Out of curiosity I did casual research on Dante’s Inferno, wondering which circles of hell I ought to be cursing people to (;)) when I noticed how the set of circles is divided three ways . . . I - V (VI?), VII, and VIII - IX. These sections are called the sins of the wolf, lion, and leopard . . . the seventh circle is always referred to as the sins of the lion, which makes sense. However, I’ve seen the first set referred to as the sins of the leopard half the time and sins of the wolf the other half. I discovered through more Googling that the leopard was a symbol of adultery, so it makes sense to me for it to symbolize the first set, but I could be wrong. Any particularly scholarly Dopers know which is which?
According to my copy of The Inferno (John Ciardi’s translation) the She-Wolf represents Incontinence (i.e., lack of self-control), the Leopard represents Malice and Fraud, and the Lion represents Violence and Ambition.
However, in the footnotes, Ciardi notes that some scholars say that the She-Wolf might be Fraud and the Leopard might be Incontinence, and he says that there are good arguments either way.
I’m starting to think that this might be more of a GD . . .
Interesting, in the class I took on Dante the leopard was described as lust or incontinence, while the she-wolf was treachery.