What is the first beast Dante encounters in the dark wood?

The first beast Dante encounters in the dark wood is a leopard.

At the opening of Inferno, Dante finds himself lost in a gloomy forest after straying from the “straight way.” When he tries to climb a sunlit hill, three beasts block his path: first a leopard, followed by a lion and a she-wolf. Their appearance forces him back toward the descent into Hell.

Dante’s Italian word is lonza, traditionally translated as “leopard,” although some modern commentators and translators suggest a leopard-like or possibly composite animal. The creature is agile and strikingly patterned, and it initially seems the least frightening of the three.

Readers often remember the she-wolf because she receives the strongest allegorical emphasis, but she is the third beast, not the first. The three animals are commonly interpreted as representing different forms of sin, though scholars disagree about the exact correspondence.