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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. panicky at being alone in so dismal a v on the wholeey, he wanders until he comes to a hill bathed in sunlight, and his fear begins to intrust him. But when he starts to climb the hill his caterpillar track is blocked by three fierce beasts root a LEOPARD, then a LION, and ultimately a SHE-WOLF. They fill 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 vestige of VIRGIL, and the Pilgrim begs for help. Virgil tells him that he can not overcome the beasts which obstruct his path they moldiness remain until a GREYHOUND comes who go away drive them back to Hell. Rather by another path will the Pilgrim reach 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 Pilgri m begs Virgil to lead on, and the Guide starts ahead. The Pilgrim follows. View a Picture of Dante illogical in the Dark Wood View a Picture of The king of beasts Confronting DanteNotes on Canto I Early critics of Dante thought that the three beasts that block the Pilgrims path as imageising three specific sins lust, pride and avarice, however it may be that they represent the three major divisions of Hell. The spotted leopard represents cheat and reigns over the Eighth and Ninth Circles, where the Fraudulent are 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 causal agency 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 understand all of the allegory in the First Canto without having see the entire C omedy 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 by chance the most important of the entire work. This Canto explains that Dante must choose another thoroughfare 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.