Samson in popular culture

Samson is an important biblical figure, and has been referenced many times in culture. In this article a survey is given of his presence in religion and mythology, in art and literature, in film and music, and in folklore.

"The figure of "Samson the hero" played a role in the construction of Zionist collective memory, and in building the identity of the 'new Jew' who leaves behind exilic helplessness for Israeli self-determination," Benjamin Balint, a writer in Jerusalem, has written.

Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940), the founder of Revisionist Zionism wrote a 1926 novel in Russian (English translation in 1930), Samson in which the author makes Samson an assimilated Jew attracted by the surrounding, more sophisticated (and un-philistine) Philistine culture. Considered a basic text of Revisionist Zionism, Jabotinsky's followers found in it numerous hints of contemporary Zionist and Israeli politics. Among other things, the family name of present day Israeli politician Dan Meridor is derived from this book. "Meridor" (literally "Generation of Rebellion") is the name given by Samson to a child in the book.

Some important Twentieth century Hebrew poems have also been written about the Bible hero. More recently, elite Israeli combat units have been named "Samson", and the Israeli nuclear program was called the "Samson Option".

Noam Chomsky and others have said Israel suffers from a "Samson complex" which could lead to the destruction of itself as well as its Arab enemies.

There is an elaboration of the biblical character in Basque mythology which differs in its features from the original. Quite paradoxically, the Basque Samson does not stand for Christian values, but is represented as a giant living in the mountains far from other inhabitants of the villages and the valley; he is a jentil or Basque pagan of the forest. As told in many folk accounts, endowed with might as he is, he launches rocks that lie at the origin of different prominences and hills all over the Basque Country, especially in the west, while in the east the preferred character to account for similar phenomena is the medieval hero Roland, Errolan in Basque.

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