#sodom & gomorrah

[brucequeensteen]

[cuties-in-codices]

lot's wife as a pillar of salt

"Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. [...] But Lot’s wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt." - Genesis 19:24-26 (NET)

illustration from a historienbibel, illuminated by the workshop of diebold lauber, hagenau (alsace), c. 1447-55

source: St. Gallen, Kantonsbibl., VadSlg Ms. 343C, fol. 24v

[weirdlookindog]

Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015) - Der Untergang von Sodom und Gomorrah (The Fall of Sodom and Gomorrah), 1953-54

[rhera]

PIER ANGELI SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962 dir. Robert Aldrich)

[infernal-scales]

the beginning of the end to your sanity starter :) || @fellandfeathers

WHEN IN ROME do as the Romans do, and Crowley has discovered Romans do a lot of fucking. End of story.

Nudity and sex weren’t really anything looked down upon yet in most civilizations. Well, if you overlook the instances of Sodom and Gomorrah, or any other time humanity has been far too indulgent in their “sinful ways” that called for their untimely destruction.

There was a carefree attitude for all things pleasurable with the Romans, though, that Crowley quite liked, and with a flourishing nation came a want for indulgence within all its people.

It was A BREEDING GROUND for on-the-job demons, of course.

The knowledge that Aziraphale was stationed in the city alongside him put a damper on his mood. DON’T GET HIM WRONG: seeing that familiar face did wonders for his mood usually. However, this would be the first time Crowley was actively working when the angel was nearby. Most of the time, he stumbled upon or sniffed the other out—keeping his reputation clean of actions that would otherwise have Aziraphale turning his nose up at him.

Not this time, and it made him itchy, irritable, more so than he already was with the whole Emperor gig.

Speaking of the devil, the public bathhouse is filled with nothing but Caligula’s court, all mingling with each other in a manner of… INDECENT WAYS. Crowley’s mainly kept himself separated from the more involved circles—doing his best to enjoy a goblet of the finest wine in the country—but it’s not long before a curly blonde soldier swims in between his legs.

❝ How can one seem SO ALONE in a room full of people? ❞

Was that suppose to be romantic? Rude, but okay.

Crowley smirks instead of letting a biting remark fly, aware of the eyes on him from the powerful parties nearby. A hand cups the man’s jaw, forcing his neck to crane up.

❝ NOT ALONE NOW, am I? ❞

The blonde beams at him, but it lacks the radiance and dimples that never fail to warm him.

[1five1two]

'Sodom and Gomorrah afire'. Jacob Jacobsz de Wet II. c. 1680.

[aeonophagic]

me, the jester, asked the court if yaoi could bloom even on a battlefield. the court was so kind as to even help me care for the fields for it to sprout and then bloom — is it my fault?

bonus

[bonefall]

Non-Christian anon: My priest likes Squirrelflight alot, but Leafpool was his favorite out of the sisters. I can't remember the verses but I am going to visit my parents this week, so I can go ask around and see if anyone remembers or if he's still using warriors for Sunday school. I know he just really hated Bramble from the beginning? I know he tried to give him the benefit of the doubt in TPB, but I guess in TNP the way Bramble's pov read reminded him of some of the abusers he saw while growing up. He also really liked Ashfur from TPB to TNP and used his fall as an allegory for the sin of Lust. Tigerstar the first was always given the spot of Lucifer the Morningstar, btw.

[drconstellation]

The Brutal Truth About Sandalphon's Ring

I've commented before sometimes I just need to trust my gut when something leaps out at me, and when I saw the following image of Sandalphon and his ring in @greenthena's post about Metatron's Tie this week it was one of those moments. (A few of us had a nice discussion over there about the Metatron, but not about Sandalphon!)

But look at his ring!

It's BIG, it's gold, and it's brutal.

No, I don't mean it's a pair of mini-knuckledusters for this smarmy toad to do his dirty work with, it was a reference to me of the architectural style known a Brutalism that was popular for a while during the 1950's to the 1980's. It emerged post-WWII using concrete, brick and steel and buildings in this style that were geometric and angular, often with lots of exposed concrete. I have also seen Brutalist architecture with large amounts of brickwork, but still in a aggressively angular style.

It gained some popularity because it was low-cost to build big, and it became common in communist and socialist countries during the Cold War, but if you're in the UK, or even Australia where I am you might have a surprising amount of it within reach of where you are without realizing it. It eventually fell out of favour as it was hard to maintain, and people felt it was cold and soulless. (oh...)

If I was to interpret what the ring actually represents, it is Sodom and Gomorrah. The plain the two cities sat upon is the large flat base, and the two squat columns would be the two cities he personally smote into ashes - perhaps they are supposed to be two pillars of salt, all that remains to remind humanity of what was once there. The cities were so thoroughly destroyed they were mentioned again and again in the bible as a lesson of what happens when you displease God. Sandalphon did a proper job of it - and Aziraphale witnessed it, because he was the angel in the GOmens AU sent to lead Lot and his family away from Sodom before Sandalphon got down to work.

Are you sure it's just the Jeffery Archer books, Aziraphale?

[manynarrators]

Do you ever think that Armand with his Children of Darkness Religion Shaped Trauma every thinks about Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities destroyed by God for their sin. Do you think he sees a parallel with Venice?

If during his most devout years— for surely there must have been some for how long he was coven leader— he thinks it’s a good thing it was razed with fire? Does he hold onto the idea of purification when he is Armand and not Amadeo, and the guilt that a part of him still wants to go back?

But, just like with the Biblical cities, there is nothing to return to?

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Gillis Mostaert the Elder (Flemish, 1528-1598) Sodom and Gomorrah, n.d.

In the Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Their story parallels the Genesis flood narrative in its theme of God's anger provoked by man's sin.

"If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;" (2 Peter 2:6). - The Bible

[nerdygaymormon]

Soooo idk if you've talked about this before but, I'm curious of your thoughts on Sodom & Gomorrah (Gen 19 to be specific) I've heard from both sides of opinion that the great sin was that the men literally were going around gang raping, and I've heard that the homosexuality was the sin. Thoughts?

It’s ironic THIS story is used against queer people when its message is the opposite. Here's a post I made about this story.

TL;DR the Sodomites did violence to others because they wanted a reputation of being inhospitable in order to keep away the poor and strangers.

The point of the story isn't "no gay sex." The message is when we come across people who are different, we should greet them as if they’re angels sent to us from God, we should try to get to know others who are different from us and to treat them well.

[stigmatam4rtyr]

Landscape with the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (c.1520, oil on panel) | Joachim Patinir

[indigovigilance]

Sodom and Gomorrah: A Speculative Meta

on Ao3: Sodom and Gomorrah: A Speculative Meta

Sodom and Gomorrah is the story of a land so steeped in sin that many prayed to God for intercession, and God sent two angels to see for themselves if the rumors were true, and determine based on their testimony whether the cities should be destroyed.

In Season 1, we learn that Sandolphon was there, doing a lot of smiting and turning people into salt. The way that Aziraphale talks about it, we are led to believe that he was there too, bearing unhappy witness to the destruction, his plastered-on smile faltering as his vision fades into the middle distance:

In this meta I am taking an alternate stance to the wonderfully presented interpretation by @queerfables in my speculation of what happened in Sodom and its relevance to the GO story arc overall, if canonized. I hope that readers will consider the merits of both arguments in their own formulations of Aziraphale and Heaven in the GO universe.

TW: discussions of homophobia, sexual assault, death & destruction

Verses are taken from this translation of Genesis, chapters 18 and 19.

