Note 1 — CANTO IX.
Charles Eliot Norton translation
By the concubine of old Tithonus, Dante seems to have intended the lunar Aurora, in distinction from the proper wife of Tithonus, Aurora, who precedes the rising Sun, and the meaning of these verses is that “ the Aurora before moonrise was lighting up the eastern sky, the brilliant stars of the sign Scorpio were on the horizon, and, finally, it was shortly after 8.30 P.M.” (Moore.) “The steps with which the night ascends” are the six hours of the first half of the night, from 6 P.M. to midnight.