Samson and Delilah (c. 1640) by Artus Quellinus the ElderBode-Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
What do the girls in Next Top Model and that guy Samson from the Old Testament have in common? They make one helluva fuss if they’re told they should cut their hair off. Samson’s got a really killer argument against the scissors. His long hair is for him what spinach is for Popeye, or the magic potion is for Asterix – it’s what gives him his super power.
And Samson, God’s Servant, needed his super powers to defend the Israelites against the Philistines.
And he did a really great job, too. Until this pretty Philistine chick Delilah came and turned his head so much that he didn’t know left from right or when to keep his trap shut.
Delilah had been sent by her people to find Samson’s weak spot. And one day, when she asked him to prove he loved her, Samson told her what made him invincible. So things took their course. Delilah cut his hair off while he was asleep ...
... Simson was blinden by his enemies and sent to prison. Love is blind, they say – and Samson’s love for Delilah blinded him even twice.
Delilah – in Hebrew the name means “the Little One” – showed which is the stronger sex. Not the big, muscle-bound he-man Samson, but the small and seductive Delilah. She beat him with the weapons of a woman. “Samson and Delilah / They made it known / That a man is weak / For a woman strong”, Tina Turner sang in the 1970s, calling on women everywhere to “Use your power like Delilah”.
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