Love and betrayal in the Bible: Samson and Delilah

This tragic story from the Old Testament is, as so often, about love and betrayal. But it also tells of the honor of women at a time when this honor was a public good - and all too often a pawn in the eternal power struggle between men... As a 'consecrated man of God', Samson possessed great strength. It was given to him to free the people of Israel from the Philistines. However, Samson falls madly in love with Delilah, who is then used by the Philistines to try and coax the secret of his power out of him. After three deceptions, Samson tells Delilah the truth the fourth time: 'No razor has come to my head, for I have been consecrated to God as a Nazirite from my mother's womb. If my hair were shorn, my strength would depart from me.' Delilah betrays her beloved to his enemies. His hair is cut while he sleeps; he is overpowered, blinded and imprisoned. 

 

The great dramas of history: Cleopatra and... no, not Caesar 

The story of Cleopatra and Antony tells the tale of how love overtakes even daring generals. Although less famous than the liaison between the Egyptian queen and the ruler of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar, the romance between Antony and the last pharaoh is the more fateful one. Cleopatra came to the throne together with her brother and husband Ptolemy in 51 BC. When he had her expelled, the queen fled to Rome, into the arms of Caesar. After his death, she runs away again, this time to Alexandria. Caesar's successor Antony, who was already enraptured when they first met, takes Cleopatra as his wife - even though he is already married. This incurs the wrath of Octavian. In the ensuing battle, Antony commits suicide. When Cleopatra learns of her lover's death, she does the same. Whether by the famous snakebite or by ingesting poison will probably remain her secret forever.

Scandalous: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christiane Vulpius

He is considered Germany's most important poet and thinker: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. And he caused a real scandal at the time. In 1788, Goethe met the 'flower girl' Christiane Vulpius. In the eyes of high society, she was a 'woman who could barely read and write', 'fun-loving, uneducated and always badly coiffed'. Goethe fell madly in love at first sight. Although the relationship was considered impossible even at the progressive Weimar court, Goethe held on to it. He and Christiane lived together in a wild marriage for decades. They had five children and caused one scandal after another. He only married her late in life. However, he was not faithful to her. Even as death approached - Christiane died of kidney failure at the age of 50 - the great writer left Christiane Vulpius alone.

Free love (and finally a happy ending): Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

At the end, an unconventional love story that actually ends happily: That of the pioneers of free love, Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. In July 1938, the philosopher wrote a letter to the writer, his life partner, about one of his love affairs: 'Yesterday, I kissed this fiery girl and she snuggled up to me with her whole body.' Imagine that: The couple slept with others and talked about it openly. They never moved into an apartment together and never got married. And that was during this time. With their principles, the two intellectuals were role models for what the 1968 movement lived and celebrated decades later as free love. And in the case of Sartre and de Beauvoir, it worked. When the philosopher died in 1980, the two had been a couple for more than 50 years.