Lot and his daughters - a painting |
Lot’s
sin was manifold. Lust and incest. He copulated with both of his daughters. His daughters’ children would not be his
grandchildren as it should have been.
How disgraceful! The mountains
off Zoar echoed his laments.
Lot
had fled Sodom because of its immorality.
The people were like pigs wallowing in filth: they wallowed in sex and
sensuality. Bored of the women, the men of
Sodom sought and found their delights in male bodies. Left to themselves, their women too discovered
their own delights: in the bodies of each other. Bodily pleasures. Damnation.
Death.
The
wombs of Sodom cried to the heavens for seeds to germinate. The heavens heard the cries. Yahweh opened the gate of the heavens and
told Lot to move out.
“You
have been a temperate man,” said Yahweh to Lot.
“You did not forsake the ways I had ordained for humanity. So shall I save you from the perdition that
is about to fall on your land and its men and women as well as their
offspring.”
A
dream. A dream of a man who wanted
something more than the body and its pleasures.
A dream of a man who wanted to dream of the heavens.
Dreams
can end up people in caves. Lot wanted
to save his daughters from the evil world.
He took them out from the world.
To a cave in a mountain off Zoar.
Caves
narrow down dreams. Caves shrink one’s
horizon. In the cave Lot saw only his
daughters. There was nothing else to see
in the cave. Young daughters. Beautiful daughters. Daughters who should be married off. Where are the men who deserve to marry them?
The
soil longs for seeds even in a desert.
Ova need fertilisation by spermatozoa even in a cave. Especially in a cave.
“When
will we get husbands to fill our wombs with children?” lamented Lot’s elder
daughter.
“When
will we get men to love us?” lamented Lot’s younger daughter.
We
are doomed to die in this cave, they said to each other as they hugged each
other. Their breasts met with the
softness of the flesh of each other.
Sodom rose in their groins like a volcano ready to burst. The heat of the volcano scorched Lot’s veins.
Lot
took out the wine from the cask to quench the thirst of his veins. The wine flowed in his veins. Wine mellowed his veins. Wine infuriated his sperms. Infuriated sperms
long to fertilise. Long to mate. Long to meet a mate. Sodom had killed meeting and mating. There is no life without meeting and
mating. There is no life where the sperm
is spilled like swine’s swill. Where the
ovum is thrown out with rags that had been stuck in the foulest places.
Lot
said, “Come my beloved. Lie with
me. Let my sperm meet your ovum. Let there be life.”
Lot’s
wife was not there to heed his invitation.
She had been turned into a salt pillar.
She had defied Yahweh’s orders.
But
Lot’s girls had heard his mourn. They
took off the rags that had been smothering their stinking bodies. Let our bodies find liberation. Let there be life. They said.
They
lay on either side of their father.
The
night passed. Sodom was burnt out
totally by the volcano. But life was
stuttering in the wombs of Lot’s daughters.
“Oh
Yahweh! What have I done?” lamented Lot
standing on the mountain outside his cave looking up to the heavens. I wanted a moral world. I wanted morality. Oh Yahweh!
I have spurned a brood of vipers.
Children of lust. Oh Yahweh!
Yahweh
promised a “Promised Land” to Lot’s offspring.
Lot dreamt on. Lot’s dreams
crossed the Jordan river. Beyond all
rivers. Beyond all oceans. Lot dreamt of a world where his morality
would be in practice. In practice. A world of dreams. Dreams of a caveman. The Jordan formed a few ripples which died
out soon. The dream of the caveman
continued. In scriptures. In the same Arab Land. Dreams.
Dreams. Dreams of the children of
lust. Oh Yahweh!
Note: This is a fictionalised version of an episode from the Bible, Genesis, chapter 19. I have taken much liberty with the Biblical version.
Does the word 'Sodomy' come from the name of the city 'Sodom?'
ReplyDeleteYes, Ravish, the word 'sodomy' owes its origin to the Biblical Sodom.
DeleteNow this is where Sodomy comes from
ReplyDeleteLot is supposed to have lived more than 4000 years ago. My point is that the world wasn't much better in those days. Evil is nothing new. Evils coeval with man. Evil of all kinds...
DeleteIts the reverse of Oedipus
ReplyDeleteElectra complex.....sodomy refers to much inferior activities nowadays...
ReplyDeleteEven in those days, Mani, it referred to those "much inferior activities". Otherwise Yahweh wouldn't have been so angry as to destroy two entire cities. [By the way, I'm not a believer and don't take the Bible literally. I take it as literature and interpret it in my own way.]
DeleteThe children of Lust! Such an apt title for the post and the story is definitely touching. The bible indeed!
ReplyDeleteThe Bible has so many instances of the "Fall" of man. Right from the first couple Adam and Eve, there are so many characters in the Bible who "fell" (sinned). The theme of evil never ceases to fascinate me. After Yahweh destroyed the whole human population except Noah and his family, He said that He wouldn't do it (destroy man) anymore though the heart of man is filled with evil. I have always wondered why He couldn't fill it with goodness.
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ReplyDeleteIf lust had been interpreted with goodwill, mankind would not have suffered from sexual abuses. The word 'lust' would not have acquired negative connotation. How evil entered this world is still intriguing.
ReplyDeletePS.: Tried to post a comment in the afternoon. Not successful. Ended up posting a comment to the previous blog on Sheldon.
As usual good read.
Can lust be interpreted with goodwill? If excess of anything is bad, lust can never be good.
DeleteEvil is an integral part of life, I guess. I have implied that in the story.
If you log in first and then post the comment, it works much faster.
Nice to see you after a long time.
Then let me correct it. What I mean to say is that the word 'lust' need not have come into existence at all. That's my wish, precisely.
DeleteIf wishes were horses beggars would ride Madam.
DeleteI always learn something whenever I visit your blog. This one was quite interesting too, even a little disturbing in some places.
ReplyDeleteI tried my best to mellow the story, Shreesha. But the theme is such the story has to be a little 'sleazy'.
DeleteWhat a scary portrayal... I find even cannibals feasting around a wood-fire less repulsive :-/
ReplyDeleteTrue, Anunoy, our religions give us more than what we can chew sometimes.
DeleteAnother twisty tale.. and to think this is a spin off from religion!
ReplyDeleteRicha
Most religious scriptures have such tales or bizarre texts, Richa. If all the people really read the scriptures there would be no terrorism or fundamentalism, no religion itself perhaps.
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ReplyDeletehmm.. now here is the real question of morality.. I haven't read Bible.. Now I feel like I want to.. But did Lots or his daughters really sinned? I mean who defined incest?? Scriptures?? Who wrote them?? God?? Then how Adam n Eve, just two humans, could grow into such a huge population without incests between brothers n sisters, fathers n daughters.. Does that mean the whole premise of human race is based on incest??? Did the same God not want the humans to grow?? Then why the biology?? The act by the family was a weak moment arisen by circumstances but it might be seen as providence as Taote has written:
ReplyDeleteThe Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.
Lots truth, tears and lament washes away any sign of lust. I would never judge and still respect people like Lots and his daughters.