Lion's Honey
The Myth of Samson
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"One of contemporary literature’s most versatile and absorbing writers” (San Francisco Chronicle) explores the myth of Samson, one of the most tempestuous, charismatic, and colourful characters in the Hebrew Bible.
“He is walking along with his parents, tears a lion limb from limb with his bare hands, and says nothing. Why is he silent?
With the gorgeous prose and knife’s-edge precision for which he is known, David Grossman discusses the myth of Samson—a story Grossman believes is, despite the chaos and glamour, the story of every lonely man.
There are few other Bible stories with so much drama and action, narrative fireworks and raw emotion, as we find in the tale of Samson: the battle with the lion; the three hundred burning foxes; the women he bedded and the one woman he loved; his betrayal by all the women in his life, from his mother to Delilah; and, in the end, his murderous suicide, when he brought the house down on himself and three thousand Philistines.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Samson, the biblical strongman whose strength lay in his long hair, has long been viewed as a hero. Before his birth, an angel told his mother that her child would be consecrated to God and save his people. But his is a strange and tragic story. Only in defeat, after his duplicitous lover Delilah cuts off his tresses and hands him over to his enemies, can he fulfill the prophecy and bring down the Philistine temple, killing himself and his captors. Acclaimed Israeli novelist Grossman (The Body) revisits the story in Canongate's series the Myths. He views Samson as an impulsive, lonely, failed man. Grossman's consideration falls squarely into the Jewish tradition of biblical exegesis, imparting both psychological and literary meaning to the story. His mastery of the Hebrew allows for depths of consideration not available to anyone working with a translation. But his reading of Samson is oddly contradictory: on the one hand, he insists that Samson is a man controlled by outside forces; on the other, that deep psychological needs drive him to self-destructive behavior. In the end, Grossman refuses to entertain the most glaring possibility the myth opens up: that only in his failure can Samson succeed and fulfill his life's mission.
