I'm reading Dante Alighieri's work, The Divine Comedy for the first time. My, my what a piece of art!

I'm especially captivated by the first of his 3 sections (The Inferno--which is probably the most popular portion of this masterpiece). But I've learned quickly that research on Medieval history and specific study on the book brings out so much more meaning; every fucking line leads to something further along in the reading.

But anyway, I went back to the beginning of The Inferno: Dante strays and finds himself in a dark wood; sees light at the top of a hill outside the woods. Excited, he runs and climbs the hill at an amazing speed only to be stopped by three animals (taken from the book of Jeremiah V). Later you discover that represent a form of Lust, Violence, and Deceit (this borrowed from Aristotle if I'm not mistaken).

Of the three, Deceit (a wolf) is the most evil of the three and regarded as a greater offense of the other sins. In the last and deepest ring of Hell, a three faced Satan stands chewing Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius--one in the mouth of each face; Judas being the soul that "suffers most".

After thinking on this for days I think that I'm beginning to understand why he considers deceit the greater evil of the three. [One commentator noted that it was worse than the others due to that lust is an elementary evil, violence--even a beast could perform, but to deceive is to pervert knowledge (which is a classic virtue in Medieval literature that often equates the essence of truth and sometimes faith)].

I gained interest in the occult aspects of gang-life when I was in high school. I was intrigued by the philosophical freedom and even many occult/religious aspects of the gang and the integrity it developed from a communal stand-point {sometimes similar to the saying, "honor among thieves"}. But it only took one thing to corrupt the integrity of that community: betrayal. And betrayal begins and ends in the form of deceit--for without it, betrayal would not exist. Someone must not know that they are deceived in order to *be* deceived.

You see, it's one thing to have an enemy in whom you know exactly what to expect from (thus common phrases are said like, "better the devil you know than the one you don't" or "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"). To be a victim of lust or violence can have it's origin in any witless rage, but to be betrayed; deceived is humiliating. A fool is one with out realizing it; but a humiliated person was a fool who suddenly realizes he/she is one.