Salome

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For other uses of Salome and Salomé, see Salome (disambiguation)

Coin of Salome (daughter of Herodias), queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor.

Salome or Salomé, the Daughter of Herodias (c AD 14 - between 62 and 71), like Dismas, or the various names of the Three Magi, is a name given to a character in the New Testament, one whose name is not given there itself. She is, however, an entirely historical person, whose name is preserved in non-biblical literature. In scholarly works, she tends to be referred to as the Daughter of Herodias.

1 Account by Flavius Josephus
2 Biblical character
3 Salome in the arts
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Account by Flavius Josephus

The name "Salome" is preserved in Josephus' Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):

Herodias, [...], was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest, who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod, her husband's brother by the father's side, he was tetrarch of Galilee; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus;^[1]

[edit] Biblical character

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist by Titian, painted circa 1515 (Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome)

Salome was the step-daughter of Herod Antipas, and danced before Herod and her mother Herodias at the occasion of Herod's birthday, and by doing so caused the death of John the Baptist. The New Testament suggests that Salome caused John to be executed because of his complaints that Herod's marriage to Herodias was adulterous; and that Herodias put her up to the demand that John be executed, something the king was initially reluctant to do. According to Mark 6:21-29:

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. (KJV)

This Salome is not the same Salome who is said to be a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40. (see Salome (disciple)).

[edit] Salome in the arts

[edit] Painting

This Biblical story has long been a favourite of painters, since it offers a chance to depict oriental splendour, semi-nude women, and exotic scenery under the auspices of being a Biblical subject. Painters who have done notable representations of Salome include Titian and Gustave Moreau.

"The Peacock Skirt", illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for Oscar Wilde's play Salome

[edit] Oscar Wilde's play

Main article: Salome (play)

This story was made the subject of a play by Oscar Wilde that premiered in Paris in 1896, under the French name Salomé. In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for John the Baptist, and causes him to be executed when John spurns her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up John's severed head and kisses it. Because British law forbade the depiction of Biblical characters on stage, Wilde wrote the play originally in French, and then produced an English translation (titled Salome). Wilde's French was as close to perfect as is possible for a nonnative French speaker; nevertheless, he showed it to at least two esteemed French writers who were his acquaintances, one of whom said to correct the idiom would be to destroy the unique harmonies of the Wildean French. The play was also proofread by Marcel Schwob. In the English version Alfred Bruce Douglas (Bosie) is indicated as translator.

[edit] Opera

[edit] Strauss

Main article: Salome (opera)

The Wilde play (in the German translation of Hedwig Lachmann) was edited down to a one-act opera by Richard Strauss. It is part of the standard operatic repertoire, and is now better known than the Wilde play itself. The opera Salome, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, is famous for the Dance of the seven veils. As with the Wilde play, it turns the action on to Salome herself, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the Wilde play centers mostly upon Herod's motivations.

[edit] Massenet

Main article: Hérodiade

The 1881 opera Hérodiade by Jules Massenet tells a slightly different story of the relationship between Salome, John the Baptist and Herod. The rather sub-standard libretto by Paul Milliet, Gremont and Zamadini based upon the novella Herodias by Gustave Flaubert (published in Three Tales, 1877) gives full responsibility for John's death to Salome's mother Herodias and the priests who fear his religious power. Salome herself is shown as a loving disciple of John who commits suicide when he is executed.

[edit] Films

Wilde's Salome has at least twice been made into a film: a 1923 silent film starring Alla Nazimova in the title role (see Salomé (1923 film)) and a 1988 Ken Russell play-within-a-film treatment, Salome's Last Dance, which also includes Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) as characters.

IMDB lists at least 25 Salome/Salomé films, and numerous resettings of the Salome story to modern times. Among the former are

a 1918 Salomé film, starring Theda Bara, for which Flavius Josephus was credited for the story;
a 1953 Salomé film, starring Rita Hayworth;
a 2002 film by Carlos Saura using flamenco dance.

Also, in Billy Wilder's 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond's script she plans to make her comeback in is a horrible, bloated retelling of the Salome story.