Salome. Salome, Jewish princess

Herodias(c.15 BC - after 39 AD) - granddaughter of Herod the Great from his son Aristobulus.

The execution of John the Baptist is associated with her name.

According to the historian Josephus, she was married to her uncle Herod Philip I and had a daughter with him, Salome, and then entered into cohabitation with her other uncle, Herod Antipas.

In the texts of the New Testament, Herodias is mentioned as the wife of the tetrarch of Judea, Herod Antipas, whom he took from his brother Philip. Even at that time, from the point of view of the Jewish religion, and indeed moral standards, marriages between relatives were extremely disapproved, and incest was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous relationship, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet.

Herodias was a cruel, treacherous, greedy, depraved and excessively proud woman. Examining her life, even historians biased towards the Bible cannot find anything even remotely positive in her. Even among the very depraved high society of that time, her figure stands out noticeably in a negative sense. WITH youth she dreamed of the royal crown at any cost. The evil Herodias harbored a grudge against the prophet John because he, without fear, spoke about her depravity. Wanting to destroy him, she influenced Herod to imprison the Forerunner. And then Herodias had the opportunity to destroy John the Baptist.

Ivetta Pozdnikova. Herodias and Salome. 2008

One night in 28 A.D. The palace of Herod Antipas was burning with fires. The court celebrated the ruler's birthday, the feast continued past midnight, when the drunken tetrarch wished that Salome, who was skilled in this, dance in front of his guests, his stepdaughter, the daughter of Herodias. Raised by her depraved mother, young Salome did not hesitate to perform an indecent, voluptuous dance in the nude. The stepfather, seeing the delight of the guests, promised her any reward she wanted, up to half of his kingdom!

Dance of Salome

« She, at the instigation of her mother, said: give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. And the king was sad; but, for the sake of the oath and those reclining with him, he ordered it to be given to her, and sent to cut off John’s head in prison. And they brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother"(Matthew 14:8-11). Solomeya was then no more than 15-16 years old.

The Beheading of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)

Having persuaded her daughter Solome to ask for the head of John the Baptist, Herodias pronounced an eternal sentence on herself and her daughter. What befell Herod, Herodias and Salome after such an atrocity?

With her intrigues, Herodias brought disaster upon Herod Antipas and was exiled with him to exile in Gaul. The incredibly cruel and vicious Herodias ended her life in poverty and obscurity. The proud granddaughter of Herod the Great suffered exactly what she feared most. But she chose this fate for herself when, through Salome, she gave the order to kill John the Baptist, thereby condemning herself.

And Salome later “married the Trachon tetrarch Philip, the son of Herod the Great,” that is, she became the wife of her great-uncle and ex-husband to his mother. Philip ruled his region for 38 years, from 4 BC. to 34 AD and became famous, in particular, for the fact that on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron he built a pagan temple in honor of the Emperor Augustus, which was a blatant act in the eyes of the monotheistic Jews. After the death of Philip, Salome married Aristobulus, the son of Herod and brother of Agrippa. They had three children - Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. Aristobulus pursued a very skillful policy towards Rome, seeking the favor and trust of Emperor Nero, who in 55 AD. gives him the possession of Lesser Armenia, giving him the royal title.

Robert Henry, Salome, 1909

Salome was given a lot of time to repent of what she had done, but instead, in her pride, she rose higher and higher. She had the royal title that her mother so dreamed of. Moreover, she bore the triple title: queen of Chalkis, Lesser and Greater Armenia.

History has preserved the story of her terrible death. One day, through carelessness, Salome fell into an ice hole, and the ice closed around her neck. No one heard Solomeya’s screams, since at that time none of the people were nearby. Trying to escape from the trap, she wriggled under the water, as if performing a terrible dance, just as in her distant youth she danced in her stepfather’s palace. Despite desperate resistance, Solomeya could not get out of this position and continued to hang on her neck, while her body swayed rhythmically under the ice until the ice supernaturally cut her neck. After this, her body fell to the bottom of the river, and the head of the dead Solome was brought and given to Herod and Herodias.

