Fig. No. 3 is a representation of Hercules with the two posts or pillars on his shoulders, as alluded to by Count de Volney. We have taken it from Montfaucon's "L'Antiquité Expliquée."[70:6]
"Hercules carrying his two columns to erect at the Straits of Gibraltar, may have some reference to the Hebrew story."[71:1]
We think there is no doubt of it. By changing the name Hercules into Samson, the legend is complete.
Sir William Drummond tells us, in his "Œdipus Judaicus," that:
"_Gaza_ signifies a Goat, and was the type of the Sun in Capricorn. The _Gates of the Sun_ were feigned by the ancient Astronomers to be in Capricorn and Cancer (that is, in _Gaza_), from which signs the tropics are named. Samson carried away the gates from Gaza to Hebron, the city of conjunction. Now, Count Gebelin tells us that at Cadiz, where Hercules was anciently worshiped, there was a representation of him, _with a gate on his shoulders_."[71:2]
The stories of the amours of Samson with Delilah and other females, are simply counterparts of those of Hercules with Omphale and Iole. Montfaucon, speaking of this, says:
"Nothing is better known in the fables (related of Hercules) than his amours with Omphale and Iole."[71:3]
"The circumstance that Samson is so addicted to sexual pleasure, has its origin in the remembrance that the _Solar god_ is the god of fruitfulness and procreation. We have as examples, the amours of Hercules and Omphale; Ninyas, in Assyria, with Semiramis; Samson, in Philistia, with Delila, whilst among the Phenicians, Melkart pursues Dido-Anna."[71:4]
Samson is said to have had long hair. "There hath not come a razor upon my head," says he, "for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb."
Now, strange as it may appear, Hercules is said to have had long hair also, and he was often represented that way. In Montfaucon's "L'Antiquité Expliquée"[71:5] may be seen a representation of Hercules _with hair reaching almost to his waist_. Almost all _Sun_-gods are represented thus.[71:6]
"Long locks of hair and a long beard are mythological attributes of the Sun. The Sun's rays are compared with locks of hair on the face or head of the Sun.
"When the sun sets and leaves his place to the darkness, or when the powerful Summer Sun is succeeded by the weak rays of the Winter Sun, then Samson's long locks, in which alone his strength lies, are cut off through the treachery of his deceitful concubine, Delilah, the 'languishing, languid,' according to the meaning of the name (Delilah). The Beaming Apollo, moreover, is called the _Unshaven_; and Minos cannot conquer the solar hero Nisos, _till the latter loses his golden hair_."[72:1]