Dante - Inferno : Canti 1-2

In the first Canto, after Beatrice is long gone, Dante is trapped at the bottom of the hill. As he thinks his life is swallowed by darkness, a ray of the sun appears as a message of hope to the otherwise dark life of the man. As he follows the ray of the sun to the top of the hill. As he climbs up, he sees 3 beasts as quoted in Jeremiah 5;6.

"Therefore a lion will attack them, A wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard will lie in wait near their town who venture out, for their rebellion is great, and their backsliding many.'

These are the beasts representing 3 sins of monstrosity.

This is the moment that reflects the entire relation between man and animal. This can be traced back to the roots of Adam and Eve as in the Bible. As Adam said, 'Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.

The greed and enmity that rose between the 2 species of the same descent forms the roots of the differences between man and human.

When all hope is lost, Dante hears a faint voice in the form of Virgil (Author of the Aeneid), a manifestation of Poetry. Virgil encourages Dante to face his fears as he enquires whether it is the right thing to do or madness. He quotes " I am not Aeneid or Paul."

This represents the same fear Mary had when the archangel Gabriel asked her to be the mother of Jesus.

Dante is not a hero, he is a common man and leads us to inquire whether we can do things no matter us being heroes or not.