Having completed the first thing on my list, a profile of the recent Mr. Natural Olympia winners, next on the schedule is a profile of all those people in history (both real and fictional) who are either exceptionally strong, muscular or just downright powerful starting at the dawn of history and carrying on until the present day Samson (born around 2,831 BC, died around 2,810 BC) Samson was born to the wife of Manoah in the town of Zorah during the time that the Israelite people were being disciplined by their Lord by handing them to the Philistine people from the neighbouring countries. When the news was given, in the form of an angel, there were certain requirements laid down for the child would live as a Nazirite. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a time could take a Nazarite vow, which included abstaining from wine and spirits, not cutting hair or shaving, and other requirements. This the wife agreed to, but Manoah who wasn’t there, but after praying for his own visitation was told the same information and so when the child was born, they both agreed to the request and named him Samson. When he became a man, Samson left the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. He fell in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah, whom he decided to marry, ignoring the objections of his parents, who were concerned because the Israelites were forbidden to marry gentiles, but per religious scholars, the intended marriage was part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines. Per the account of his life in the Bible, Samson was repeatedly seized by “the Spirit of the Lord” and when this happened, those were the times he demonstrated strength far more than normal men. The first time it happened was when Samson was on his way to ask for the Philistine woman's hand in marriage. On the way, he was attacked by a lion whereupon he simply grabbed it and ripped it apart, the spirit of God divinely empowering him. However, Samson kept it a secret, not even mentioning the miracle to his parents. He arrived at the Philistine's house and became betrothed to her. He returned home, then came back to Timnah sometime later for the wedding. On his way, Samson saw that bees had nested in the carcass of the lion and made honey, He ate a handful of the honey and gave some to his parents. At the wedding feast, Samson told a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines). If they could solve it, he would give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments, but if they could not solve it, they would give him thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle was “Can sweetness come from power?” and with that he just sat back. It took the groomsmen four days to realise that they could not solve the problem and so having given him nine hundred pieces of linen, he gave them the answer explaining about the honey from the carcass of the lion. That instantly made the native people very suspicious of this stranger and decide that he’s a danger to their nation and so plan to capture him at any opportunity. So, when they get word that he is going to Gaza, they decide to lie in wait at the gates of the city to ambush him. However, he tears the gate from its holdings and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron". By this time, Samson is not married and has fallen in love with a woman called Delilah from the valley of Sorek and sensing a chink in his armour, the Philistines bribe her with an eleven hundred silver coin payment to try and discover the secret of his strength. He refused, but decided to string her along, stating that first his strength can be overcome if he is bound with fresh bowstrings, then says that in fact he needs to be bound with new ropes, then says that if his locks are woven into a weaver's loom. It is only after persistent nagging by Delilah that he admits the truth. So, that night, she gets a servant to cut off his locks and then woos him to sleep “in her lap”. Cue the Philistine soldiers and the once mighty Israelite is blinded, imprisoned and put to work grinding grain by turning a large millstone. A few months later, the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands and being the object of their ridicule, Samson is brought along. However, by now, his hair has grown back and lamenting what he has done, he begs forgiveness and seeks vengeance for his eyes. As the book of Judges, chapter sixteen, verses 28 – 30 relate: “Then he called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So, the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life” When news reaches his family, they recover his body from the rubble and bury him near the tomb of his father Manoah but his legend is secure and he serves as an inspiration for people seeking strength thereafter and for those who doubt the veracity of stories from the Bible, you might be interested to know that in 2013 a historical structure known as Maqam Neby or Sheikh Samat was identified as the tomb of Samson. Hercules (born 2,200 BC, died around 2,150 BC, written about in 1,300 BC) Hercules was, not exactly an unwanted child, but rather a child who complicated matters. You see, Zeus, the king of the Greek gods was rather, well, how can I put it politely, rather a womanizer, and Hera, Zeus’s wife, hated him and all his offspring for it. So how does a god become a father? Simple, Zeus decided to visit Alcmene who was married to the Greek hero Amphitryon, but who was off fighting a war against someone, and disguising himself as her husband, well I think you can guess the rest. What slightly complicates matters is that after Zeus left Amphitryon really did come back from the war, and so Alcmene became someone who had had a heteropaternal superfecundation (in laymen’s terms, two children from two different fathers, but born at the same time). As you can imagine Hera was furious with Zeus, but did she take out her anger on her philandering husband? Of course not, this is Greece we are talking about, remember, and did so in a very interesting way. She persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of Perseus would become High King. Zeus agreed to this which allowed Hera to enact part two of her plan, she hurried to Alcmene's dwelling and slowed the birth of the twins Hercules and Iphicles by forcing Ilithyia, goddess of childbirth, to sit cross-legged with her clothing tied in knots, thereby causing the twins to be trapped in the womb. With me so far, because here comes part three, she then Hera caused Eurystheus to be born prematurely, making him High King in place of Hercules, but this final part of the plan was ruined when a servant of Alcmene lied to Ilithyia, saying that Alcmene had already delivered the baby. Upon hearing this, she jumped in surprise, loosening the knots and inadvertently allowing Alcmene to give birth to Hercules and Iphicles. Confused? Good, most Greek legends are like that. Anyway, so Hercules