Lot (biblical person)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (ca. 1480-1538) paints Lot with one of his daughters, the other is visible in the distance."--A History of Erotica (2011) by Jan-Willem Geerinck "For a few moments I was turned into a pillar of salt, standing at the head of my seated column of clerks. Recovering myself, I advanced towards the screen, and demanded the reason for such extraordinary conduct. " --"Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853) by Herman Melville Lot's wife, she turned a pillar of salt --"Lot's Wife" (1979) by Prince Alla "As formerly [painters] had searched through classic authors, so now they searched through the Bible for erotic scenes; and what they found there was not as harmless as the joyous legends of the Hellenes, but such scenes as Lot and his daughters, the expulsion of Hagar, the two elders peeping at Susanna in the bath, or Herodias confounding by her dance the senses of old Herod. If Judith is represented with especial frequency as the murderess of Holofernes, the reason probably is that the thought was akin to the episode of Beatrice Cenci."--The History of Painting: From the Fourth to the Early Nineteenth Century (1893/94) by Richard Muther "We are told that they made him drunk, so that he was unaware of what happened. His guilt therefore is not that of incest, but of drunkenness. This, too, is condemned by the eternal law, which allows meat and drink only as required by nature for the preservation of health. There is, indeed, a great difference between a drunk man and an habitual drunkard; for the drunkard is not always drunk, and a man may be drunk on one occasion without being a drunkard. However, in the case of a righteous man , we require to account for even one instance of drunkenness. What can have made Lot consent to receive from his daughters all the cups of wine which they went on mixing for him , or perhaps giving him unmixed ?" |
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Lot was a man in the biblical Book of Genesis, chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable events in his life include his journey with his uncle Abram (Abraham); his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt; and his being intoxicated by his daughters so that they could have sexual intercourse with him and ensure their family would have descendants.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah was told in a 1962 film directed by Robert Aldrich starring Stewart Granger as Lot and Anouk Aimée as Queen Bera and Pier Angeli as Lot's wife.
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Lot's wife
Lot's wife is a biblical character, wife of Lot, nowhere in bible is Lot's wife mentioned by name. She was taken by angels from her house with her husband and two daughters after the destruction of Sodom. Against the advice of the angels, she looked back on Sodom, and was instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
Lot and his daughters narrative
While Lot and his two daughters are living in a mountain cave after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra, the girls believe that the rest of humanity has been exterminated, so they conspire to get Lot drunk so that he will impregnate them, as they believed they were the only 3 people alive, and thus, that they could not otherwise have children. The plan succeeds, and both daughters became pregnant with sons. The first was named Moab (Hebrew, lit., "from the father" [meh-Av]). He was the patriarch of the nation known as Moab. The second was named Ammon or Ben-Ammi (Hebrew, lit., "from our nation"). He became the patriarch of the nation of Ammon. The resulting unusual complicated family relationships are explored in a riddle in the Exeter Book, which says that of Moab and Ben-Ammi, each is the other's uncle and nephew.
The daughters
The daughters of the biblical patriarch Lot appear in chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis, in two connected stories. In the first, Lot offers his daughters to a Sodomite mob; in the second, his daughters have sex with Lot without his knowledge to bear him children.
Only two daughters are explicitly mentioned in Genesis, both unnamed. However, the Hebrew midrash (interpretation) The Book of Jasher describes another daughter by the name of Paltith, who is burned to death by the Sodomites for breaking their law against giving charity to foreigners.
In painting
See also
- Lot in Sodom (1933) by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber
- Land lot
- Book of Genesis
- Sodom and Gomorrah
- Incest in the Bible
- Baucis and Philemon
- The Lot Radio
