Ἀκηδία ( akēdia) acedia, rendered in the Philokalia as dejection.Λύπη ( lypē) sadness, rendered in the Philokalia as envy, sadness at another's good fortune.Πορνεία ( porneia) prostitution, fornication.The fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus reduced the nine logismoi to eight, as follows: mental (thoughts produced by jealous/envious, boastful, or hubristic states of mind).emotional (thoughts produced by depressive, irascible, or dismissive moods).physical (thoughts produced by the nutritive, sexual, and acquisitive appetites).These 'evil thoughts' can be categorized as follows: For each of these functions, the Egyptian monks identified three 'thoughts' or logismoi that lead to disorders. Each component has its own primary function: appetite or desire ( epithymia), feeling ( thymos), and mind ( nous). In the platonic tradition, the human being is composed of three components: the body, the soul, and the mind. The modern concept of the seven deadly sins is linked to the monastic tradition of early Christian Egypt, which was itself influenced by the neoplatonist teachings of the school of Alexandria. Origin of the currently recognized seven deadly sins His first epistles say that 'to flee vice is the beginning of virtue and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.' Īn allegorical image depicting the human heart subject to the seven deadly sins, each represented by an animal (clockwise: toad = avarice snake = envy lion = wrath snail = sloth pig = gluttony goat = lust peacock = pride). Roman writers such as Horace extolled virtues, and they listed and warned against vices. Aristotle lists several virtues, such as courage, temperance or self-control, generosity, greatness of soul or magnanimity, measured anger, friendship, and wit or charm. Courage, for example, is the virtue of facing fear and danger excess courage is recklessness, while deficient courage is cowardice. Aristotle argues that each positive quality represents a golden mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics lists several excellences or virtues. The seven deadly sins as we know them had pre-Christian Greek and Roman precedents. 6.3 Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Prints of the Seven Deadly Sins.6.2 Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Parson's Tale'.2 Historical and modern definitions, views, and associations.1.2 Origin of the currently recognized seven deadly sins.The seven deadly sins, along with the sins against the Holy Ghost and the sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, are taught especially in Western Christian traditions as things to be deplored. The seven deadly sins are discussed in treatises and depicted in paintings and sculpture decorations on Catholic churches as well as older textbooks. Both of these were to undercut other sins.

Church teaching especially focused on pride, which was thought to be the root of all sin since it turns the soul away from God and also on greed or covetousness.

Evagrius' pupil John Cassian with his book The Institutes brought the classification to Europe, where it became fundamental to Catholic confessional practices as documented in penitential manuals, sermons such as ' The Parson's Tale' from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and artworks such as Dante's Purgatory where the penitents of Mount Purgatory are grouped and penanced according to their worst sin. This classification originated with the Desert Fathers, especially Evagrius Ponticus. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven capital virtues. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things God is said to hate in the Book of Proverbs. The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings.