Xenia. Xenophobia. Theoxeny. Remember Lot who, in keeping to the ideal of hospitality, takes in two travelers, two strangers. The people of the city gather round his house to accost him. Bring these men out, his neighbors say. Give them to us so that we might have our way with them. They intend to rape the strangers.

Lot, keeping in mind the possibility of theoxeny, refuses. That aspect of his intuition will later prove correct: the two strangers will turn out to be angels in disguise. But that’s later. For now his neighbors insist that the men be brought out to them. Leave the strangers be, Lot pleads, and he offers his two daughters instead. Do with them as you wish, Lot says to his neighbors. His virgin daughters.

It is no more a story about homosexuality than it is a story about love.

What hospitality does Lot owe his own daughters?