Animal Symbolism In Dante's Inferno

During Dante’s epic journey into the depths of Hell he encounters many different animals and creatures. Some of these animals are of great importance to the journey upon which Dante is embarking and to the narrative as they challenge his presence in Inferno, and represent allegories of three different sins; the leopard represents fraud, the lion violence, and the wolf represents sins of appetite. Dante's metaphoric trio is discussed intensely in the Holy Bible. These three animals are brought together with vivid imagery to embody deadly sins, the lion, wolf, and leopard which represent fierceness, ravenousness, and cunning, respectively. Dante is making the most of the negative conception the bible implores with regard to the three animals and their symbolic representation as the three rings

In Inferno from The Divine Comedy, Dante portrays these animals using dark symbolism to explore the dark road to redemption that he and Virgil must travel on in order to move forward. The leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf add to the shadowy atmosphere of Dante’s opening scene in the dark forest. Dane finds himself disoriented and lost, facing spiritual, physical, psychological, moral, and political dilemmas. These three very significant animals are blocking Dante’s ascent, with the scary forest as a metaphor for sin. The Leopard represents malicious or fraudulent sins because this animal, wild in its spotted pelt, is very skilled at disguising itself from those who wish to harm it. In Inferno, Dante first encounters the leopard which blocks his path to righteousness. He writes, “Beyond the point the slope begins to rise / sprang up a leopard, trim and very swift! It was covered by a pelt of many spots. / And, everywhere I looked, the beast was there” (Inferno I, 31-34). When leopards see their target, they