To explain the allegory: Dante, busied about the affairs of the world, has wandered from the path of righteousness. He has been sent by Beatrice (the woman Dante loved and who inspired him to write) to lead him on a journey of discovery through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
Dante is terrified and is losing all hope of climbing the hill when a man appears. Then comes a ferocious, ravenous lion followed by a she-wolf.
But as he starts his climb, he is confronted by three beasts.įirst comes a leopard, that, while not really frightening him, does block his path. Finally he sees a hill on which the sun is shining, and his heart fills with hope. The Divine Comedy opens with Dante lost in a dark wood in a fearful valley. She with such fear O’erwhelm’d me, at the sight of her appall’d, That of the height all hope I lost. A she-wolf Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem’d Full of all wants, and many a land hath made Disconsolate ere now. And by new dread succeeded, when in view A lion came, ’gainst me as it appear’d, With his head held aloft and hunger-mad, That e’en the air was fear-struck. The hour was morning’s prime, and on his way Aloft the sun ascended with those stars, That with him rose when Love Divine first moved Those its fair works: so with joyous hope All things conspired to fill me, the gay skin Of that swift animal, the matin dawn, And the sweet season.
Scarce the ascent Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light, And cover’d with a speckled skin, appear’d Nor, when it saw me, vanish’d rather strove To check my onward going that oft-times, With purpose to retrace my steps, I turn’d. …My weary frame After short pause recomforted, again I journey’d on over that lonely steep, The hinder foot still firmer.
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