Greed

Greed
Circle Number	4
Boss	Plutus Alighiero
Creatures	Hoarder/Waster Throne Demons
Locations	Wheel of Fortune
Host	Gessius Florus
Prev. Circle	Gluttony
Next Circle	Anger

“For the crime of Greed do these souls suffer. Those clerks asquint of mind made no measured spending in life. And by contrast, in these Popes and Cardinals, greed practiced its excess.” — Virgil

Greed was the fourth Circle of Hell.

Overview

After escaping the Hall of Gluttons, Dante entered the circle of Greed which was mechanical in nature compared to the previous circles. Within the circle are occupants who are boiled alive in molten gold below, condemned for hoarding too closely or spending too freely with riches. In this "factory of torture," Dante will be faced with the horrendous puzzles of the Wheel of Fortune which was used to deliver punishment and come face to face against the fallen god, Plutus, a living golden statue.

Areas of the Circle

• The Wheel of Fortune: Happy, the wheel spins and judges, an engine of chance eager to flounder our fortunes. She was often maligned, even to those who gave her praise.
• Plutus: The God of Wealth guarded the inner parts of Greed.

Trivia

• In the Divine Comedy, the fourth circle of hell is quite different from how it is depicted in Dante's Inferno. In the poem the hoarders and wasters joust back and forth constantly with huge bags of money, wailing and gnashing their teeth. The "accursed wolf" Plutus is not a statue, but an actual wolf. He still mutters the strange cryptic "Pape Satan" phrase, though.
• The damned souls on the climbable walls in this circle appear to actually be made out of gold.
• The original Latin name for the Deadly Sin of Greed was Avaritia, from which the word "avarice" is derived. The corresponding Heavenly Virtue, the opposite to Greed, was Charity (Caritas).
• According to Dante, Greed was a form of Divine Love for items in a world created by God, perverted into an obsession with material goods, which is why it is only designated as the fourth circle rather than a lower one. Other sins derived from corrupted Divine Love (Lust, Gluttony) are also found in the higher circles of Hell (Circles 2 and 3 respectively).

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