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2 9 0 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3teachings of ancient wisdom. 21 The virtue by which he is enabled to join withancient wisdom, therefore, is the virtue or capacity of mind. We arrive thenat the primary equivocity in regard to Machiavelli’s use of the term “virtue.”It has a cognitive, philosophical and a noncognitive, political sense. Thesetwo kinds of virtue are fundamentally distinct. All the same, in Machiavelli’spresentation they are related: both are portrayed as “manly.” Both requireas precondition a species of courage or daring; if in each case a species of arather different sort. All species of courage or daring, however, have beenexpelled from the terrain through its occupation by the legions of Circe—death and his spouses. Without courage, freedom and the preservation offreedom, in both their political and philosophical forms, are impossible. Theeffect of the dominion of death has been to instill fear, cowardice, impotence,and slavishness in both the spirits and the minds of men. Death uses hisscythe not to kill but to emasculate. 22The darkness pervading the landscape and blocking the acquisition ofknowledge of sites is first broken by the advent of the beautiful woman. It isher lamp that penetrates the gloom, while her horn summons her strayingfollowers back to the path its light illuminates (II.28–60, 121–26). Both hornand lamp are the means by which the beautiful woman navigates the terrain,the instruments that allow for the revelation of the nature of sites. Initially,for our hero, however, they are confounding and her lamp only sporadicallyilluminating; he is dazzled by its light and terrified by its novelty (II.46–47;III.13–15). It is only much later, following upon his intimacy with the beautifulwoman, that he is in a position to enjoy its proper benefits (VI.37–39;VII.7–8).The significance of these facts appears to be the following: for men of thepresent time a direct illumination of human nature has become extremelydifficult if not simply impossible. It is only or at least most easily throughintimate familiarity and intercourse with ancient wisdom that one may nowacquire knowledge of sites. This seems to have everything to do with the influenceof Circe upon the harsh valley over which she rules. Circe, in concert withdeath and his spouses, has obscured the natures of men. She has transformedinto beasts all who have come under her sway. This bestialization, however, is21This interpretation of the allegorical meaning of the figure of the beautiful woman is confirmedwhen one inspects the discourse she offers upon the revolutions of fortune and the strategy necessaryto weather them. As we shall see, one cannot fail to recognize in these teachings the teachings ofancient philosophy.22In this regard he begins with his own followers—they are his “consorts.”