The great Biblical principle of sowing and reaping was fulfilled especially clearly in the life of Salome. Having sentenced John the Baptist to death with ease, without even a moment’s embarrassment or hesitation, Salome signed her own sentence, and not only to a terrible death in earthly life, but also to eternal death.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

Herodias(c.15 BC - after 39 AD) - granddaughter of Herod the Great from his son Aristobulus.

The execution of John the Baptist is associated with her name.

According to the historian Josephus, she was married to her uncle Herod Philip I and had a daughter with him, Salome, and then entered into cohabitation with her other uncle, Herod Antipas.

In the texts of the New Testament, Herodias is mentioned as the wife of the tetrarch of Judea, Herod Antipas, whom he took from his brother Philip. Even at that time, from the point of view of the Jewish religion, and indeed moral standards in general, marriages between relatives were extremely disapproved, and incest was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous relationship, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet.

Herodias was a cruel, treacherous, greedy, depraved and excessively proud woman. Examining her life, even historians biased towards the Bible cannot find anything even remotely positive in her. Even among the very depraved high society of that time, her figure stands out noticeably in a negative sense. From a young age, she dreamed of the royal crown at any cost. The evil Herodias harbored a grudge against the prophet John because he, without fear, spoke about her depravity. Wanting to destroy him, she influenced Herod to imprison the Forerunner. And then Herodias had the opportunity to destroy John the Baptist.

Ivetta Pozdnikova. Herodias and Salome. 2008

Dance of Salome

The Beheading of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)

And Salome later “married the Trachon tetrarch Philip, the son of Herod the Great,” that is, she became the wife of her great-uncle and her mother’s ex-husband. Philip ruled his region for 38 years, from 4 BC. to 34 AD and became famous, in particular, for the fact that on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron he built a pagan temple in honor of the Emperor Augustus, which was a blatant act in the eyes of the monotheistic Jews. After the death of Philip, Salome married Aristobulus, the son of Herod and brother of Agrippa. They had three children - Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. Aristobulus pursued a very skillful policy towards Rome, seeking the favor and trust of Emperor Nero, who in 55 AD. gives him the possession of Lesser Armenia, giving him the royal title.

Robert Henry, Salome, 1909

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

In the texts of the New Testament Herodias is the wife of the tetrarch of Judea, Herod Antipas, whom he took from his brother Agrippa. Even at that time this was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous relationship, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet. The tetrarch imprisoned him, but did not dare to kill him - John had too many students and followers, his authority among the people was too high.

Georgy Kurasov. Dance of Salome. Then Herodias persuaded her young beautiful daughter, who in apocryphal texts bore the name Salome, to dance in front of her stepfather during the celebration of his day

birth. Herod Antipas liked the dance so much that he vowed to fulfill any wish of his adopted daughter. When she, taught by her mother, asked to bring her the head of John the Baptist on a platter, the tetrarch was forced to fulfill his oath, and the prophet was beheaded.

Let's turn to the Gospel texts. Matthew chapter 14 says the following:

“At that time Herod the tetrarch heard a rumor about Jesus. And he said to those who served with him: This is John the Baptist; he rose from the dead, and therefore miracles are done by him. For Herod, having taken John, bound him and put him in prison for Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip; because John said to him: You must not have it. And he wanted to kill him, but he was afraid of the people, because they revered him as a prophet.

Hood. Gustave Moreau.

During the celebration of Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the assembly and pleased Herod;
Therefore, he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. She, at the instigation of her mother, said: give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. And the king was sad; but, for the sake of the oath and those reclining with him, he ordered it to be given, and sent to cut off John’s head in prison. And they brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother.

