Does Dante’s “Nine Rings of Hell” still fit the sins of modern society?

Florence, Italy, 1320.

Italy was divided into many small “city-states” – cities which claimed that they were individual countries.

Florence was one such city-state which warred with many other city-states to show its dominance.

Yet, Florence was also fighting a war within. There was a constant battle for authority between the church and the state. One outspoken supporter of the state was Dante Alighieri, a man born and raised in Florence.

Unfortunately, the church won the power struggle and Dante was exiled. 

Midway in the journey of our life

I found myself in a dark forest,

for the right path was lost.

– Dante Aligheri

Dante was clueless on what to do. So, in his exile, Dante began to write a huge epic called the divine comedy. The first part of his book, Inferno, remains one of the most translated passages of all time.

Inferno commences with Dante journeying through “Hell” – A physical place to which you travel after death. Dante wrote Hell to contain 9 circles; limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence and treachery. If you committed any of these actions in your life, you would end up in that respective circle.

It is not my position to judge whether this is true or not. Moreover, what I find greatly fascinating is the fact that this book had a positive reception when published; therefore, it could give us a great idea on the values respected by society back then.

To Dante (and probably much of society in the 1320s), it seemed that the worst form of a crime you could commit was treachery. Committing such a “sin” would place you in the lowest circle of hell.

The circle of treachery was further divided into four levels; the lowest of it being Judecca, treachery to the lords. The term “Judecca” comes from the bible story of a man named Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus Christ and sending Christ to crucifixion.

This means that according to Dante, treachery towards the lord is the worst possible crime to commit.

Is treachery towards the lord still the worst crime today?

Well, the first issue is that there are no real “lords” that exist in our world today. Some people may own the title, but it rarely comes with any power. However, during Dante’s time, lords had large land and were often responsible for the people living in their land.

In the modern era, we could associate this responsibility to the government. Yet in this age where almost all countries have freedom of speech, how can you commit treachery to the government?

In the United States, you cannot.

No matter how nefariously you act on behalf of another country against the interests of the United States, you won’t be convicted of treason unless we are at war with that nation and there is adequate proof of the crime.

– United States Constitution, Article III

This is common for other nations as well.

Many countries do implement imprisonment for actions such as Lèse-majesté (a form of treachery is where you say offensive stuff towards the state) or leaking classified files to the public. Yet these actions will net you about 10 years maximum in prison.

This might be a lot, however, its nothing compared to individuals such as Chamoy Thipyaso, from Thailand who received 141,078 years in prison for defrauding 16,321 individuals or Andrew Aston from the UK who received 26 life sentences in prison for theft and murder.

It is clear from the above that treachery is not a great sin anymore. 

Why is treachery not the worst sin anymore?

There could be many theories. I believe it is because people have become much more independent. During the medieval era (Dante’s time), people relied a lot on the land provided by their lords. With a mere flick of his wrist, a lord could evict your whole family and get a new family.

Governments in the modern era cannot do this. They also need you as much as you need them. Without taxes and consumption of goods, their whole eco-political system would crash.

So, I am sure 800 years ago, treachery might have been the worst sin. However, today, due to people being more independent and the change in the role of lords, treachery is not a huge sin anymore.

Dante Alighieri, if you are reading this, it is time to write an updated version of Inferno.