Genesis 18

20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous

21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

(Notably, the allegations made against Sodom and Gomorrah are never discussed. It is simply left at “sin so grievous.” Though it seems like there may be more information in Genesis 12)

But God herself did not go down to Sodom, instead sending two angels. I, like queerfables, read this and quickly came to the conclusion that for GO narrative purposes, the two angels that God sent to Sodom were Aziraphale and Sandolphon, where the former is playing tour guide to the latter, who has the real authority in the situation.

Upon arrival, the angels are met by Lot; he invites them to stay with him. At first they refuse, saying they will stay in the square, but he insists.

Genesis 19

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 

5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know [have sex with] them.”

There is a lot of baggage to unpack from these two lines, especially in the 2023 context of politics in the Western hemisphere. Same-sex marriage is nearly ubiquitous, a near turnaround from only twenty years ago, but so is homophobic rhetoric, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is cited a lot for those purposes. Intersectional communities of faith have done a lot of work to try to reinterpret these two verses, insisting that what God finds so abhorrent about the actions of the men of Sodom is not that they are homosexual but rather that they are attempting to gang-rape two newly arrived strangers in their city.

For the real world, this is a very important discussion and a solid position to maintain, if one wishes to defend the concept of a benevolent God who made homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and every other flavor of human as lovingly and intentionally as was made every cisgender heterosexual person.

But we’re not talking about real-world God. We’re talking about the God in Good Omens. And She is not a very nice person. 

We have only to look at the contract that would allow the murder and then replacement of Job’s children, or the abject poverty under which Elspeth suffers that forces her to commit [apparent] atrocities, and ultimately drive her to attempt suicide. Whatever your feelings may be about the God of our shared meatspace, the God of Good Omens is not a character we are meant to admire, sympathize with, or make excuses for.

Returning to Sodom in the Good Omens universe.

I propose that it is thematically in keeping that the men of Sodom were not attempting to commit gangrape, but rather, they saw Sandolphon and fell in love on the spot. Because yes, Aziraphale is a fine scholarly-looking fellow, but it’s approximately 2000 B.C., the Bronze Age. Sodom and Gomorrah are most likely agrarian societies, and Sandolphon looks like he could throw a bale of hay like a javelin. He’s a whole lot of man, and the men of Sodom are into it. I mean, c'mon, Paul Chahidi in some biblical garb, is, uhh...

...not an eyesore, iykwim. [image source: imdb.com]

So they go to Lot’s house and ask if they can see this man, in hopes that they can ask him on a date. They are smitten by Sandolphon. Sure, the ultimate goal may be to have sex with them, but not right there on Lot’s doorstep, and the gross misquoting can be attributed to Sandolphon’s own libelous report of events, not to the Sodomites themselves. History is written by the victors, after all.

While we’re at it, let’s consider Lot’s response:

Genesis 19

6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 

7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 

8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

In the true spirit of Good Omens comedy, I can envision Lot walking out among these men, complaining that not one of them has asked permission to court or marry either of his daughters of maritable age, and perhaps rather than simping for his houseguest, perhaps they would consider dating one of them instead. Is it homophobic? Sure, but I’m not here to defend Lot; he doesn’t need it. Because standing next to Sandolphon, he’s an absolute poppet.

(The remaining stanzas regarding the Sodomites breaking into Lot’s house, I am going to selectively set aside and chalk that up to Sandolphon blowing some Sodomite choice statements about Lot being a homophobic asshole way out of proportion.)

Sandolphon, a True Believer, is not about to stand for this insult to his heavenly purity. Angels do not have relations with humans, and to insinuate that he would even consider it is blasphemy. He takes it as a personal insult that the Sodomites would propose such a thing. He finds this to be evidence enough that the Sodomites are truly corrupt and worthy of destruction.

I feel the need to emphasize here that while this contains some distinctly queer themes, Sandolphon is not angry because they are men; he is angry because they are human, a different species from himself (in the same way that angels are different species from demons), and furthermore that anything resembling love the way humans do it is disgusting and vile to him.

