Lot invited two angels to spend the night at his home. As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot to get his family and flee; unknown to Lot and his family, the city of Sodom was about to be destroyed. The angels urged them to flee for their lives, not to look behind them, nor stop anywhere in the plain; to flee to the hills, lest they be swept away. Lot objected to the idea of fleeing to the hills, and requested safe haven at a little town nearby. The request was granted. But Lot's wife, travelling behind her husband, looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
In Greek mythology, Orpheus made the same mistake. He wasn't turned into a pillar of salt, but he lost his wife Eurydice for ever.
© Haydn Thompson 2017