Herodias and Salome

This is the story of Herodias and John the Baptist in the canonical gospels. Now let us briefly recall the historical circumstances that served as the basis for these legends. To do this, let's turn to the book by Z.
Kosidovsky “Tales of the Evangelists”:

“John, called by the authors of the New Testament, as well as Josephus the Baptist, spent most of his adult life as a hermit in the desert, eating locusts and forest honey. In the fifteenth year

During the reign of Emperor Tiberius, that is, in 28 AD, he came out of the desert and began to prophesy. Dressed in camel cloth and belted with a leather belt, he walked around the country, speaking in a thunderous voice about the imminent advent of the kingdom of God on earth and calling the people to repentance. To those who were baptized by washing in the waters of the Jordan, he promised remission of sins and access to the future kingdom
God's on earth.

...There is no need to retell the story of his eerie and gloomy in its exotic beauty future fate, described by the evangelists Matthew and Mark. The tetrarch Herod imprisoned John in a fortress because he accused him of incest: Herod took his brother’s wife Herodias from him and married her. A tragedy unfolded, which later served as the plot for many works of music, painting and literature: Herod’s feast, Salome’s dance, Herodias’ vengeance, the head of the executed John, brought on a platter into the hall where the feast took place.

For the sake of truth, it should be noted that the daughter of Herodias, who captivated Herod with her dance, is not named in any way in the gospels. Only non-evangelical sources report that her
name was Salome. We would not have known the place of John’s execution if Josephus had not told us that it happened in the border fortress of Macheron.

By the way, this Jewish historian, whose veracity we have had occasion to verify more than once, explains the reasons for the tragedy differently. In his opinion, Herod was simply frightened by the growing popularity of the former hermit, who, with his passionate, angry sermons, had gained fame as a new prophet, almost a messiah. This popularity of his is also reported, in particular, by Luke: “...everyone pondered in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ...” (3:15).

The hysterical crowds of common people besieging John, brought to an extreme degree of exaltation, caused alarm and did not bode well. At any moment, riots could break out, ending, as a rule, with the armed intervention of Roman cohorts and bloody reprisals against the fooled population. The Messiahship of John was as dangerous to the existing order as the Messiahship of the self-proclaimed prophets and leaders of the people who preceded him. And among the oppressed sections of the Jewish population awaiting a savior, such sentiments reigned that Herod had every reason to fear John, and therefore he decided to eliminate him. However, this does not at all exclude the feeling of personal revenge caused by harsh criticism from the daring newcomer from the desert.

What attracted the writer Flaubert to this gospel story? Woman. Of course, a woman. Not a prophet, with his fanaticism - Flaubert could not stand clergy; not a tetrarch, that is, not a problem of power; and the position eastern woman in those distant times, her psychology, her insecurity even being at the top of the hierarchical ladder. Possessing everything, she is lonely, unhappy, vulnerable and at any moment she can lose everything, including her life. Herodias is deeply unhappy. Flaubert is primarily interested in how Herodias resolves the issue of her safety, by what means. Herodias France is a bitch. Flaubert's Herodias is an unhappy lonely woman, a rejected wife, an intriguer and at the same time a victim. Actually everything female characters Flaubert - victims.

Passion and lust for power, vanity force her to leave one brother for another, but soon she suffers a fiasco. The family didn't work out, and she secret life from her husband - raising her daughter Salome for manipulation in right time Herod. A beautiful daughter - as a means of achievement
goals. Cunning, vindictiveness, pride... and fear. Fear of losing everything. Is this situation exceptional? Not at all. This is an eternal plot in the history of both the East and the West. Quite often, crowned cousins or even blood relatives enter into incestuous marriages for the sake of dynastic or “state” interests. Quite often it ends in hatred, bloodshed, betrayal, and it’s good if a civil war does not break out.

Titian (1490-1576) - Salome con la testa del Battista

The union of Herod and Herodias brings problems and gives rise to hatred in them towards each other. But time works mainly against a woman, she ages and finally loses interest in the eyes of her husband. Can a somewhat aged beauty come to terms with the loss of her influence on her husband, the king, with how power is slipping out of her hands, and soon the possible loss of life. She has nothing to choose from, any choice is defeat: imprisonment and exile in the wilderness, poverty, oblivion, death. Weak person- would have submitted to fate, but Herodias strong in spirit woman. She is struggling. He fights with means available and familiar from time immemorial in the East - deceit, external humility.