and Iphicles were born and Hera was determined to get rid of the demigod by any means necessary and that famously included sending two poisonous snakes to bite him, but old Herc’s reaction was entirely natural as he picked them up and started playing with them as if they were a pair of rattles. It was then that people noticed his strength, and after killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre (a type of ancient guitar) he was sent to tend cattle by his foster father as far away as possible (to ensure no more accidents). Thankfully no more accidents happened and Hercules grew up into a man, and yes, everything you have seen in the Disney cartoons and the movies of the 1950’s and 1960’s did happen as he became the most eligible bachelor ever to walk the planet, but he decided to marry Megara, the daughter of King Creon, and they settled down and had two delightful children and Hercules could enjoy life. Hera, on the other hand, had flipped her lid, and in a fit of madness, induced by Hera, Hercules killed his children by Megara. After his madness, had been cured with hellebore by Antikyreus, the founder of Antikyra, he realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi. Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. He was directed to serve King Eurystheus for ten years and perform any task Eurystheus required of him. Eurystheus decided to give Hercules ten labours, but after completing them, Hercules was cheated by Eurystheus when he added two more, resulting in the Twelve Labors of Hercules. And it is these labours that cemented Hercules’s status today, but he did more than that but one adventure proved to his swansong. Having wrestled and defeated Achelous, god of the Acheloos river, Hercules takes Deianira as his wife. Travelling to Tiryns, a centaur, Nessus, offers to help Deianira across a fast-flowing river while Hercules swims it. However, Nessus is true to the archetype of the mischievous centaur and tries to steal Deianira away while Hercules is still in the water. Angry, Hercules shoots him with his arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra. Thinking of revenge, Nessus gives Deianira his blood-soaked tunic before he dies, telling her it will "excite the love of her husband”. Several years later, rumor tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Hercules. Deianira, remembering Nessus' words, gives Hercules the bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Hercules. However, it is still covered in the Hydra's blood from Hercules' arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Hercules throws Lichas into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Hercules then uproots several trees and builds a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas, father of Philoctetes, lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus' apotheosis, Hercules rises to Olympus as he dies where Hera finally relents and allows Zeus to place him in the stars where he can still be seen to this very day. Conan the Barbarian (born 1400BC, died 1330 BC, written 1932) In all recorded history, there are some events that only need a single word name and you know precisely what they are on about. For instance, “Krakatoa" immediately brings up images of the “bang heard around the world” when in 1883 the volcano in Indonesia exploded with such violence that it created a tsunami that wiped out the region of Java and “Laki” conjures up “the year without a summer” caused by the almost nine-month eruption in Iceland in the late seventeenth century. The name “Santorini” is also up there, but only for those people with an interest in ancient history and the legends of Greece, because the eruption of that volcano led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization and more importantly led to the legend of Atlantis and it is the years after that event that the events of Conan’s life take place. Life in the middle of the second millennium BC was exceptionally tough with battles here, there and everywhere, so when you hear that Conan was born on such a battlefield you get an immediate idea of how tough his life was. Thus, you had to grow up and fast, so it should come as no surprise to hear that by fifteen, he was already a respected warrior who had participated in the destruction of the Aquilonian outpost of Venarium. However, that poses a question, namely “I’ve enabled the destruction of an outpost of my enemies, what else can I do?” so Conan goes a wandering across these lands and, well, does all manner of things really, encountering skulking monsters, evil wizards, tavern wenches, and beautiful princesses (as you do!). He roamed throughout the lands of the Hyborian era (the name given to this period time time) as a thief, an outlaw, a mercenary and even a pirate. As he grew older, he began commanding larger units of men and escalating his ambitions so that by his forties, he seized the crown of the tyrannical king of Aquilonia (the most powerful kingdom of the time) having strangled the previous ruler on the steps of the throne. As you can see, Conan doesn’t stand for any nonsense. But what does this person look like? When Robert E. Howard wrote the stories about Conan back in the 1930’s, it was time when everything seemed possible and so even though he was writing about the past, Robert made sure that he could get his characters to be believable whilst at the same time unbelievable. So as a result, Conan was described as having “sullen”, “smoldering” and “volcanic” blue eyes with a black “square-cut mane”, a hairy chest, and covered by “whatever garb is typical for the land and culture” he happens to find himself in. Although no definitive measurements are given, we are told (via a letter to P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark in 1936, just a few months before Robert’s death) Conan stands six feet tall and weighs a hundred and eighty pounds at the battle where he earned his stripes (and how many teenagers do you know today who can claim to be that?). We do get an idea of what he is like older as when he was King of Aquilonia he was described as follows: “a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs. He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon, and the crown of Aquilonia shone on his square-cut black mane; but the great sword at his side seemed more natural to him than the regal accoutrements. His brow was low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire. His dark, scarred, almost sinister face was that of a fighting-man, and his velvet garments could not conceal the hard, dangerous lines of his limb” Over the course of four years, Robert wrote twenty-four books about Conan, with three books published after his death and four unfinished with the most recent publication being in 1967, so it should be no massive surprise that when a very famous bodybuilder ended his competition career and decided to become an actor, Conan was his first role.