Jewish mythology commanded Lot to gather his family and leave. As they made their escape, one angel commanded Lot to "look not behind thee" (singular "thee"). However, as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with brimstone and fire from the Lord, Lot's wife looked back at the city, and she became a pillar of salt. In Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah have become synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of divine retribution. The Genesis flood narrative has similarities to ancient flood stories told worldwide. One of the closest parallels is the Mesopotamian myth of a world flood, recorded
The Mouse Turned into a Maid man and his cat", while in the Latin explanatory text it reads "De Cata in Fœminam mutate" (The cat changed into a woman). Jean de la Fontaine wrote a separate version of this fable, also under the title "The cat changed into a woman" ("La chatte metamorphosée en femme", II.18), in which he gave the theme of change an extended, thoughtful treatment: Though La Fontaine avoided mention of Venus as the intermediary for the change in his fable, she is there in Christopher Pitt's "The Fable of the Young Man and his Cat", which is turned into a satirical picture