, 1832.]] by Hartmann Schedel, 1493. Note Lot's wife, already transformed into a salt pillar, in the center.]]According to Genesis, Sodom (, Greek ??????) and Gomorrah (, Greek ???????) were two cities destroyed by God. For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were destroyed by "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (). In Christianity, their names have become synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath (). Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for sinfulness and sexual deviation. The story has therefore given rise to words in several languages, including English: the word "sodomy", meaning acts (stigmatized as "unnatural vice") such as zoophilia. The Biblical text Sodom was one of a group of five towns, the Pentapolis (): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela -- also called Zoar (). The Pentapolis region is

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