Chapter 1 · The Dark WoodbeastPlayable
The Leopard
The first of the three beasts, the one that blocks the path in the thicket.
La lonza: l’incontinenza, il desiderio senza freno.
«di pel macchiato era coverta» (Inf. I, 33)
Revealswhen the thing it keeps under its muzzle can be taken.
In the first canto she is the light, spotted beast that steps into Dante’s way and takes from him the hope of the height; in the game she does that and nothing else. She stands on the path, she does not hunt, she does not bite and she cannot be killed: the cycle that lowers and raises her head runs on a clock of its own, and she does not know she is being watched.
What she keeps under her muzzle is the cord, the one Dante wore round his waist and with which «pensai alcuna volta prender la lonza» (Inf. XVI 107). Taking it while her head is already down is the only kind of fight the first canto allows: the verb here is not to fight, it is to steal. Getting the moment wrong does not kill you; it drives you back down, which is the one thing the three beasts do in the canto.
The old commentators read the three beasts as the three kinds of sin of the eleventh canto, and the game follows that reading in the line it prints when you look at her: the leopard is incontinence, desire with no brake.
The numbers
| What | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Full head cycle | 16 s | from watching to head down |
| Head goes down | 1.1 s | |
| Head stays down | 7.4 s | including the descent |
| Head comes back up | 1.3 s | |
| Length of the body | 1.02 m | neck and tail not counted |
| Height at the shoulder | 0.69 m |
Links
- Found in
- The Dark Wood
- Opens
- Hemp rope
- See also
- The Lion, The She Wolf, Strung bow
- Named by
- The Lion, The She Wolf, Hemp rope, The Dark Wood