For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
HERCULES & SAMSON.
Term Paper ID:26767
Essay Subject:
Compares mythological Hercules & Biblical Samson as tragic heroes.... More...
11 Pages / 2475 Words
9 sources, 35 Citations,
MLA Format
$44.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Compares mythological Hercules & Biblical Samson as tragic heroes.
Paper Introduction:
This research will compare and contrast the mythic figures Hercules, from Greek mythology, and Samson, from the Hebrew Bible. The research will discuss how each can be interpreted in terms of heroic tragedy. The narrative lines of Hercules (Heracles/Herakles) and Samson are strikingly similar. Both are heroes of their respective cultures, both are distinguished chiefly by their great physical strength, and both are flawed as human beings, superhuman as they are. The flaws figure prominently into their individual experience, but their behavior and growth over the period of their lives are implicated in the culture of which they are each representative.
There appears to have been rough equivalence in the time period that the stories of Samson and Hercules first emerged. The Samson narrative, which takes up four chapters of Judges (13-16), focus
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
wasburned away; the rest ascended to heaven, [and Hercules] was married toHebe . Samson's special status, predicted by the angel, is born out in thepattern of events in Judges 13-16 as a whole. He asks the boy guiding him to bring him to a positionin the temple that will allow him to feel the pillars and lean on them.This request is the single clever stratagem that Samson accomplishes, butit is decisive: Then he bowed with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it. Samson and Hercules each achieve stature on account of their deaths,although for somewhat different reasons. Through childhood, he isblessed by the Lord (Judges 13:25), not least because of his extraordinarystrength. Samson's history personifies this struggle of the Israelites, not somuch with rival gods as with the special demands of Israelite moral weight.The struggle is in almost every sense heroic, and it begins before Samson'sbirth: An angel tells his mother that he will be "a Nazarite, set apart toGod from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the handsof the Philistines" (Judges 13:5). Certain patterns in the Samson and Hercules stories are identical.Samson and Hercules in their youth each kill a lion. That deed is the Philistines', but the responsibility is Samson'sbecause he deserted his wife (Judges 14:19-2 ). The fact that he tells her three lies about thesecret of his strength suggests that he is aware that the Philistines havetargeted him and that revealing his closest secret exposes him to danger.When he does tell her the truth the fourth time, it may be inferred thatshe has been withholding her favors--a situation that plainly hasfrustrated Samson throughout his life--as well as complaining that he doesnot confide in her (Judges 16:14-16). Hercules, who so heedlessly plunges into oneadventure of physical courage after another, virtually always accomplishinga salutary effect for those he saves, is brought down by the actions ofothers. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.Hamilton, Edith. The Greek Way. They were his own passions, his own careless disregard of the high gifts God had bestowed upon him. The preoccupations of Yahweh,who cannot be bothered with human passion, are solely with divinity andexclusive godhead--more exactly with whether the people he has chosen willproperly acknowledge his exclusive divinity and godhead in the cosmos.Samson has as little judgment as Hercules about life's priorities, and heis equally reluctant to spend his physical strength on the moral claims orpriorities of the Israelites. Rather, Samson is always concerned aboutconquering this or that woman. Having sufferedso much from the Philistines, he exploits the opportunity to kill morePhilistines than he had killed in all his previous violent encounters withthem over the years. London: Penguin, 196 .---. The fact that Hercules is represented in conjunction with the sun(Graves 126) connects him as well with the 12 signs of the zodiac,expressed as Hercules's leadership of 12 chieftains "pledged to respect hisauthority" (126) and in the 12 labors. In the Samson story, this idea findsexpression in Samson's status as a Judge of the twelve tribes of Israel,and in an ironic sense, in the fact that when Samson is blinded by thePhilistines (Judges 16:21) he receives no benefit of the light of the sun.Graves (14 ) refers to "the blinded Sun-hero Samson when he was harnessedto the corn-mill of Gaza. Yahweh does not pursue Samson out of hatred, as Hera doesHercules. 