Chapter Seven, The Third Picture: The Men of Sodom Summary and Analysis

The third picture is a series of prints which conveys Lot's life—it contains four pictures. The first depicts God promising to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness; the second depicts God blinding the men of Sodom when they try to rape the angels. The third depicts Lot, Lot's wife and their two daughters running away from the city before it is destroyed and Lot's wife, looking back, being turned into a pillar of salt. In the fourth, Lot's daughters get Lot drunk and sleep with him in order to continue their family line. By choosing this picture, Ricci intends to convey the sin of Sodom to the Chinese, but the pictures by themselves cannot fully convey Ricci's intended message. He alters this story...