GREED

Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls, far more than were above: they strained their chests against enormous weights, and with mad howls rolled them at one another. Then in haste they rolled them back, one party shouting out: "Why do you hoard?" and the other: "Why do you waste?"

A figured overshadows this realm
A god of wealth
Approaches our journey to invoke us

"Pape satan, pape Satan aleppe"

Those who avaricious deeds fueled them in life
Punish with misery and despair
Men of clergy, cardinals and popes
Betray the faith with hoarding possessions
And squander what lies before them

Boulders of immense weight akin to bags of gold
Are jousted between sinners
Arguing for eternity

"Mutual indulgence has already declined into selfish appetite; now, that appetite becomes aware of the incompatible

and equally selfish appetites of people. Indifference becomes mutual antagonism,

imaged here by the antagonism between hoarding and the squandering