This canto, the prologue to Dante’s journey through the In- ferno, acts also as an introduction to The Divine Comedy as a whole.
The Divine Comedy
Inferno
Dante Alighieri
Translated by J.G. Nichols
With illustrations by
Gustave Doré
ALMA CLASSICS
Illustration of Dante’s Inferno
5
CANTO I
This canto, the prologue to Dante’s journey through the In-
ferno, acts also as an introduction to The Divine Comedy as a
whole.
At the age of thirty-five Dante realizes he is lost in a dark,
terrifying wood. He takes heart when he sees in front of him
a hilltop shining in sunlight. But, as he starts to climb the hill,
he is frightened by a leopard which obstructs him in a threaten-
ing manner, and then by an angry lion, and finally by a she-wolf
– the most alarming animal of the three. So Dante is driven back
into the darkness which – as we soon come to realize about eve-
rything in this poem – is both real and allegorical. (There are,
throughout this poem, many kinds of allegory. For instance, the
leopard, the lion and the she-wolf – emblems rather than sym-
bols, and therefore in need of interpretation – are of a different
order from the dark wood, whose import is obvious.)
A human figure approaches, and Dante, uncertain whether it
is a living being or a ghost, implores its help. The figure explains
that he is the shade of Virgil. This is the poet whom Dante, as he
is quick to declare, admires more than any other. Virgil encour-
ages Dante, and explains that he must travel by a different road
if he is to find a way out of his difficulties.
After making an obscure prophecy about the coming of a
hound which will kill the she-wolf and also be the saviour of
Italy, Virgil says that he will guide Dante through the realms
of the Inferno, inhabited by the souls of the damned, who are
beyond all hope; and also through Purgatory, where the souls
of those now doing penance for their sins are residing, glad to
suffer because they have the certain hope of going ultimately
to Paradise. Virgil, because he was a pagan who lived and died
before Christ and so could not believe in Him, cannot accom-
pany Dante into Paradise. But he says there is another guide
who will take Dante there. Dante accepts Virgil’s guidance, and
they set off.
