Sodomy

Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants

Sodomy, also called buggery, generally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any sexual activity between a human and another animal (bestiality). It may also mean any non-procreative sexual activity (including manual sex). Originally, the term sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis, was commonly restricted to homosexual anal sex. Sodomy laws in many countries criminalized the behaviour. In the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are routinely not enforced. A person who practices sodomy is sometimes referred to as a sodomite, a pejorative term.

Quotes

• And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
  • Genesis 19:4–7 (KJV)

• They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
  • Genesis 19:4–7 (NIV)

• Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
  • Leviticus 18:22–28 (KJV)

• Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
  • Leviticus 18:22–28 (NIV)

• As men, being unable to bear discreetly a satiety of these things, get restive like cattle, and become stiff-necked, and discard the laws of nature, pursuing a great and intemperate indulgence of gluttony, and drinking, and unlawful connections; for not only did they go mad after other women, and defile the marriage bed of others, but also those who were men lusted after one another, doing unseemly things, and not regarding or respecting their common nature, and though eager for children, they were convicted by having only an abortive offspring; but the conviction produced no advantage, since they were overcome by violent desire; and so by degrees, the men became accustomed to be treated like women, and in this way engendered among themselves the disease of females, and intolerable evil; for they not only, as to effeminacy and delicacy, became like women in their persons, but they also made their souls most ignoble, corrupting in this way the whole race of men, as far as depended on them.
  • Philo, "On Abraham"
  • The Essential Philo (New York: Schocken, 1971), p. 110

• I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
  • Jude 1:5–7 (KJV)

• Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
  • Jude 1:5–7 (NIV)

• About this time the Sodomites grew proud, on account of their riches and great wealth; they became unjust towards men, and impious towards God, in so much that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from him: they hated strangers, and abused themselves with Sodomitical practices.
• Now when the Sodomites saw the young men to be of beautiful countenances, and this to an extraordinary degree, and that they took up their lodgings with Lot, they resolved themselves to enjoy these beautiful boys by force and violence; and when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not to offer any thing immodest to the strangers, but to have regard to their lodging in his house; and promised that if their inclinations could not be governed, he would expose his daughters to their lust, instead of these strangers; neither thus were they made ashamed.
  • Josephus, I, xi, 1, 3. Summarising the Genesis narrative
  • William Whiston, tr., The Whole Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, I (Blackie and Son, 1865), p. 32

• Whenever, Lesbia, from your chair you rise,
  Your dress is tightly drawn between your thighs,
  And plays, I’ve noticed, in your hindmost site
  The active part of some vile sodomite.
  • Martial, Epigrams, 11, 99
  • The Index Expurgatorius of Martial (1868), p. 115

• What! Of all creatures do ye come unto the males, and leave the wives your Lord created for you? Nay, but ye are froward folk.
  • Quran, Sura 26:165–167
  • Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning Of The Glorious Koran (1930), p. 381

• Loud clamour rises: those, who newly come,
  Shout “Sodom and Gomorrah!” these, “The cow
  Pasiphae enter’d, that the beast she woo’d
  Might rush unto her luxury.”
• Their crime, who not with us proceed, was that,
  For which, as he did triumph, Caesar heard
  The snout of ‘queen’, to taunt him. Hence their cry
  Of ‘Sodom,’ as they parted, to rebuke
  Themselves, and aid the burning by their shame.
  • Dante Alighieri, Inferno, XXVI
  • H. F. Cary, tr., The Divine Comedy (1814)

• The detestable and abominable Vice of Buggery committed with Mankind or Beast.
  • Buggery Act (1533)

• Witness the Streets of Sodom, and that night
  In Gibeah, when hospitable Dores
  Yielded thir Matrons to prevent worse rape.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I
  • Variant: In Gibeah, when the hospitable door / Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape.

• Lust chose the torrid zone of Italy,
  Where blood ferments in rapes and sodomy,
  Where swelling veins o’erflow with livid streams,
  With heat impregnate from Vesuvian flames,
  Whose flowing sulphur forms infernal lakes,
  And human body of the soil partakes.
  • Daniel Defoe, The True-born Englishman (1701)

• Now God was angered at the vice of Sodom.
  Each day her sins became more bold and grievous.
  Lust was abroad upon her many highways,
  And it was worshiped in a throng of temples.
  So He resolved to chastise and to doom it
  With scorching flame, alert and purifying.
  • Francis Saltus Saltus, "Lot's Wife", Part II
  • The Witch of En-dor, and Other Poems (1891)