Aziraphale, meanwhile, is standing helplessly on the sidelines, desperately trying and failing to de-escalate the situation. But it’s no use, Sandolphon has already made up his mind. There’s nothing left for Aziraphale to do but to try to save as many people as he can, beginning with Lot and his family.

Genesis 19

12 The two [angels] said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 

13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

Again, in the fashion that GO takes liberty with biblical narrative, I propose that it is Aziraphale alone who warns Lot that Sandolphon will destroy Sodom come sunrise, and sends him out into the night to gather his family and get them out as quickly as possible. I propose, additionally, that Aziraphale is the one who leads Lot and his daughters by the hand out of Sodom and then protects the village of Zoar from destruction so that they can take shelter there.

Genesis 19:

15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

16 When he hesitated, the [angels] grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.

17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,[or singular, lord] please! 

19 Your[singular] servant has found favor in your[singular] eyes, and you[singular] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 

20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 

22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.[“small”])

While yes, this is a fictional interpretation of a biblical scripture, let’s take something from the fact that Lot is supposed to be addressing two angels, but the pronouns he uses to do so are all singular in the original Hebrew: that is to say, it seems like he is only talking to one angel. So in the victor-edited retrospective, the story is written to seem like two angels were rescuing him, but from the faithfully quoted words of his own mouth, it was only one. It seems like Sandolphon tried to write himself in as one of the good guys but couldn't bring himself to actually change the words that were coming from Lot's mouth. (Again, this is unnecessary work to do for the biblical narrative to be molded to a GO narrative, but it is an interesting feature of the original text nonetheless.)

At sunrise, the destruction begins: 

Genesis 19

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.

24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.

25 Thus [S]he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 

26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

So goes the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: The cities are slandered before God, who sends Aziraphale and Sandolphon to investigate; Sandolphon is so incensed by human men flirting with him that he determines that the city shall be destroyed in the morning, and Aziraphale races against the clock to save as many as he can, knowing that he cannot save everyone. He bears witness as the men who resemble himself so much, who committed no greater crime than to seek out a forbidden love, perish in a rain of fire and brimstone. He must feign heavenly delight that a sinful blight was erased from the world, while mourning thousands of lost souls. He wonders if they have been sent to Hell. Even Lot’s wife, whose only crime was to question, to wonder what is behind her and perhaps regret leaving it behind, is turned to salt. He sees the vicious glee of Sandolphon exacting his revenge for the crime of impugning his celestial celibacy. He wonders what Sandolphon would do to him if he ever found out about the stirrings in his heart for a demon who, 500 years prior, had sat beside him on a rock, looking out over sea, comforting him as he nursed his wounded faith. He wonders just how far along with Heaven he can go, and what the consequences will be when he dares to say, “I will go no further.”

~~~

[image source: Wessex Archaeology]

For those who (like me) are interested, the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah seems to have been merged from two historical events, which was common in a period preserved primarily by oral history. The tale seems to resemble a volcanic event that occurred nearby and around that time, but Sodom and Gomorrah were most likely destroyed by an earthquake and a subsequent flood, since they were located in the Jordan Plain, the lowest dry land in the world, a full quarter of a mile below sea level at its lowest, and very near the Dead Sea. Additionally, the area is rich in bitumen, sulfur-rich near-surface petroleum deposits that, when disturbed by a major earthquake, may have sent hot tar flying into the air, which if it landed on anything flammable would give the impression that fire and brimstone were raining down.

✨ the more you know ✨

~~~

Blending together the biblical canon and archaeological speculation, I'm going to make a wild, unsubstantiated proposal that Crowley turns the people of Sodom into fish so that they survive the flood. Because one biblical flood was enough, and he'd heard around the water cooler that She had promised not to do that again (lying liar). This creates a tentative connection with the raining fish we see in the title credits of both seasons, and I'm also going to reference it in an upcoming meta.

[rhera]

Pier Angeli as Ildith in Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)

[theartofmetal]

190. As Gomorrah Burns - Cryptopsy (Technical Death Metal, 2023)

Art by Paolo Girardi