Delilah was a Philistine are inconclusive, while the "Jewish Encyclopedia" says that Delilah was a Philistine in all probability. Dolores G. Kamrada write in "Heroines, Heroes and Deity: Three Narratives of the Biblical Heroic Tradition" that Delilah is similar to Jael, a woman mentioned in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Judges who murders Sisera by driving a tent peg into his head, and frequently compared to the title character of the Book of Judith, who beheads Holofernes; all three women defeat powerful warriors. According to Susan Ackerman, Delilah differs from Jael and Judith in that she "sells
Delilah her name is applied to cunning women. Delilah also appears as a character in a number of works of art. John Milton's closet drama "Samson Agonistes", an allegory for the downfall of the Puritans and the restoration of the English monarchy, casts Delilah as an unrepentant, but sympathetic, deceiver and speaks approvingly of the subjugation of women. In 1735, George Frideric Handel wrote the opera "Samson", with a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, based on "Samson Agonistes". The opera is almost entirely set inside Samson's prison and Delilah appears only briefly in Act II. In 1877, Camille Saint-Saëns composed the opera