Sulamith

The 'Song of Songs' or 'Song of Solomon' addressed to Sulamith and ascribed to Solomon is one of the most mysterious texts of the Bible. If the character of Solomon itself is enigmatic, the character of the 'bride' is even more enigmatic. Saint Augustine and many other exegetes regarded this brilliant fireworks of the senses as an allegory of the mystic union of the soul with God while others recognized Arabian wedding rites or, in terms of cult and mythology, the union of the old deities Ishtar and Tammuz. The Gospel according to St. John draws many parallels to Maria Magdalena and the resurrection of Christ. One of the latest interpretations can be found in Paul Celan's poem 'Death Fugue' in which Sulamith embodies the prototype of the Jewish victim. All these mysterious facets are incorporated in the form of the 'Danse sacrée' in which the physicality of dancing seems to be contradictory to an existential content.