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Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson (Myths, The)

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According to the Bible, Samson was called by the Lord. In the eyes of Hollywood it was a prime role for Victor Mature. Most will use Samson as a synonym for strong man. Yet little is truly known about the man.

Acclaimed writer David Grossman has an advantage over many would be biographers in that he can read the story of Samson in Hebrew, and for this author the man who brought down the Temple killing not only himself but some 3,000 Philistines was quixotic, troubled, and alone.

As the author describes his hero's psychological characteristics, he ably draws a parallel between Samson and man today by saying, ""Yet, beyond the wild impulsiveness, the chaos, the din, we can make out a life story that is, at bottom, the tortured journey of a single, lonely and turbulent soul who never found, anywhere, a true home in the world, whose very body was a harsh place of exile. For me, this discovery, this recognition, is the point at which the myth -- for all its grand images, its larger-than-life adventures -- slips silently into the day-to-day existence of each of us, into our most private moments, our buried secrets."

Even the most recalcitrant Sunday School student probably remembers the story of Samson as it is packed with excitement, drama, and adventure. According to the text, an angel appeared to Samson's mother before he was born saying that he would be the one to save his people. We remember that the secret of his uncommon strength lay in his long hair, which was cut by Delilah who then gave him to his enemies. It was a tortuous journey to fulfill that early prophecy.

Writer, director, voice performer Mel Foster offers a highly listenable narration of the story of one of the most fascinating yet enigmatic biblical figures.

- Gail Cooke

I've always thought Samson one of the least likable heroes in the bible: an infantile bully, a selfish, stupid child in the body of a giant.
Grossman shows a Samson who is much more than that. Yes, he is selfish and violent, but also hurt, lonely, and always yearning for love.
This book contains interesting foreys into literature, etymology, religion and contemporary culture, but stays focused on the main subject: the heartbreaking story of a man born to be betreayed, again and again, by his mother, his wife, his people, the one woman he loved, and maybe most of all, by his god.

Beautiful, fascinating and touching
highly recommended.

Grossman's "Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson" is at once a personal relection and a story of a hero in ancient times told with important, relevant, and contemporary examples and illustrations. There're truths in mythology, fables, "folk tales" and ledges. Every culture has them, and Grossman's Samson is no exception.

At once there're lessons for and about life: its weaknesses, its failings, its retrobutions, its tragedies, and its redemptive aspects. Grossman succeeds in spinning a compelling story. Granted there are some flaws, some assumptions that seem too nuanced; others not too logical (the enemy in the same room with Samson, watching the antics with la femme fatale, Deliah). Nonetheless, "Lion's Honey" is a short volume that is engaging reading, it stimulates thinking about human dilemmas equal to our permanent fixture as human beings: How can we control the "demons" around and in us in order to live a quality life.

News from the Middle East, if true, recently reported that Grossman's son was killed a few days ago. That, too, is a "demon" when we out live our children. I was thinking a few weeks ago how Grossman would tell the story of Job. Unforunately, now he can.

The author David Grossman is a fine and intelligent writer, both of fiction and of commentary on Israeli/Palestinian affairs, and someone whom I much admire. LION'S HONEY is one of a series of books that address or re-cast a well-known myth or legend. This particular one, of course, is the story of Samson, as it comes to us in chapters 13-16 of the Book of Judges from the Old Testament.

LION'S HONEY is short (145 pages of text set with relatively few words per page), but it is not a casual read. Grossman examines and analyzes the Biblical story of Samson in at times excruciating detail. His account probably is longer, and more tedious, than it should have been in order to stretch it to a plausible book length.

Still, I found LION'S HONEY worth reading. Samson certainly is an unusual figure, even among those of legend and myth, and his story is somewhat bizarre even for the Old Testament: Killing a lion with bare hands and later finding and devouring the honey a swarm of bees had left in its carcass; wreaking revenge on the Philistines by setting loose 300 foxes tied together in pairs with their tails aflame; slaying a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass; re-locating to a hilltop the gateposts to a city; and then, of course, the episode with Delilah and Sansom's final bringing down the house on himself and a myriad more Philistines.

Only in a few pages does Grossman comment on the current situation in Israel. He begins by noting that the Israeli military has singled out Samson as a hero from the past and that several units have been named after him. Grossman goes on to draw a parallel between Samson and the style of Israeli militarism: both are at bottom uneasy with their extraordinary power; both tend to ascribe to it "an exaggerated value," "making power an end in itself," "using it excessively," with "a tendency to turn almost automatically to the use of force instead of weighing other means of action." "To this may be added the well-known Israeli feeling, in the face of any threat that comes along, that the country's security is crumbling -- a feeling that also exists in the case of Samson * * *." All of this, according to Grossman, reflects "a deep existential insecurity."

