Lust : (Attributed to Asmodeus)

Paolo and Francesca, whom Dante's Inferno describes as damned for fornication. (Ingres, 1819) Lust, or lechery (Latin: luxuria (carnal)), is intense longing. It is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire, which may lead to fornication (including adultery), rape, bestiality and other sinful sexual acts. However, lust could also mean other forms of unbridled desire, such as for money or power. Henry Edward Manning says the impurity of lust transforms one into "a slave of the devil".

Dante defined lust as the disordered love for individuals. It is generally thought the least serious capital sin as it is an abuse of a faculty that humans share with animals, and sins of the flesh are less grievous than spiritual sins.

In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful thoughts and feelings. In Dante's Inferno, unforgiven souls guilty of lust are eternally blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self-control of their lustful passions in earthly life.