DEUT1038 Despite its admiration of beauty, Judaism never developed a beauty cult similar to that of the Greeks and Romans. The struggle waged against paganism and its statuary motivated the strict biblical prohibition of some forms of plastic art (Exodus 20:4). The Judaic attitude to feminine beauty is somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, there was an instinctive impulse to sing its praises in poetic phraseology. The biblical Song of Songs attests to that inspiration. Yet the Song of Songs Is atypical among the ancient sacred and secular Jewish literary works. Indeed, had it not been for the Rabbinical allegorical interpretation of the Songs of Songs as depicting a romance between God and his people, the book would never have been included in the canon. Feminine beauty was greatly admired, but its role in provoking lust, a cardinal sin, imposed a moral restraint upon the free expression of poets and singers. The biblical law regarding a pretty heathen captive of war [this verse] warned of the potential power of beautiful women to defeat religious scruples.