Development of the Traditional Seven Sins
The modern concept of the Seven Deadly Sins is linked to the works of the 4th century
monk Evagrius Ponticus, who listed eight
evil thoughts in
Greek as follows:
[4]
They were translated into the Latin of Roman Catholic spiritual
pietas (or
Catholic devotions), as follows:
[5]
These 'evil thoughts' can be broken down into three groups:
[5]
- lustful appe e (Gluttony, Fornication, and Avarice)
- irascibility (Anger)
- intellect (Vainglory, Sorrow, Pride, and Discouragement)
In AD 590, some years after Evagrius,
Pope Gregory I revised this list to form the more common
Seven Deadly Sins, by folding
sorrow/despair into
acedia,
vainglory into
pride, and adding
extravagance and
envy, while removing
fornication from the list. In the order used by both Pope Gregory and by
Dante Alighieri in his epic poem
The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows:
- luxuria (extravagance)
- gula (gluttony)
- avaritia (avarice/greed)
- acedia (acedia/discouragement)
- ira (wrath)
- invidia (envy)
- superbia (pride)
The identification and definition of the seven deadly sins over their history has been a fluid process and the idea of what each of the seven actually encompasses has evolved over time. Additionally, as a result of
semantic change:
- Lust was subs uted for luxuria in all but name
- socordia (sloth) was subs uted for acedia
It is this revised list that Dante uses.
Reply With Quote
Check up on that fallacy and you'll see what we're getting at.