23-4), and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey have been dated at85 BC at the latest ("Homer" 425-6). Hercules's marriage to Deianeira is plagued by Deianeira'sjealousy. . Many men who could not be conquered from without lose the battle within. Strong religious content informs the Heracles and Samson stories, theformer coming out of the polytheistic tradition that flourished in the Westuntil the transition into the so-called Common Era, and the latter comingout of the monotheistic tradition of Judeo-Christian culture thatsupplanted it. The very moment he breaks out of a deliberatetrivialization of his life and reaches for the sublime is the moment of hisdestruction. Samson uses all his strength to escape and, in the famous episode,slay a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:15-16).That dramatic act buys the Israelites some time, and Samson achieves statusamong his own people for some 2 years (Judges 15:2 ). Thenarrative lines of Hercules (Heracles/Herakles) and Samson are strikinglysimilar. His deliberately provoking the final catastrophe and hiswillingness to die with the Philistines overtake his failings in service ofthe promise of transformation of the condition of his people. There appears to have been rough equivalence in the time period thatthe stories of Samson and Hercules first emerged. Samson deliberately pursues a heroic suicide thataccomplishes a moral purpose. 2 :5; 1Kings 16:3 , 33; Jud. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. Like the people of Israel, Samsonrepeatedly finds himself in difficulty because of his relationship toYahweh. Whatever authentic love, loss, humiliationand betrayal Samson may experience cannot compensate for the misery to theIsraelites implicated in his surrender to Delilah. Vol. Samsonslowly, in his final, humiliating imprisonment, comes to a consciousness ofthe priorities of heroic action and absolute mastery of his earthly fateand the need to be of service to the Israelites who have for so longhonored him by reason of a strength that was a gift of God. By seizing the moment of his death, Samson rises tothe stature of tragic hero, deliberately embracing duty and therebytranscending whatever failures of duty he had been guilty of in the past.He famously and spectacularly dies, which seems something of a waste. Samson's act is to destroy pillars of thePhilistine temple. She gives him a tunic stained with centaur blood that fatallypoisons him when he puts it on. Samson's ability to transcend his own situation, not just physicallybut also morally, helps explain the cosmic justice of his rise to heroicstature. Hercules's fate with Hera, who does not bless but curse him, is moremorally straightforward but more experientially loaded. This research will compare and contrast the mythic figures Hercules,from Greek mythology, and Samson, from the Hebrew Bible. Both Hercules and Samson are associated with the image of powerfulpillars, but in different configurations. . In Greece there was no dominating church or creed, but there was a dominating ideal which everyone would want to pursue if he caught sight of it (Hamilton, Greek 175). The ability of passion to affect Samson's perception of the fact thathis great strength is a favor of God demonstrates his heedless presumptionthat the strength will always be there. Whereas Samson is favored of God and obligedto struggle with his own human appetites and limitations, Herculesstruggles on account of the jealousy and treachery of Zeus's wifeHera/Juno, who resents that he is the issue of Zeus and a mortal woman.Whereas Samson repeats the pattern of retreating from service to theIsraelites, only to rise to the occasion of saving them and himself fromdestruction, Hercules repeats a pattern of jumping into one fantasticcrisis after another, and always in order to save lesser human beings frombeing destroyed. It could be said that both Samson and Hercules, who beginlife as demigods, failed to behave in a manner befitting godhead. New American Bible, Translated from the Original Languages with Critical Use of All the Ancient Sources. When she leaves him he sets fire to the foxes who destroy thePhilistine crops whereupon the Philistines kill her and her family (Judges15:6). Samsonvacillates from infatuation to rage to petulance and back again with hisfirst wife. New York: Abingdon P, 1957. His wife, who is jealous of Hercules's romantic adventures, meansonly to curb his sexual appetites when she gives him the poisoned tunicthat causes his death. It is Hera who instigateswar between Hercules and the Amazons, by telling them, not that Hercules iscoming to pinch Hippolyta's girdle (which he is) but that he is coming torape Hippolyta (which he is not); hence the war between the Amazons andHercules, who ends up killing Hippolyta. They each have anunfortunate first marriage, and each marries more than once; theiradventures with women in general are also unfortunate. Yahweh for Samson is an afterthought--theone relationship with humanity that Yahweh will not tolerate. "Exposition, The Book of Judges." The Interpreter's Bible. 2. . Both are heroes of their respective cultures, both aredistinguished chiefly by their great physical strength, and both are flawedas human beings, superhuman as they are. This happens in contextsthat are distinct in culture and ethos in ways not unrelated to therespective theogonies of Greece and Israel. Samson's personalfate reaches mythic proportions. The struggle of Hercules andhis march toward heroism does have a moral content, but its emphasis isdifferent from that of Samson. Wichita, Kansas: Catholic Bible Publishers, 1971.Myers, Jacob M. Connected as thisbehavior is to his sexuality and more general appetite for gratification,it can be interpreted as a fatal (tragic) flaw. Samson is given salvation by reason of his recognitionthat service to mankind is the highest priority. New York: The Norton Library, 193 .Hartman, Louis F., Bourke, Myles M., Skehan, Patrick W., Hartdegen, Stephon J., and Sloyan, Gerard S., eds. The final women in thelives of Hercules and Samson are also the instruments of their respectivedeaths. The Greek Myths. Samson breaksthe past pattern of his life, instead adopting what Ryken refers to as the"tragic pattern" (84). The working-out of Samson's moral difficulty results in his tragicdemise; however, this does not prevent Samson from rising to the stature ofhero by reason of his physical courage and growth in judgment. 