Why, Why, Delilah? Textual, Pictorial, Musical and Filmic Portrayals of Delilah (original) (raw)

The story of Samson and Delilah has attracted throughout the ages the imagination of many readers as well as of a great number of authors and artists, who have offered their version of the story in different genres and media. It is a story of intense love and national heroism, telling about a super‐hero who was subdued by a woman, a mythical story about the encounter between Eros and Thanatos, light and darkness. Women play a central role in Samson’s story: in the cycle of stories that constitute the Samson saga in the Bible (Judges 13–16) he has three problematic meetings with women. In the first encounter and the events that follow (Judges 14–15), he is betrayed by his Timnath wife (she reveals the answer of his riddle to his foes), forced to take dangerous actions (to pay the wager) and puts himself at risk in various confrontations with the Philistines; and in