Near the end of the book, Grossman states that Samson's final act of revenge and destruction made him, "in a sense, the first suicide-killer." One fears that perhaps the parallel between Samson and Israel will reach even to that apocalyptic extent, that in the end Israel's "Samson syndrome" will bring crashing down the entire Middle East.

Unlike the other volumes I have read in the Canongate series of Myths Retold, this book about the myth of Samson is not a novel, a retelling of an ancient myth into a modern setting, but rather a minute and scholarly examination of the biblical text, picking up every tiny nuance and finding significances in the way it is told that would escape the average reader (though Talmudic scholars have pored over them in the past). For example, the simple sentence that Samson's father Manoah `rose and followed his wife' should show us that how weak he was, for, as a Talmudic commentator had it, ` a man does not walk behind a woman on the road - not even his wife'.

The story narrated in the Bible is full of action, but is silent about the thoughts of the different characters in it. These silences Grossman fills out with ever more subtle psychological speculations, in the course of which Samson appears not so much as 'an infantile bully', and more as an inarticulate and tortured being, conscious of being driven from his conception onwards by a God-given destiny which makes him unhappily different from other men, something that also sets an uneasy distance between him and even his parents, so that he has never ever, from birth onwards, been truly loved. Deep down, he longs to be like `every other man', and perhaps it is that that makes him reveal his secret to Delilah.

Though Samson has at times been `read pejoratively in the Jewish tradition', he is also `inscribed in the Jewish consciousness as a national hero and a symbol'. Grossman, an Israeli, is a critical analyst of many aspects of Israeli attitudes and policies, and at one point he comments on the many echoes of the story in the position of Israel in particular: perhaps its strength is also a liability. He sees both Samson and Israel as troubled by `a deep existential insecurity'. I was expecting this line of thought to culminate in Grossman expressing the fear that out of its very strength Israel might one day bring the whole structure of the Middle East crashing down, in an apocalypse that would spell not only the destruction of her enemies but of herself also. He does not say so - but I wonder whether I dare speculatively interpret his silence in this not so far-fetched way?

The story of Samson forms four chapters (13-16) of the Book of Judges. There are a number of aspects to the story, but the best known is that of the strong man who loses his strength when his hair is cut, thanks to Delilah. Samson is imprisoned by the Philistines but, in his final act, is able to bring down a building on himself and three thousand Philistines.

In this brief (145 page) book, written for The Myths series, David Grossman writes of Samson as an individual, an outcast whose freakish strength sets him apart. Samson may well be a national symbol of Jewish fight-back, but in David Grossman's telling of the story he is also a man who wants to belong, to be accepted by others for himself. Samson is in an impossible position: `A lonely man, forever tortured, enslaved by a God who has chosen for him a demanding mission - the salvation of Israel - for which his personality and character are too weak.'

In trying to understand why Samson, finally, breaks down and tells Delilah his secret, David Grossman speculates that it was `with the foolish innocence of one who believes that if he were to confide everything to another person, all at once, in a kind of innocent transfusion, he would finally achieve a feeling of genuine intimacy'. Poor Samson.

It isn't just Samson the man that David Grossman is concerned with. Samson can also be seen as a metaphor for both the Jewish people and the modern state of Israel. David Grossman writes: `Jews throughout the ages took pride in the tales of his [Samson's] heroism and yearned for the physical strength, bravery, and manliness that he represented. They esteemed, no less, his ability to apply force without any restraints or moral inhibitions, an ability which history withheld from the trod-upon Jews for millennia, until the establishment of the state of Israel.'

This is the first book in The Myths series that I have read, and I picked it up purely by chance. I enjoyed it. The publisher's blurb for this series states: `Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives -- they explore our desires, our fears, our longings, and provide narratives that remind us what it means to be human. The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way.'

I will be looking to read more books from The Myths series, as time permits.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

You thought you knew the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah. You didn't - not until you read this book.

Grossman is one of Israel's best novelists and he brings all of his creative insight into retelling the familiar story in a new way. The character of Samson, as a kind of muscle-bound Golem who is doomed from the moment of his conception, thrust into a role that he neither seeks nor understands, is at the center of this reinterpretation.

Grossman even sheds new light on the hero's name -- linking it to the Hebrew root "shimush" which means use or useful. God uses Samson for his own purposes. Samson is used by God without ever fully grasping how and why.

There are many mysteries embedded in this story. Why does Samson seek disastrous relationships with Philistine women -- the daughters of his enemies? Why does he give away his secret to Delilah? Why, if he is destined to lead the Israelites against the Philistines, does he never actually do so? Why does he follow each bout of frustrated sexual activity with an orgy of murder?

Grossman, with his deep psychological understanding of Samson's dilemma, provides answers and elucidation.

