SI PERDEA LA SENTENZA DI SIBILLA  - Even thus the Sibyl’s oracles, inscribed

SI PERDEA LA SENTENZA DI SIBILLA - Even thus the Sibyl’s oracles, inscribed

Interpretation of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
PARADISE CANTO XXXIII Verses 64-66
Even thus the snow is in the sun dissolved;
even thus the Sibyl’s oracles, inscribed
on flying leaves, were lost adown the wind.
As the warmth of the sun melts the snow, its ephemeral compact snow, and the wind gust, which moves the leaves on which the Cumana Sibyl had written the words of his oracular responses, making them indecipherable, perhaps be worth the foiled memory fervor, which alters confusing the images in an attempt to evoke. Of course, the beauty of these verses is sublime.
The Latin phrase"ibis redibis non morieris in bello”, is, traditionally, the response given by the Sibyl to a soldier went to consult the oracle about the outcome of his mission. The phrase, like all oracular responses, is deliberately ambiguous ( "cryptic", in fact) and offers a double interpretation, depending on how you want to use punctuation.
In fact, if you put a comma before the "no" (ibis Redibis, not morieris in bello), the meaning of the response is “You will go, you will return, you will not die in the war." Becoming, therefore, the equivalent of “ibis Redibis numquam peribis”, or "go come back you will not die", prefigure an undoubtedly positive outcome of the mission;
If, however, the point is moved after the denial (ibis Redibis not, morieris in bello), changes the way until it turned into its exact opposite: "Will you never go back, you will die in war." The mission of the poor soldier, in this case, will have a very negative outcome.

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