JUDGES

Biblical Allusions

Ashtoreth

Tagged With: , , , - LIGEIA

Poe refers to the false goddess Ashtoreth, also referred to as Astarte and other variations of the name, who presides over his wedding to Ligeia: “…if ever she, the wan and the misty-winged Ashtophet of idolatrous Egypt, presided, as they tell, over marriages ill-omened, then most surely she presided over mine.” Ashtoreth is the Canaanite […]

Dagon

Dagon was the false half-man, half-fish god of the Philistines, mentioned in JUDGES 16 : 23-31 as the god whose temple was destroyed by Samson, and in 1 SAMUEL 4-5 : 7 as the false god who was destroyed in his own temple after the Philistines brought the captured Ark of the Covenant to the house of Dagon (1 SAMUEL 5 : 2). Bradford says that John Endicott changed the name of Thomas Morton’s Merry-Mount to Mount Dagon.

Human Sacrifice

Tagged With: - HAMLET

Jephthah was an Israelite general who was raised up by God to free His people from 18 years of oppression under the Ammonites. He was a “mighty man of valor” (JUDGES 11 : 1), but he was also a hypocrite in religious devotion and allowed himself to be influenced by the pagan religions of the peoples living around him…