This is a slim volume and can be read in a couple of hours. At the end of that time, however, the reader will never view this complex tale in the same way again.

David Grossman is one of Israeli's pre-eminent novelists, perhaps best known for his book, "The Yellow Wind." And through his writings, as well as his advocacy, he serves as a conscious for a nation.

"Lion's Honey, The Myth of Samson," is a careful examination of four chapters in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament, which are included at the beginning of his analysis. Grossman meticulously weighs each sentence, holds each to the light, seeing the nuance, what was said, what wasn't, who was there, who wasn't. He is given to conjecture also, but always identifies it as such, even to the proposition that Samson may actually have been the product of an affair between his mother, previously "the barren one," the woman of no name, prior to the arrival of an "angel," who may have been a flesh and blood Philistine.

The author also discusses the existential questions surrounding Samson; he is always the "outsider." He is also enmeshed in relationships with his people's overlord, and therefore enemy, the Philistines. He chooses a wife from them, who betrays him, and then goes to seek solace among them in Gaza, finding the only woman with a name in this drama, Delilah, who also repeatedly betrays him. His need for betrayal seems to be self-evident, and so Grossman naturally speculates how this relates to his mother.

It is a short, but very dense book, and much more could be said. Fortunately "my neighbor" to the north, R. M. Peterson, who recommended the book to me, has posted an excellent, detailed review which I highly recommend.

Many Americans would believe the words in Judges, as well as the rest of the Old Testament to be literally true. Grossman is quite clear where he stands on the issue, including "myth" in the sub-title to his work. And it is one that dates to the very beginning of historical time, around the 10th-11th century B.C., but still reverberates today, from the Cecile B. DeMille movie, "Samson and Delilah" to the Israeli Army units that bear the name of Samson. Grossman boldly labels Samson "in a sense, the first suicide-killer," and the implications seem clear that he is but a symbol for his people, who may use their strength to bring down the entire Temple of the Middle East upon them.

I just finished reviewing John Laurence's "The Cat from Hue." He tried to end his 800 plus page tomb on an upbeat note- that maybe our political elites, as well as those they represent, had learned their lessons, and would not repeat the folly again, but would instead use "caution and prudence, maybe even humility, when considering military action against another country." Of course it didn't work out that way, and Grossman doesn't raise that hope, but simply poses the question: "Or in other words, why do human beings compulsively repeat destructive experiences, re-creating in the course of their lives the dysfunctional relationships and the self-defeating situations that arouse their worst, most toxic feelings?" (p. 131) Indeed, for at least 13 millennium.

An evocative read, highly recommended.

Unlike the two before it (The Penelopiad and Weight), this is not, in my opinion a retelling of a myth. This is more of an outline with suggestions for how the story could or should go based on historical references (with notes even), but is not fleshed out, there are no details...there is no warmth to the character and one does not truly feel his sorrow or pain...it is dry and strikes me as the way an oral tradition might have passed down the basics of a story and left it up to each individual story teller (based not only on the tellers style but on the audience he was telling to) how he fleshed it out, what details he gave, ect...from the other two I got a distinct flavor to the "old heroes" of the myth...but not here, this author looks at the myth, the sources and supposes how this or that might have been the case...but never really fleshes it out...it's like a conversation with himself about all the variations this myth might have played out as...but never claiming any one of them and giving it life. It was ok, but not a great read...I didn't walk away from it with a distinct feeling about how the author whished to portray Sampson and with what amounts to a, in my opinion a PC version of a myth that neither pleases or offends no one. Thus far, this is my least favorite of this series, and I had high hopes for it because it's not a story that really gets retold anymore from a fresh perspective, at least not that I've seen. I give it a B-, it's got some interesting thought lines, but I really wanted to see the author flesh this out and give it some dramatic color and life...and that just didn't' happen...it's all hollow bones for me.

I never liked Samson. I've said before that if the two of us meet someday in heaven, there will probably be a personality clash to end all clashes. I'm hoping that my new heavenly body won't be quite so easy to beat up.

Then I read David Grossman's little book. David carries us deep into the mind--nay, the very heart--of this ancient hero, to uncover what makes him tick. Sampson has been transformed from a turbulent, macho man into a needy, troubled misfit. A muscle-bound one, no less, which makes for an explosive combination.

I like him even less this way. I would shake Delilah's hand for uncovering his secret. No, not his long hair, but the inner child that longs to be normal, which she then carefully and deliberately manipulates.

Yeah, I'm fine with the tragic ending, Samson deserved it. Nevertheless, David's clever retelling succeeds in adding life to the myth. Kudos! David draws upon various Hebrew traditions to spice up Samson's twisted personality, then leaves the poor man without even a decent shrink. How else could the story end?

Sorry, David, I never did feel any sympathy for your guy. But I absolutely loved reading your story.