporeal heaviness and lightness, see Simon Gilson (Gils.2004.1), pp. 170-73: Beatrice's words gather up and redeploy Aristotle's statements concerning the rapid and violent movement of celestial bodies (De caelo II.2 and Meteor. II.9), combining them with the views of St. Augustine (Conf. XIII.9) on the pondus amoris, the downward-tending direction of earthly affection and the liberating fire of love for God. (Both Sapegno [DDP Sapegno.Par.I.124-126] and Singleton [DDP Singleton.Par.I.116] cite this passage from the Confessions to make a similar point.)  Dante's rational soul is returning to its 'birthplace' in the heavens, where God breathed it into the being he was to become, his characteristics set by the Fixed Stars, as we learn, for instance at [Par VIII 94-114]).