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R.B. Lamb's avatar

I love the smell of Herculean syncretism in the morning.

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Michael Pershan's avatar

My favorite little factoid is that the similarities may have some historical reality, as historians seem to mostly believe that the Philistines originated in Greece. Is Samson actually Hercules in Israelite garb? Or maybe (and this is closer to how I've portrayed him) is Samson a wannabe Hercules?

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R.B. Lamb's avatar

I couldn't find him at first, but there's also the Punic Melqart in Tyre (Lebanon). He usually had a beard they say, but more importantly, a most bewitching pair of semitic sideburns.

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Michael Pershan's avatar

This column will get to Melqart eventually. He shows up in Kings. (Our current book is No Kings.)

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R.B. Lamb's avatar

Very cool! I love this kind of stuff. Looking forward to it.

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James Finn Garner's avatar

Weirdly reminiscent of my own wedding, but without the killing, the burning and the skipping.

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Michael Pershan's avatar

By my accounting that means you shared a riddle with skeptical friends and relatives?

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James Finn Garner's avatar

Yeah, killed the lion. Or was that a squirrel in the road? Anyway, needs more retelling to become epic.

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Reuben Salsa's avatar

Just epic. Never realized how much of a numbnuts Sammy was! Real trouble maker!

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Michael Pershan's avatar

We haven't even started. There is so much trouble to come.

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Michael Pershan's avatar

Terrible Samson (2018) movie is on YouTube, ridiculous fox scene starts here: https://youtu.be/xttb2JMj5VA?t=2789

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