The Biblical story of Joseph is a superbly crafted literary masterpiece. And its embellished copy in the Koran is also quite good - as is Jami's work Yussuf and Zuleika. In Genesis, the randy woman is never given a name: she is 'the wife of Potiphar'. Jami adds a happy ending. Read it, Ruth, but skip the philosophical ruminations.
The very numerous Illustrations of the story concentrate especially on one episode, of course. It gave men the opportunity to display in their home a pornographic image that was Biblical and 'sacred', and could not be condemned.
Needless to say I have collected a good many images of the seduction scene - of which the above is a fairly modest examples.
Joseph is invariably shown youthful, without a trace of a beard. I agree with those who say, that he was sexually [as well as emotionally] immature. Perhaps it was genuine delayed puberty. Later he matured to the point, that his brothers failed to recognize him. And he did father children.
Joseph gives the wife of Potiphar a lengthy explanation, why he will not, nay he can not, lie with her. [Can you hear Lurkio in 'Up Pompeii?']
That is why in Jewish tradition he is called 'Joseph the righteous'. Never mind his cunning maneuvres, to convert the entire wealth of Egypt, including all future national production, to the ownership of Pharaoh. It leaves the tax rises of the Labour government well in the shade!
Had I been there, I would have answered the wife of Potiphar in 3 words only:
"All right, then".
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