Sodomy: Circle 7, Inferno 11, 15-16   Virgil explains to Dante that sins of violence take three forms according to the victim: other people (one's neighbor), oneself, or God (Inf. 11.28-33). Those who perpetrate violence against other people or their property--murderers and bandits--are punished in the first ring of the seventh circle, a river of blood (Inferno 12). The third ring--inside the first two--is a barren plain of sand ignited by flakes of fire that torment three separate groups of violent offenders against God: those who offend God directly (blasphemers: Inferno 14); those who violate nature, God's offspring (sodomites: Inferno 15-16); and those who harm industry and the economy, offspring of nature and therefore grandchild of God (usurers: Inferno 17). Identifying the sins of these last two groups with Sodom and Cahors (Inf. 11.49-50), Dante draws on the biblical destruction of Sodom (and Gomorrah) by fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:24-5) and the medieval condemnations of citizens of Cahors (a city in southern France) for usury. Dante's emotional reactions to the shades in the seventh circle range from neutral observation of the murderers and compassion for a suicide to respect for several Florentine sodomites and revulsion at the sight and behavior of the lewd usurers.   Dante's inclusion of sodomy--understood here as sexual relations between males but not necessarily homosexuality in terms of sexual orientation--is consistent with strong theological and legal declarations in the Middle Ages condemning such activities for being "contrary to nature." In Dante's day, male-male relations--often between a mature man and an adolescent--were common in Florence despite these denunciations. Penalties could include confiscation of property and even capital punishment.   However, in striking contrast to the theological and political condemnations of same-sex relations in his time and place, Dante treats the sodomites in cantos 15 and 16 with courtesy, respect, and affection. Based on his inclusion of both opposite-sex lovers and same-sex lovers in Purgatory, therefore on their way to Paradise (Purg. 26.28-48, 76-87), the sin punished in Hell may not be homosexual relations per se but only immoderate or promiscuous same-sex activity. According to how he defines sin later in the poem, Dante suggests--extraordinarily for a medieval Christian--that same-sex love (no different from opposite-sex love) becomes lust and is sinful only if excessive or obsessive, just as avarice and gluttony result from "too much" love for material wealth and food (Purg. 17.94-105, 136-39). Leading Dante scholars who discuss the poet's acceptance of same-sex lovers include Robert Hollander and Teodolinda Barolini, both of whom draw on the work of Joseph Pequigney and John E. Boswell.