2. The Pillars of Hercules at theStrait of Gibraltar are formed when Hercules captures the oxen from themonster Geryon (Rose 279) Graves (Myths 134-5; 142-3) cites such sources asPliny's Natural History and the Greek geographer Strabo to the effect thatthe Pillars of Hercules have been located by various traditions in varioussites in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and Europe, but notes that "inthe geographical sense, the Pillars of Hercules . New York: Abingdon P, 1957. were in the process of extending theircontrol over strategic territory" (684). Given the flowering of Aegean andMycenaean civilization after 15 BC, the Hercules story, which is cited byHomer (Rose 21 ), predates that of Samson. Hercules is constantly at war with Hera, and it is Hera's venality andjealousy of him as Zeus's love child that drive the war. . Samson faced enemies stronger than the Philistines. He undergoes little reflective thoughtthat might prevent him from rushing headlong into dangerous situations.That speaks well of his physical courage but not very well of his judgment. Moral hierarchy is at workwith Samson; divine power and superior cosmic strength are at issue forHercules, though one can say in Hercules's moral defense that he nevershrinks from opposing powerful evil, however physically threatening. . Both grewinto a higher status. That is rather different from anact of faith in God, which is why the way he behaves with Delilah can beinterpreted as a violation of Israel's moral structures. What has to be remembered about the people ofIsrael is that they are distinct because of their God. Rather, Yahweh is a thorn in Samson's side as a moral goad, andwith some difficulty Samson rises to the moral occasion when needs he must. . The Samson narrative,which takes up four chapters of Judges (13-16), focuses on theexceptionalism of Samson within the community of the people of Israel inthe period between the death of Joshua, Moses's legatee, and the onset ofthe so-called historical period of Israel, which includes the reigns ofDavid and Solomon (Hartman, et al. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing, 1984. The flaws figure prominently intotheir individual experience, but their behavior and growth over the periodof their lives are implicated in the culture of which they are eachrepresentative. Samson calls on God to facilitate his doom, in service of a highertruth uncovered in the depth of humiliation. . This helpsexplain why at his death Hercules becomes a god but Samson does not, oralternatively, how a Hercules figure could be represented in the HebrewBible and monotheistic Hebrew tradition. Samson's war is with Yahweh, who is a jealous God, but not in the sameway as Hera, whose jealousy is all too human. . He is subdued, blinded, imprisoned,transformed from feared beast and important Israelite into a figure ofPhilistine fun (Judges 16:27). Compare the Old Testament focus on the Jews asa people and their myriad difficulties in adhering to the monotheism andmoral structures mandated by Yahweh, their "jealous God" (Exod. . The twelve labors are part of this--for example, killingthe Nemean lion, Lernaean hydra, Stymphalian birds, and so on. Hercules, described by Rose (219) asthe Greek Samson, seizes control of his demise by throwing himself onto afuneral pyre, to escape the agony of the poisoned tunic. "Introduction, The Book of Judges." The Interpreter's Bible. Vol. The Israelites, fearing retribution,are obliged to hand him over to the Philistines for punishment. Graves repeatedlyidentifies Hercules with Samson when describing the events surroundingtheir respective tales. This does not mean that theSamson story is derived from that of Hercules; however, the correspondencebetween the heroic narratives of Greek myth and Hebrew tradition isdifficult to ignore. New York: E.P. The Samson stories helpexplain to the people of Israel how it is possible that, as Myers says,there was "a situation of local conflicts between small bands of Israelitesand Philistine groups [which] . The research willdiscuss how each can be interpreted in terms of heroic tragedy. When she, loyalto her clan, betrays him, he plays a costly prank that results not ingetting the girl but in her death. at last . In the first place, nothing will do but he must have a Philistinewoman, i.e., marry outside his clan and culture from one point of view,marry "up" into the ruling clan and culture from another. But the sublime perception opens the way, according to theprophecy of Judges 13:5, to begin the process whereby the Jews will bereconciled to God's promise once again. The situation of death is rather different for Samson, who has failedrepeatedly to do his heroic duty until he is at the breaking point. Complicating what happens to Samson individually is the fact that hisfate is reflected in the fate of the people of Israel. How to Read the Bible as Literature. 