virtue on the three remaining terraces of Mount Purgatory. These sins of incontinence can all be described as different types of inordinate lust. Whether it is lust for material wealth, lust for food and drink, or lust in its traditional sense-a lust for the pleasures of the flesh-all three of these sins reflect the same type of unchecked desires replete with false hopes. The Siren is just that: an embodiment of inordinate desire, the ends of which are naught but false hopes, as the pursuit of that desire ends not in fulfillment, but in death. So too, the pursuit of the sins of avarice, gluttony, and lust leads to death on the spiritual level, for, as St. Paul writes, "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6.23). Yet, when Tozer describes the Siren as "representing the vices of avarice, gluttony, and lust, which are expiated in the three remaining Cornices, and which may be classified together as cupidity" (306), he only brushes the surface of the allegorical potential of this figure. Truly, she does represent these things, but her holds still deeper implications. The traveler's first perception of the Siren, "a woman, stuttering, / cross-eyed, stumbling along on her maimed feet, / with ugly yellow skin and hands deformed" (Purgatorio 19.7-9), is replaced, through the workings of Dante's imagination, by a seductive beauty (19.12-15). Thus, the Siren receives her destructive power only from those around her who allow themselves to be overtaken. "In herself," Hollander states, "she is powerless, crippled, and ugly" (163). One must freely choose to sin, though temptation may at times seem irresistible. It should not, however, be irresistible. When examined objectively, the outcomes of pursuing avarice, gluttony, and lust are in no way truly desirable. All that these accomplish is pain, suffering, and hardship for both the sinner and those around him in this world, and, for the sinner, eternal death in the next. Neither should t...
