I’ve been studying usury, aka charging interest, aka four easy payments of $19.95-something we totally take for granted as normal. But for about 1,700 years, Christians said usury was a SIN, a big fat sin, for which you could go to the fourth circle of the Inferno, according to Dante, and roll stones around for eternity. That’s if you weren’t boiled in molten gold instead.
After pulling my notes together I realized that I, of course, needed an illustration of Greed, Avarice, Plutos, whatever name he’s going by these days (MasterCard?) In Dante’s Inferno, Greed sits praising the devil incoherently-Greed is an gibbering idiot. In Spencer’s Faerie Queen, Sir Guyon meets Greed in a dark grove at the entrance to hell. He is smudged with soot, ugly, counting and recounting his coins.
I made Greed bony, not fat because Greed never has ENOUGH, no matter how much he has. He is never satisfied. He is always worried, too, so he has red-rimmed eyes. He never has peace, someone might take his gold away!
Excerpt from Spencer’s verse (Sir Guyon meets Mammon) My article on usury is here, but be warned-it’s a bit of a rant. 🙂
Welcome Travelers... 