She wins the battle with the help of Salome - John's head is in front of her on a platter, and loses the war - Herod will never forgive her the head of the prophet. The beheading of John will not solve her problems with her husband, it is not for nothing that no source says
information about how her life ended.

Salome, Salome's great-grandmother

Luini. "Salome with the Head of John the Baptist" (great-granddaughter of the heroine of this publication)

From the series "Evangelical Personalities"
Igor TRIBELSKY
Judging by the frequency of use, this name was very popular among respected Jewish women. In its original form it sounds like Shlomit, the feminine form of the name Shlomo, which we usually pronounce as Solomon. May have the form Shlomtsion. So, for example, was the name of the wife of King Alexander Yanna (103-76 BC), who after the death of her husband was regent (76-67 BC) under her eldest son Hyrcanus II. And he seems to be a good politician - with her for the first time in the history of mankind and long before the victory Soviet power There was a law on compulsory literacy. True, only among men. But today we will not talk about her.
There is a Salome in the Gospel. Guess who? Right! This is the mother of the apostles James and John (and, as a result, the wife of their father Zebedee, who, presumably, bore the Aramaic name Zeveida). In the Russian translation, her name is written as Salome - and rightly so, why save the sound of a name that is already distorted. And even then, they would have written directly - Solokha, and that would be the end of it. And by the way, this Salome - important character. Not only did she stand at Golgotha under the cross, and then she was among the myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb of Jesus. Much earlier, in Jericho, she asked him to imprison one of her sons. right hand from himself (we must think that James), and the other - to the left (according to the residual principle, this should be John, who, by mistake, is considered the author of the Gospel of John). Now, tell me honestly - does such a woman deserve a separate post or not? And I will answer you - yes! Therefore, here and now we will not talk about it.
There is, after all, another wonderful Salome. According to Josephus, she is the daughter of Herod Boethos and Herodias. The only one in the family, she didn’t even have brothers. Probably spoiled beyond belief. Mark and Matthew mention the daughter of Herodias, who asked for the head of John the Baptist for her sparkling dance at the feast. So she is. That is, the favorite of all poets, artists, musicians" Silver Age"From Oscar Wilde to Alfred, flies were also called Salome. What a post - two stories, an opera, a ballet, a symphony have been written about her, I’m not even talking about paintings, moreover, in coordinates from England to Japan inclusive! And this is only a hundredth of that, that is dedicated to her. And yet, the necessary attention must be given to this lady. But not now? Because everything needs to be done in order. And before talking about the great-granddaughter, we should say something. kind word for her great-grandmother. Moreover, her name was also Salome (in fact, of course, it was the other way around, her great-granddaughter too)! And it is her name that is included in the title of the post. And not all these illustrious namesakes.
So, that Salome, because of whom, in fact, all this fuss began, was the sister of King Herod. First by birth, and then by main specialty. Because for everyone around him, Herod was made of steel of various grades: for family members and subordinates, he was hard, inflexible cast iron, while for the Roman commanders, Caesar Octavian Augustus and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, he became a flexible Damascus blade. And only for Salome Antipatrovna he was clay. Maybe a little dry. To give it the desired shape, it took a long time to knead, roll into a tube, squeeze, stretch, little by little mixing in the necessary thoughts. And no one could do this with such perfection as she, although many tried. This can be judged by the results of long and painstaking work.
Imagine for a moment: you are a woman of a royal family, your blood is boiling in your veins, and here is a husband who has long been tired of you. There is no freedom of morals, and even divorces initiated by the female side are prohibited. So what now, should we just spit on our life, which we all have one? But our Salome was not from the category of voluntary victims who put an end to themselves with their own hands. She skillfully brought her two husbands to execution! First Joseph (ID, XV, 3:9), then Kostobar (ID, XV, 7:10). And when a handsome foreigner appeared on the horizon, the Nabataean prince Sillai (who deserves a separate post!), she was free, like a bird, to new love. And it is not her fault that Herod disliked this Sillai, the Nabatean “Ivan Susanin”, with political hostility and made the condition of marriage a conversion with circumcision. And Sillai turned out to be weak for Great love and too proud to give up the smallest part of his body. In a word, it didn’t work out, as they say. And the Nabatean Casanova, having had a hard time slurping, went to Rome to visit Augustus (oh, what a post he earned there with his behavior!). And Herod placed his sister behind Alexa, who probably brought her the last glass of water.
Husbands are husbands, and the main man in her life was her older brother. And when he had a wife, and a beloved one at that, it must have seemed to Salome the height of world injustice. What kind of talent one had to have in one’s business to be able to turn a man’s love into a clot of jealousy and anger and bring the matter to the execution of Mariamne I (ID, XV, 7:4)!
What could she, Salome, expect from the children of the deceased, Alexander and Aristobulus? That they will grow up, become kings and take revenge? And who wants to give up the future in advance? Therefore, without allowing herself to properly rest on her laurels, she had to take on the second generation. But how?
Herod cared so much about his children that he personally matched them. With the help of his elder, he pleased Augustus. The first man of Rome saw the family as a model for his world superstate, and encouraged his subject kings to enter into family ties with their neighbors. So Herod married Alexander Glaphyra, the daughter of the Cappadocian king Archelaus (the first Israeli-Turkish union, if you like).
