ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the story of Samuel. The sequence of the story is inverted in the story of Samuel: Hannah, barren, prays for a child, who is then consecrated to the shrine of Shiloh. Creusa prays for a son in Delphi, not knowing that her son is still alive and has been raised, like Samuel, as an attendant of the temple. After the Philistines attacked Israel, the people ask Samuel to give them a king like other nations. But Samuel passes on a divine warning to them about the despotic tendency of kings, clearly echoing Euripides praise of democracy. The Philistines stood on the mountain on one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. The comic scene of great Saul lending his armour to the small shepherd boy, David, carries an echo of the story of Achilles, lending his weapons to Patroclus: As he spoke Patroclus put on his armour.
