| Salome | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort ofArmenia Minor | |
 Salome withJohn the Baptist's head, byCharles Mellin (1597–1649) | |
| Spouse | Herod Philip II Aristobulus of Chalcis |
| Issue | Herod Agrippa Aristobulus |
| Dynasty | Herodian |
| Father | Herod Philip I |
| Mother | Herodias |
Salome (/səˈloʊmi,ˈsæləmeɪ/;Hebrew:שְלוֹמִית,romanized: Shlomit, related toשָׁלוֹם,Shalom "peace";Greek:Σαλώμη),[1] also known asSalome III,[2][note 1] was aJewish princess, the daughter ofHerod II and princessHerodias. She was granddaughter ofHerod the Great and stepdaughter ofHerod Antipas. She is known from theNew Testament, where she is not named, and from an account byJosephus. In the New Testament, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas demands and receives the head ofJohn the Baptist. According to Josephus, she was first married to her unclePhilip the Tetrarch, after the death of which in AD 34, she married her cousinAristobulus of Chalcis, thus becoming queen ofArmenia Minor.
Thegospel story of her dance at the birthday celebration of her stepfather, who hadJohn the Baptist beheaded at her mother's request, inspired art, literature and music over an extended period of time. Among the paintings are those byTitian andGustave Moreau.Oscar Wilde's 1891eponymous play and its1905 operatic setting byRichard Strauss are among the literary and musical realisations which portrayed her. She has also appeared in film depictions, for instance in the1953 filmSalome starringRita Hayworth.
Salome is commonly identified with the daughter ofHerodias who, according to accounts in theGospel of Mark and theGospel of Matthew, danced forHerod Antipas. In hisJewish Antiquities,Josephus mentions marriages and children of the daughter of Herodias named Salome.
According to the Gospel of Mark, Herodias bore a grudge againstJohn the Baptist for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful.[3] Herodias's daughter danced beforeHerod at his birthday celebration, and in return she was told she could ask for anything. After consulting with her mother, the girl asked for the head of John.
The account in the Gospel of Mark reads:
But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.[4]
Theparallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew reads:
But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter." And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.[5]
Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read "Herod's daughter Herodias" (rather than "daughter of the said Herodias").[6] To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, theLatin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and westernChurch Fathers therefore tended to refer to Salome as "Herodias's daughter" or just "the girl". Because she is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe.[3][7] TheNew Revised Standard Version follows this, translating Mark 6:22 as "When his daughter Herodias[a] came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, 'Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it'", with a footnote: "[a] Other ancient authorities read 'the daughter of Herodias herself'".[8]
Herodias's daughter is arguably notSalome the disciple, who is a witness to thecrucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40.[9] However, the apocryphalBook of the Resurrection of Christ, pseudonymically attributed to the apostle Bartholomew, names a "Salome the temptress" as among the women who went to the empty tomb, perhaps reflecting an early tradition that Salome, the daughter of Herodias, was at the tomb.[10]
Salome is mentioned as a stepdaughter of Herod Antipas in Josephus'sAntiquities of the Jews (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):
Herodias [...] was married toHerod,[a] the son ofHerod the Great, who was born ofMariamne, the daughter ofSimon 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 toHerod, her husband's brother by the father's side, he wastetrarch ofGalilee; but her daughter Salome was married toPhilip,[b] the son of Herod, and tetrarch ofTrachonitis; and as he died childless,Aristobulus,[c] the son ofHerod,[d] the brother ofAgrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus;[11]
According toWilliam Smith'sDictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities:[12]
A tradition based on Joseph situates her birth in the Spanish city ofItalica and her death inLleida.[13]
A few coins with portraits of both Aristobulus and Salome have been found.[14]
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The story of her dance before Herod with the head of John the Baptist on a platter led medieval Christian artists to depict her as the personification of the lascivious woman, a temptress who lures men away from salvation.[15]
Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, notably in regard to the dance mentioned in the New Testament, which is thought to have had an erotic element to it, and in some later transformations it has further been iconized as theDance of the Seven Veils. Other elements of Christian tradition concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John's death.[16]David Flusser, a scholar of early Christianity, believes that her "biographical profile suggests a normal, moral personality".[17] Nevertheless, a similar motif was struck byOscar Wilde in hisSalome, in which she plays afemme fatale, and by Ada L. Harris in her 1906 novel "The Sin Of Salome", who casts her as a predatoryvampire seductress. This parallel representation of the Christian iconography, made even more memorable byRichard Strauss' opera based on Wilde's work, is as consistent with Josephus' account as the traditional Christian depiction; however, according to the Romanized Jewish historian, Salome lived long enough to marry twice and raise several children. Few literary accounts elaborate the biographical data given by Josephus.[18]
Despite Josephus' account, she was not consistently called Salome until the 19th century whenGustave Flaubert (following Josephus) referred to her as "Salome" in his short story "Herodias".[19]
This biblical story has long been a favorite of painters. Painters who have done notable representations of Salome includeMasolino da Panicale,Filippo Lippi,Benozzo Gozzoli, Leonardo da Vinci followersAndrea Solario andBernardino Luini,Lucas Cranach the Elder,Titian,Caravaggio,Guido Reni,Fabritius,Henri Regnault,Georges Rochegrosse,Gustave Moreau,Lovis Corinth,Federico Beltran-Masses andHenry Ossawa Tanner.