If Alexander’s marriage was a “sacrifice” to Augustus, then in relation to the remaining children Herod was realizing his own ambitions. He needed a strong, united clan, clenched into a single fist. And he created intra-clan pairings at the level of cousins. And the first experiment was the marriage of Aristobulus with Berenice, daughter of Salome.
Dear friends! I ask you, urgently put aside all your affairs and worries, and remember the children of these A. and B. I will write the name of each on a separate line.
Herodias.
Agrippa.
Herod.
Aristobulus.
Now you can forget Aristobulus, but at the same time continue to keep in mind that he exists. When Philo has “four sons of the king, not inferior in honor to the king himself,” then it will be our three plus Herod Antipas. And forget for a moment what I just said.
But Herodias must be remembered! First, Herod the Great, her grandfather, married her to Herod Boethos, her uncle. Then he appointed her husband as heir, and after a while he sent him into eternal political oblivion. But when another uncle appeared on her horizon, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch (that is, the king, by the way) of Galilee and Perea, her grandmother’s power-hungry blood boiled in the young fifty-year-old woman. And Herod Antipas also grew up in a family where intra-clan marriages were the norm, the clan paradigm. And they suddenly fell in love with each other.
Batistello. "Salome" Dear friends! I am ready to forgive you if you suddenly forget Herodias, Agrippa, Herod and Aristobulus. Unselfishly, of course. You will need to forgive me something. You see, they all, the evangelists Mark and Matthew, together with Josephus, write that Herod fell in love with Herodias and... But I say that there was no love between them, but only naked calculation on both sides. And he, unlike love, is always rational and can be understood. And there will be a separate post about this, although, in my opinion, there has already been more than one. For example, in the story about Gamla. In the form of vague hints.
Agrippa. We, Jerusalemites, will not forget this man, even if we want to: the street from which the Mahane Yehuda market begins bears his name. Next to his turbulent fate, Captain Blood's odyssey simply rests. For him, Emperor Claudius turned the province of Judea into an independent kingdom. That's it, no more, no less! Agrippa I the Great deserved not only an independent post, but also a fascinating novel.
So did Herod. Having become king, Agrippa I secured for his brother the tetrarchy of Chalkia (today the city of Ajnan in Lebanon on the Damascus - Beirut road). And there is something to be said about Herod of Chalcis. But first about his son, Aristobulus. Remember Aristobulus, whom you must have forgotten? This is uncle. But mark his nephew, Aristobulus Irodovich, somewhere in your place. Not that important, but it was he who became the husband of that same Salome. Which is the great-granddaughter who danced in front of Herod Antipas and for this asked for the head of John the Baptist. This man gave us all a priceless gift! We will see it in upcoming publications. I promise.
Those who have become completely confused by this point, start over. And there you will see that main character of this publication - Salome Antipatrovna, sister of Herod the Great. Her daughter, Berenice, became the wife of the son of one of the king's eldest sons, Aristobulus. In this small family a conflict arose between mother-in-law and son-in-law. Subsequently it became fashionable and widespread. It is decided by the position of the younger woman: who is she, after all, a daughter or a wife? Berenice turned out to be more of a daughter. She “snitched” on her husband to her mother. And she collected dirt on him for her brother. And at the right moment she laid everything out on the table.
Salome, daughter of Herodias, and her husband Aristobulus. A talented person, after all, this Salome the Elder. She managed to bring matters to the point that her father (King Herod) executed both sons (Alexander and Aristobulus) from his beloved wife (Mariamne I). Who were her own nephews, and one of them was also her son-in-law. Yes, here the Parisian , Madrid and Istanbul courtyards combined!
But her services to the throne did not end there. After the execution of Alexander and Aristobulus, Herod elevated his first-born son, Antipater. So what if he didn’t pose any danger to Salome? She had already felt the taste of someone else's blood and did not want to refuse new portions. And she whispered to Herod that Antipater was planning to poison him...
Now tell me, should Herod somehow thank his sister? Why not? And he gave her a quarter of the kingdom. True, the smallest, which is why it had the status of a toparchy. But it consisted of two large parts - the cities of Ashdod (one of the photos) and Yavne with its surroundings (one time) and the Fatsaelida district in the Jordan Valley (two). It is now the site of several kibbutzim and Moshav Ptsael, with large date plantations from the northern edge of the village of El Ouja to the Valley Monument (pictured).
This toparchy went through three owners before being absorbed into the province of Judea. They were all women and formed the "women's lobby", an informal group with hidden influence. More precisely, two different lobbies, but closely related to each other. One in Judea (Salome the Elder, her daughter Berenice, her granddaughter Herodias, her great-granddaughter Salome the Younger), the second in Rome.
To write about him here and now is to run too far ahead. But the fate of the corners native land demands, at least, to name the names of these ladies. The first of them is Octavian's wife Augusta and Tiberius' mother, Livia Drusilla (that's who we should learn feminine wisdom from!). After her death, she deified Augustus, took for herself the title of his daughter (that is, she became the Daughter of God!) and the priestly name Julia. It was to her that our Salome bequeathed her toparchy. And she, in turn, passed it on as an inheritance." to the gray cardinal"Tiberius, the widow of his younger brother, Drusus, Antonia the Younger.
Igor Tribelsky

Herodias(c.15 BC - after 39 AD) - granddaughter of Herod the Great from his son Aristobulus.

The execution of John the Baptist is associated with her name.

According to the historian Josephus, she was married to her uncle Herod Philip I and had a daughter with him, Salome, and then entered into cohabitation with her other uncle, Herod Antipas.

In the texts of the New Testament, Herodias is mentioned as the wife of the tetrarch of Judea, Herod Antipas, whom he took from his brother Philip. Even at that time, from the point of view of the Jewish religion, and indeed moral standards in general, marriages between relatives were extremely disapproved, and incest was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous relationship, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet.

Herodias was a cruel, treacherous, greedy, depraved and excessively proud woman. Examining her life, even historians biased towards the Bible cannot find anything even remotely positive in her. Even among the very depraved high society of that time, her figure stands out noticeably in a negative sense. From a young age, she dreamed of the royal crown at any cost. The evil Herodias harbored a grudge against the prophet John because he, without fear, spoke about her depravity. Wanting to destroy him, she influenced Herod to imprison the Forerunner. And then Herodias had the opportunity to destroy John the Baptist.

Dance of Salome

“She, at the instigation of her mother, said: Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. And the king was sad; but, for the sake of the oath and those reclining with him, he ordered it to be given to her, and sent to cut off John’s head in prison. And they brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother.”(Matt. 14:8-11). Solomeya was then no more than 15-16 years old.

The Beheading of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)

Robert Henry, Salome, 1909

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK