The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust

LUST

Lust (or lechery) is an inordinate craving for coitus often to the point of assuming a self-indulgent, and sometimes violent character. Lust, or an immoderate desire for the flesh of another (outside of matrimony), is considered a sin, or impure act, in all of the Abrahamic religions.

V Canto
Second circle of hell,

55 "Her appetite for lust became so flagrant
That she made lewdness licit with her laws
To free her from the blame her vice incurred.

"She is Semiramis, whose story reads
That, as his wife, she succeeded Ninus,
60 Controlling the country now ruled by the sultan.

"The other, Dido, killed herself for love
And broke faith with the ashes of Sychaeus;
Next comes the lust-enamored Cleopatra.

"See Helen, for whom many years of woe
65 Rolled on, and see the great Achilles
Who in his final battle came to love.

"See Paris, Tristan" — and then of a thousand
Shades, he pointed out and named for me
All those whom love had cut off from our life.

According to the definition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, a Christian's heart is lustful when "venereal satisfaction is sought for either outside wedlock or, at any rate, in a manner which is contrary to the laws that govern marital intercourse".

Punishment in hell: Smothered in fire and brimstone
Animal: Cow
Color: Blue


Demon: Asmodeus (from the story of Tobit)

Lust is considered as one of the capital sins depending on the gravity of offense and harm it does to an individual and the community. It is said in the Bible by Jesus that whoever looks at a woman lustfully is committing adultery. (Yikes!)

However for some sect (Gnostic Christians) that the Church has abolished, sexual gratification is a part of their ritual.

For the Greek and Romans, they celebrate it. Back when the greeks and the romans worshiped Venus and the other mythological gods and goddess, they would have orgies. Some of the Roman Emperors would seek lovers either man or woman to have sex with.

Yet there were Emperors who made laws about this like Emperor Augustus and Emperor Domitian..

Emperor Domitian
He renewed the Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis, under which adultery was punishable by exile.

So.. What is Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis?

Lex Iulia de Adulteriis
Augustus' laws 18-17 BC

Under Augustus, the Leges Juliae (Julian Laws) of 18 - 17 BC attempted to elevate both the morals and the numbers of the upper classes in Rome and to increase the population by encouraging marriage and having children (lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus) and establishing adultery as a private and public crime (lex Julia de adulteriis).

To encourage population expansion, the Leges Juliae offered inducements to marriage and imposed disabilities upon the celibate. Augustus instituted the "Law of the three sons" which held those in high regard who produced three male offspring. Marrying-age celibates and young widows who wouldn't marry were debarred from receiving inheritances and from attending public games.

These are the most often referred to Julian Laws, and comprise:

Lex Iulia de Ambitu (18 BC)
Penalising bribery when acquiring political offices.
Lex Iulia de Maritandis Ordinibus (18 BC)
Limiting marriage across social class boundaries (and thus seen as an indirect foundation of concubinage, later regulated by Justinian, see also below).
Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis (17 BC)
This law punished adultery with banishment. The two guilty parties were sent to different islands ("dummodo in diversas insulas relegentur"), and part of their property was confiscated. Fathers were permitted to kill daughters and their partners in adultery. Husbands could kill the partners under certain circumstances and were required to divorce adulterous wives.
Augustus himself was obliged to invoke the law against his own daughter, Julia (relegated to the island of Pandateria) and against her eldest daughter (Julia the Younger). Tacitus adds the reproach that Augustus was stricter for his own relatives than the law actually required (Annals III 24)

Another law that came into existence under Augustus' reign, actually in 9 CE, the Lex Papia Poppaea, is usually seen as an integral part of Augustus' Julian Laws. The Lex Papia Poppaea also explicitly promoted offspring (within lawful marriage), thus also discriminating against celibacy.

And while others, they have festivities and sex orgies.

An orgy (όργιον) was a secret cultic congregation at nighttime in Ancient Greek religion, overseen by an orgiophant (a teacher or revealer of secret rites).In modern parlance an orgy may refer to an event involving group sex.

An orgion (orgy) was a secret rite of the Greek Mystery religions, practiced in the worship of Demeter at Eleusis

The term "Mystery" derives from Latin mysterium, from Greek musterion (usually as the plural musteria μυστήρια), in this context meaning "secret rite or doctrine." An individual who followed such a "Mystery" was a mystes "one who has been initiated," from myein "to close, shut," a reference to secrecy (closure of "the eyes and mouth") or that only initiates were allowed to observe and participate in rituals.Mysteries were often supplements to civil religion, rather than competing alternatives of such, and that is the reason these are referred by many scholars as "mystery cults" rather than religions.The Mysteries were thus cults in which all religious functions were closed to the non-inducted and for which the inner-working of the cult were kept secret from the general public. Although there are no other formal qualifications, mystery cults were also characterized by their lack of an orthodoxy and scripture. Religions that were practiced in secret only in order to avoid religious persecution are not by default Mysteries.

Lust is an act that can be controlled or something on how our body/mind reacts to. Thinking of some one lustfully is quite bewildering. Although the thoughts of it can be gratifying, it some what damages the purity of the person (what the hell am I saying? lol).

There would be times that we would think about Lust accidentally. It might be healthy though to think about lust towards a husband or a wife.

**will be adding some more information soon..

xoxo,