Dante's Attempt to Climb the Hill

Midway upon the journey of our life, Dante Alighieri finds himself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost. The forest is so savage, rough, and stern that the very thought of it renews his fear; he says that it is so bitter that death is little more. Yet he resolves to speak of the good he found there and of the other things he saw. He cannot well repeat how he entered, so full was he of slumber at the moment in which he had abandoned the true way.

The Setting and the First Ascent

After reaching a mountain's foot, at the point where the valley terminated—a valley that had pierced his heart with consternation—Dante looks upward and beholds the mountain's shoulders already vested with the rays of the planet that leads others right by every road. The sight of the sunlit mountain quiets the fear that had endured in his heart's lake throughout the night he had passed so piteously. He compares himself to a shipwrecked sailor who, having escaped the perilous sea, turns back to gaze at the water. After resting his weary body, he resumes the way on the desert slope, so that the firm foot ever was the lower.

The Three Beasts

Almost where the ascent begins, a panther appears—light, swift, and covered with a spotted skin. It never moves from before his face but impedes his way so much that many times he turns to return. The time is the beginning of the morning, and the sun is mounting with those stars that were with it when the Love Divine first set in motion those beauteous things. The variegated skin of the panther, the hour, and the delicious season give him good hope. But this hope is not enough to overcome the fear caused by a lion that appears, coming against him with head uplifted and ravenous hunger, so that the air itself seems afraid. Then a she-wolf appears, laden with all hungerings in her meagreness, a beast that has caused many folk to live forlorn. She brings upon Dante so much heaviness and affright that he relinquishes the hope of the height. He compares himself to one who willingly acquires but then loses, weeping and despondent. The she-wolf, coming on against him by degrees, thrusts him back thither where the sun is silent.

The Intervention of Virgil

While Dante is rushing downward to the lowland, a figure presents itself before his eyes—one who seems from long-continued silence hoarse. Dante cries out for pity, addressing him as whiche'er he is, shade or real man. The figure answers that he is not man but was once a man, born of Lombard parents, both Mantuans, under Julius Caesar, though late, and living at Rome under the good Augustus during the time of false and lying gods. He was a poet who sang of the just son of Anchises who came from Troy. He asks Dante why he goes back to such annoyance and does not climb the Mount Delectable, the source and cause of every joy. Dante recognizes him as Virgil, the fountain that spreads abroad so wide a river of speech, and declares him his master and author, the one from whom he took the beautiful style that has done him honour. He begs Virgil to protect him from the beast that makes his veins and pulses tremble.

Virgil's Prophecy and Offer

Virgil responds that Dante must take another road to escape the savage place, for the she-wolf suffers no one to pass her way and destroys all who try. She has a nature so malign and ruthless that she is never glutted and is hungrier after food than before. Many animals wed with her, and more shall, until the Greyhound comes who shall make her perish in her pain. The Greyhound shall feed not on earth or pelf but on wisdom, love, and virtue; his nation shall be between Feltro and Feltro, and he shall be the saviour of low Italy. He shall hunt the she-wolf through every city until he drives her back to Hell, whence envy first let her loose. Virgil then offers to guide Dante through the eternal place, where he shall hear desperate lamentations and see the ancient spirits disconsolate who cry for the second death, and then see those contented within the fire who hope to come to the blessed people. For the ascent to the blessed realm, a soul worthier than Virgil shall guide Dante, because Virgil, having been rebellious to God's law, cannot enter His city. Dante entreats Virgil by the God he never knew to lead him to the portal of Saint Peter and to see those he makes so disconsolate. Virgil moves on, and Dante follows behind him.

Significance

Dante's Attempt to Climb the Hill establishes the entire framework of the poem: the protagonist's spiritual crisis, the failure of unaided human reason to reach salvation, and the necessity of a guided journey through the three realms of the afterlife. The three beasts—the panther, the lion, and the she-wolf—are traditionally interpreted as representing the three categories of sin (incontinence, violence, and fraud) that block the direct path to God. The appearance of Virgil marks the beginning of Dante's education through reason and poetry, while the prophecy of the Greyhound introduces a messianic hope for political and spiritual renewal. The episode also introduces the poem's central themes of lost way, divine grace, and the transformative power of the journey itself.