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Volume 1 Inferno Cantos I - XICanto I Halfway through his life, DANTE THE PILGRIM wakes to find himself lost in the dark wood. terrified at being alone in so dismal a valley, he wanders until he comes to a hill bathed in sunlight, and his fear begins to leave him. yet when he starts to climb the hill his path is regular hexahedroned by three fierce beasts first a LEOPARD, then a LION, and finally a SHE-WOLF. They take up him with fear and drive him back down to the sunless wood. At that moment the figure of a man appears before him it is the shade of VIRGIL, and the Pilgrim begs for help. Virgil tells him that he can non overcome the beasts which obstruct his path they must remain until a GREYHOUND comes who will drive them back to Hell. Rather by another path will the Pilgrim pretend the sunlight, and Virgil promises to guide him on that path through Hell and Purgatory, after which another spirit, more fit that Virgil, will lead him to Paradise. The Pilgrim begs Virgil to le ad on, and the Guide starts ahead. The Pilgrim follows. View a Picture of Dante Lost in the Dark Wood View a Picture of The Lion Confronting DanteNotes on Canto I Early critics of Dante thought that the three beasts that block the Pilgrims path as symbolising three specific sins lust, pride and avarice, but it may be that they represent the three major divisions of Hell. The spotted leopard represents boloney and reigns over the Eighth and Ninth Circles, where the Fraudulent be punished. The Lion symbolises all forms of Violence, which are punished in the Seventh Circle. The she-wolf represents the different types of Concupiscence or Incontinence, which are punished in Circles Two to Five. In any case the beasts must represent the three major categories of human sin, and they threaten Dante the Pilgrim, the poets symbol of mankind. It is impossible to find out all of the allegory in the First Canto without having read the entire Comedy because Canto I is, in a sense, a miniature of the whole, and the themes that Dante introduces here will be the major themes of the entire work. Thus this canto is perhaps the most important of the entire work. This Canto explains that Dante must choose another road because, in order to arrive at the Divine Light, it is necessary first to recognise the true nature of sin, renounce it, and do penance for it.