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these two heroes. Samson is, as every body knows, the person 
who, according to the Holy Scriptures, found a swarm of bees 
in the carcase of a lion he had killed. The same story is told 
about Aristaeus, but with an alteration, not uncommon with 
fables of this class, which substitutes the carcase of an ox for 
that of a lion.“ 
yRead Virgil and do not be influenced by some collateral 
issues in his account (1), because nothing is better understood 
than that the heathen, with their mythology, have tarnished 
and disgraced the great deeds of many celebrated heroes. 
Although Aristaeus himself is not reported to have killed a 
lion, this deed is ascribed to his mother, who is said to have 
strangled such an animal, upon the head of which King Eury- 
pilus had set the price of a kingdom. — The name of Aristacus 
is derived from the power of his speech; under this guise is 
hidden the strength of Samson. The father of Aristaeus has 
less right to be called ,the sun‘, than has the name of Samson 
to be rendered as the ,man of the sun“ (der Sonnenmann) in 
our language. The fine head of hair, attributed to Aristaeus, 
as well as to his father, can be interpreted with very good 
reason, as meaning the hair of the Nazirite Samson, which was 
parted into seven locks (Judges, 16, 14. R. V.). Zorah, in Pale- 
stine (Judges 13, 2) was Samson’s birthplace; but the fable 
misunderstands this fact and calls his mother by a somewhat 
similar name, Cyrene. Aristaeus is said to have lived in a cavern 
in Euboea. Is that not the ,cleft of the rock Etam“, where 
Samson dwelt? (Judges 15, 8.) Aristaeus lived as a shepherd 
on the fields, and was for this reason called agrius and nomius ; 
so I cannot imagine the life of Samson otherwise than like that 
of a shepherd, who also had his herd. Aristaeus’s principal food 
was milk and honey, the invention of which is ascribed to him; 
Samson being a Nazirite (Judges 16, 17), was forbidden from 
(1) Should we, for instance, apply Virgils aceount of Proteus to Samson 
himself, it would be an easy matter adroitly to refer the account of Proteus’s 
castle, and his being thrown into fetters (Georg. IV, 396—414), to Samson’s 
adventure with Delilah. 