Titian's version (illustration c.1515) emphasizes the contrast between the innocent girlish face and the brutally severed head. Because of the maid by her side, this Titian painting, like others of the subject, is also considered to beJudith with the Head ofHolofernes. Unlike Salome who goes nameless in the Christian bible, Judith is a Judeo-Christian mythical patriot whose story is perhaps less psychological and as she was a widow, may not be particularly girlish nor innocent in representations.[20]
In Moreau's version (illustration) the figure of Salome is emblematic of the femme fatale, a fashionabletrope offin-de-siecle decadence. In his 1884 novelÀ rebours, FrenchmanJoris-Karl Huysmans describes the depiction of Salome in Moreau's painting:
No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, – a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.[21]
Salome appears as a character inAlessandro Stradella'soratorioS. Giovanni Battista [scores] (St. John the Baptist), composed in 1676, which includes "Queste lagrime e sospiri", an aria sung by the Salome character.[22]
In 1877Gustave Flaubert'sThree Tales were published, including "Herodias". In this story, responsibility for John's death is given to Herodias and the priests who fear his religious power. Salome is shown as a young girl who forgets the name of the man whose head she requests as she is asking for it.Jules Massenet's 1881 operaHérodiade is based on Flaubert's short story.[23] PlaywrightDoric Wilson created a modern retelling of the Salome story inNow She Dances!, first producedoff-off-Broadway at theCaffe Cino in 1961.[24]
Salome's story was made the subject of asymbolist play byOscar Wilde that was first banned in London in 1892 while rehearsals were underway and which subsequently premiered in Paris in 1896 under the French nameSalomé. In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for Jokanaan (John the Baptist), and causes him to be executed when he spurns her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up Jokanaan's severed head and kisses it.[25]
At the time, British law forbade the depiction of biblical figures on stage.[26] Wilde wrote the play originally in French and then published an English translation by his loverLord Alfred Douglas (titledSalome). To thisGranville Bantock composed incidental music, which was premiered at theCourt Theatre,London, on 19 April 1918.[27]
The Wilde play (in a German translation byHedwig Lachmann) was edited down to a one-actopera byRichard Strauss. The opera, which premiered inDresden in 1905, is famous for theDance of the Seven Veils. As with the Wilde play, it turns the action to Salome, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the opera is less centered on Herod's motivations than the play.[28][29]
Shortly after the success of Strauss' opera,Antoine Mariotte created another opera based on Wilde's original French script. It was premiered on 30 October 1908 at the Grand Théâtre atLyon. This opera was revived only in 2005 at theMontpellier Festival.[30]
In 1907Florent Schmitt received a commission fromJacques Rouché to compose a ballet,La tragédie de Salomé, forLoie Fuller to perform at theThéâtre des Arts.[citation needed] AnotherSalome ballet was composed by the Japanese composerAkira Ifukube in 1948.[citation needed][relevant?] Danish choreographerFlemming Flindt's balletSalome with music byPeter Maxwell Davies premiered in 1978.[31][32]
In "Salome" (1896) by the Greek poetConstantine Cavafy, Salome instigates the death of John the Baptist as part of a futile effort to get the interest of "a youngsophist who was indifferent to the charms of love". When Salome presents to him John's head, the sophist rejects it, remarking in jest "Dear Salome, I would have liked better to get your own head". Taking the jest seriously, the hopelessly infatuated Salome lets herself be beheaded, and her head is duly brought to the sophist, who however rejects it in disgust and turns back to studying the Dialogues ofPlato.[33]
A descriptive piano piece byMel Bonis entitledSalomé (1909) is part of her series,Femmes de Légende.[34]Archibald Joyce composed three 'valses orientales' throughout his career:Vision of Salome (1909),Passing of Salome (1912), andPhantom of Salome (1945).
U2 recorded a song called "Salome" that was included as a b-side to their single "Even Better Than The Real Thing," which was released in 1991.
Wilde'sSalome has often been made into a film, notably a1923 silent film,Salome, starringAlla Nazimova in the title role and a 1988Ken Russell play-within-a-film treatment,Salome's Last Dance, which also includes Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as characters.Steven Berkoff filmed his stage version of the play in 1992.[36]
In the 1950 filmSunset Boulevard, the principal characterNorma Desmond is portrayed as writing a screenplay for a silent film treatment of the legend of Salome, attempting to get the screenplay produced, and performing one of the scenes from her screenplay after going mad.[37]
She was portrayed byJayalalitha in the1973 film Jesus.
Among the numerous art references inDario Argento's 1977 film,Suspiria, we can see four ofAubrey Beardsley's illustrations forOscar Wilde's 1891 tragedy,Salome.
Other Salome films include:
In Season 4 ofDallas Jenkins'The Chosen, Salome was portrayed byBriar Nolet in a scene depicting the New Testament record of her dance before Herod and request for John the Baptist's head at the urging of her mother, Herodias.[40][41][42]
Salome, a young girl tragically confused by the first stirrings of sexual desire, sees the moon as a chaste virginal flower, but nevertheless, is haunted by the repressed memory of her father who was imprisoned and killed in the same cistern as John the Baptist. In the sense of catharsis, one senses not revulsion, but a great torrent of cleansing emotion.Salome brought Freudian psychology to the operatic stage. In the end, Oscar Wilde would have been pleased.
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