Cantos

Canto I

In the middle of the journey of his life, Dante finds himself lost in a dark wood, and he cannot find the straight path. He cannot remember how he wandered away from his true path that he should be following, but he is in a fearful place, impenetrable and wild.

He looks up from this dismal valley and sees the sun shining on the hilltop. After resting for a moment, he begins to climb the hill towards the light, but he is suddenly confronted by a leopard, which blocks his way and he turns to evade it. Then a hungry lion appears more fearful than the leopard, but a "she-wolf" comes forward and drives Dante back down into the darkness of the valley.

Just as Dante begins to feel hopeless in his plight, a figure approaches him. It has difficulty speaking, as though it had not spoken for a long time. At first Dante is afraid, but then implores it for help, whether it be man or spirit. It answered: "not a man now, but once I was." It is the shade of Virgil, who wrote the Aeneid, and lived in the times of the "lying and false gods."

Dante hails Virgil as his master and the inspiration for all poets. When Virgil hears how Dante was driven back by the "she-wolf," he tells Dante that he must go another way because the she-wolf snares and kills all things. However, Virgil prophesies that someday, a marvelous greyhound, whose food is wisdom, love, and courage, will come from the nation between "Feltro and Feltro," and save Italy, chasing the she-wolf back to Hell.

Virgil commands Dante to follow him and see the horrible sights of the damned in Hell, the hope of those doing penance in Purgatory, and if he so desires, the realm of the blessed in Paradise. Another guide will take him to this last realm, which Dante cannot (or may not) enter. Dante readily agrees, and the two poets begin their long journey.

Canto II

It is now the evening of Good Friday, as the two poets approach the entrance to Hell. But Dante wonders if he is truly worthy to make the journey: He...