688-826.Graves, Robert. At Judges 14:5-6, he tears the lion apart. Hercules (son of Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmena)became a god after death, and Samson (unable to become a god in themonotheistic culture of Israel) reached moral stature completely consistentwith the stature of his great physical strength. Then he meetsDelilah (16:1), the agent of his doom, who is bribed by the Philistines tohelp them subdue him. Hercules, dispatched by poison, isrewarded with divinity. Hercules faces death with bravery; Samson faces it with moral resolve.Hercules is made divine by reason of his service to mankind, his multiplelabors taking his human strength gradually and entitling him to entranceinto the pantheon. So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain during his life (Judges 16:3 ). 677-87.Rose, H.J. Hercules, driven madby Hera, murders his first wife Megara and children (Rose 2 9). The Nemean lion isher creature, sent to eat the people of Nemea. At long last hedeliberately puts that strength in service of the people. Vol. Yahwehdispenses punishment only to the degree his sacredness is compromised byhis people. The time of the Samson story ispositioned at about 12 BC; the Trojan War is positioned at 1193-1184(Hartman, et al. reconciled to Hera" (Rose 219). The point is that Hera is theinstrument of Hercules's torment. Thechoice Samson makes for death--deliberately exerting judgment on hisformer, flawed way of life in the service of the Israelites who had been sovexed by the Philistines--allows him to achieve status of tragic figure,reaching for moral strength that is spiritually equivalent to his physicalstrength. The Lord'sblessing on Samson (Judges 13:24-25) pursues him throughout his lifebecause Samson does not understand what a blessing of immense strength fromGod means. 215), the division of Israel into northand south kingdoms in Palestine, the Babylonian captivity, and thedestruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. . Mythographers identify Samson and Hercules as the heroic figures oftheir respective cultures, and although Graves says that Hercules isequivalent to Samson the Danite (Graves, White 126), he makes the pointthat the word Hercules has many different meanings and that the figure ofHercules is "a composite deity consisting of a great many oracular heroesof different nations at different stages of religious development; some ofwhom became real gods while some remained heroes" (Graves 124). New York: The Viking P, 1964.Elliott, Phillips P. The monotheisticconception of God sets Israel apart from pagan polytheists. Further, forYahweh, Samson is the instrument for saving the remnant of Israel fromobliteration, while for Hera, Hercules is the instrument of revenge againstZeus. Graves also refers to Samson as"a Tyrian sun-hero." But in any case, the result of Hercules's action is aspecies of salvation, given his deification as his "mortal part . They [the Philistines] could not stop [Samson], but he stopped himself. Byhis action he has made a moral accomplishment that such actions as killingthe lion or slaying a host of Philistines with the jawbone of an ass couldsuggest but not complete. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. Hera, who is delighted by the death of Hercules, canescape direct responsibility for it. Hercules's adventures in the cosmos focus on himself as hero and asleader but not as a member of a community beyond a family (and in any casehe kills his first family). Hamilton's analysis of GoldenAge Greece makes this point: The way of Greek religion could not but be different from the ways of religions dependent not upon each man's seeking truth for himself, as an artist or a poet must seek it, but upon an absolute authority to which each man must submit himself. Works CitedCampbell, Joseph. Dutton, 1959.Ryken, Leland. This, over the long term, is Samson'sundoing. Compare this with the protracteddestruction of Samson's power when Delilah divines the secret of hisstrength and cuts off his hair, leading him to imprisonment, humiliation,and a death that he calls upon himself in order to escape the torment andwork his own revenge. are Cueta andGibraltar" (Graves 142). And now his strength is to ebb away as he fails to use it for worthy ends (Elliott 792).Accordingly, Delilah "put[s] him to sleep on her lap" (Judges 16:19)--whether by drugs or sexual exhaustion is less important than the fact thatSamson's failing is not one of continence but instead of moral lapse intonot being watchful about the divine gift of physical strength: "And he didnot know that the Lord had left him" (16:2 ). 13:1). But Samson'shuman/moral frailty emerges in Judges 14 as well, for just as he is growingout of adolescence into adulthood, he seeks to satisfy a sexual appetite asgreat as his physical strength. In particular, when describing the apotheosis ofHeracles, Graves refers to the worship of Heracles as a sun god in Tyre(Phoenicia); he attributes this information to the ancient Greekgeographer Pausanias (Graves, Myths 2 5). This growth of character, includinganticipation of his own death, is a deliberate destruction of the organism,with a view toward saving the spirit. The White Goddess. 2.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject