St. Pachomius Library

Salome

I Century
Unnamed in the gospel accounts of the death of John the Baptist, the daughter of Herodias and Philip is identified in Josephus' Antiquities as Salome, whose dancing so pleased her stepfather Herod the Tetrarch that he promised her anything, up to half his kingdom. At her mother's advice, she requested the head of the prophet who had spoken against the marriage of Herod and Herodias. Josephus says that Salome married another Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis. Tradition adds that this marriage was childless and that Salome later married Aristabulus, with whom she had three sons. The legend that she died as ice, which had broken under her weight, closed in around her neck is now dismissed as fanciful justice.
Her dance has been a popular theme in the visual arts since the Middle Ages. Mediæval and Renaissance artists portray her as a child; in the XIX Century, she came to be associated with the dance of the seven veils and with erotic desire.
Karen Rae Keck

ABOUT:
- Oscar Wilde: Salome. HTML text of Wilde's one-act tragedy in English with Beardsley's illusrtations. --- University of Virginia
- Opera News: Salome by Richard Strauss. Synopsis of the opera. --- Metropolitan Opera
- Giotto: The Feast of Herod. A XIV Century fresco in a series called Scenes from the Life of St. John the Baptist in the Peruzzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence. --- Emil Kren and Daniel Marx
- Titian: Salome. XVI Century oil painting of the girl with the head of St. John the Baptist. --- Olga's Gallery

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