Hercules was borrowed from Samson?

[Pergamum]

Do you think the Greek myth of Hercules resulted from Greeks hearing about Samson a few hundred miles to their east and then adapting the tale?

http://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1970-3_131.pdf

 

[johnny]

I have wondered about this, but according to the article you posted, it doesn't look very likely.

 

[Pergamum]

I have wondered about this, but according to the article you posted, it doesn't look very likely.

I think the author of that article is looking for too many similarities; of course the facts got jumbled or subverted to aid Greek myth. But we have in both narratives a (1) unusual God-aided birth, (2) killing lions, (3) a preference of blunt instruments or edged sharp weapons, (4) a weakness for women, (5) stuff to do with pillars, (6) mad anger.

And the Hercules myths began to develop some time after Samson it seems. I think there is a likely link. I think many myths have their roots in history.

 

[MW]

Do you think the Greek myth of Hercules resulted from Greeks hearing about Samson a few hundred miles to their east and then adapting the tale?

In the older literature Hercules is Joshua, and the land of the giants is Canaan.

I haven't kept up to date with the theories concerning Mycenaean pottery in the Levant, but there seems to be general consensus that there was inter-regional contact.

 

[py3ak]

Augustine's take is interesting, though naturally not determinative:

After the capture and destruction of Troy, Æneas, with twenty ships laden with the Trojan relics, came into Italy, when Latinus reigned there, Menestheus in Athens, Polyphidos in Sicyon, and Tautanos in Assyria, and Abdon was judge of the Hebrews. On the death of Latinus, Æneas reigned three years, the same kings continuing in the above-named places, except that Pelasgus was now king in Sicyon, and Samson was judge of the Hebrews, who is thought to be Hercules, because of his wonderful strength. Now the Latins made Æneas one of their gods, because at his death he was nowhere to be found. The Sabines also placed among the gods their first king, Sancus, [Sangus], or Sanctus, as some call him. At that time Codrus king of Athens exposed himself incognito to be slain by the Peloponnesian foes of that city, and so was slain. In this way, they say, he delivered his country. For the Peloponnesians had received a response from the oracle, that they should overcome the Athenians only on condition that they did not slay their king. Therefore he deceived them by appearing in a poor man’s dress, and provoking them, by quarrelling, to murder him. Whence Virgil says, “Or the quarrels of Codrus.” And the Athenians worshipped this man as a god with sacrificial honors. The fourth king of the Latins was Silvius the son of Æneas, not by Creüsa, of whom Ascanius the third king was born, but by Lavinia the daughter of Latinus, and he is said to have been his posthumous child. Oneus was the twenty-ninth king of Assyria, Melanthus the sixteenth of the Athenians, and Eli the priest was judge of the Hebrews; and the kingdom of Sicyon then came to an end, after lasting, it is said, for nine hundred and fifty-nine years.

Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God,” in St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 371.

 

[Pergamum]

Augustine's take is interesting, though naturally not determinative:

After the capture and destruction of Troy, Æneas, with twenty ships laden with the Trojan relics, came into Italy, when Latinus reigned there, Menestheus in Athens, Polyphidos in Sicyon, and Tautanos in Assyria, and Abdon was judge of the Hebrews. On the death of Latinus, Æneas reigned three years, the same kings continuing in the above-named places, except that Pelasgus was now king in Sicyon, and Samson was judge of the Hebrews, who is thought to be Hercules, because of his wonderful strength. Now the Latins made Æneas one of their gods, because at his death he was nowhere to be found. The Sabines also placed among the gods their first king, Sancus, [Sangus], or Sanctus, as some call him. At that time Codrus king of Athens exposed himself incognito to be slain by the Peloponnesian foes of that city, and so was slain. In this way, they say, he delivered his country. For the Peloponnesians had received a response from the oracle, that they should overcome the Athenians only on condition that they did not slay their king. Therefore he deceived them by appearing in a poor man’s dress, and provoking them, by quarrelling, to murder him. Whence Virgil says, “Or the quarrels of Codrus.” And the Athenians worshipped this man as a god with sacrificial honors. The fourth king of the Latins was Silvius the son of Æneas, not by Creüsa, of whom Ascanius the third king was born, but by Lavinia the daughter of Latinus, and he is said to have been his posthumous child. Oneus was the twenty-ninth king of Assyria, Melanthus the sixteenth of the Athenians, and Eli the priest was judge of the Hebrews; and the kingdom of Sicyon then came to an end, after lasting, it is said, for nine hundred and fifty-nine years.

Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God,” in St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 371.

Hey, that's golden! Find me more quotes like that! I am getting ready to go through all that with Noah.

Also...do you believe the oracles were ever right or that the demons ever gave true prophecies by means of those at Delphi, et al?

 

[MW]

Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel, says,

Hercules, for example, was by birth an Egyptian, and moved by his valour travelled over much of the known world: but the Greeks claimed him as their own, though in truth he was different from the son of Alcmena who arose at some later time among the Greeks.

There is a parallel with Joshua coming out of Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, then conquering the giants.