Something that I struggled to wrap my mind around when reading the Inferno was why snakes and other serpents were a huge part of the punishment for thieves. Today in class I may have at least made sense of it in my own mind. Relating the punishment to the bible, a serpent was the first deceiver, convincing Adam and Eve to sin. If we look at the act of thievery itself, it is yet another form that deception takes in humans. Faced with physical hardship, one might be driven to steal in order to prevent having to face more hardship. The deception is this, that while stealing may in fact relieve immediate material or physical needs, it is a sin, and therefore is harmful to the soul in two ways; that it is simply one of many others that puts us in danger of hell were it not for God's grace through Jesus, and that it is actually harmful to the soul itself just as any willful act of sin causes issue in our relationship with God. I think, and I may be wrong, that this is the contrapasso here. While in life, thieves were free to engage in this self deception, in Hell, they are held captive and restrained by the original deceiver. Essentially what I see to be happening, is that in Hell, thieves are forced to eternally experience the ultimate consummation of their sin.
PS I commented on Tinsley G's "he listens well who takes in what he hears"
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