Salome biblical story. Salome

Salome, great-grandmother of Salome

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

From the series "Gospel personalities"
Igor TRIBELSKY
Judging by the frequency of use, this name was very popular among respected Jewish women. AT original form it sounds Shlomit, feminine the name of Shlomo, which we habitually pronounce as Solomon. It may take the form of Shlomtzion. So, for example, the name of the wife of Tsar Alexander was Yannoy (103-76 BC), who, after the death of her husband, was regent (76-67 BC) with her eldest son Hyrcanus II. And it seems like a good politician - with her for the first time in the history of mankind and long before 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? Correctly! This is the mother of the apostles James and John (and, as a result, the wife of their pope Zebedee, who, presumably, bore the Aramaic name Zabeida). In the Russian translation, her name is spelled as Salome - and rightly so, why protect the sound of a name that is already distorted. And even then, they would write directly - Solokha, and that's 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 had asked him to plant one of her sons in right hand from myself (one must think that James), and the other - to the left (according to the residual principle, it should be John, who, by mistake, is considered the author of the Gospel of John). And now, tell me honestly - does such a woman deserve a separate post or not? And I will answer you - yes! Therefore, we will not talk about it here and now.
There is, after all, another wonderful Salome. According to Flavius, she is the daughter of Herod Boethos and Herodias. The only one in the family, she did not even have brothers. Probably utterly spoiled. Mark and Matthew mention the daughter of Herodias, who, for her sparkling dance at the feast, asked for the head of John the Baptist. So she is. That is, the favorite of all poets, artists, musicians " Silver Age"From Oscar Wilde to Alfred Mucha, Salome was also called. Yes, what a post - two stories were written about her, an opera, a ballet, a symphony, I don’t talk about paintings at all, moreover, in coordinates from England to Japan inclusive! And this is only a hundredth of what "What is dedicated to her. And yet, the necessary attention must be paid to this lady. But not now. Why? Because everything must be done in order. And before talking about the great-granddaughter, one should say good word for her great-grandmother. Moreover, her name was also Salome (in fact, of course, on the contrary, her great-granddaughter too)! And it is her name that is in the title of the post. And not all of these famous namesakes.
So, that Salome, because of which, in fact, all this fuss began, was the sister of King Herod. First by birth, and then by the main specialty. Because for everyone around Herod was made of steel of various grades: for family members and subordinates, he was a hard, rigid cast iron, while for the Roman chiefs, Caesar Octavian Augustus and Mark 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 was necessary to knead for a long time, roll it into a tube, squeeze, stretch, slowly mixing right thoughts. And no one knew how to do it with such perfection as she did, although many tried. This can be judged by the results of long and painstaking work.
Imagine for a moment: you are a woman of the royal family, your blood boils in your veins, and here is a husband who has long been tired of it. There is no freedom of morals, and even divorces at the initiative of the female side are prohibited. So what now, and spit on your life, which we all have one? But our Salome was not from the category of voluntary victims, with my own hands putting up a cross. She skillfully summed up two of her husbands! First Joseph (ID, XV, 3:9), then Kostobar (ID, XV, 7:10). And when appeared on the horizon handsome foreigner, the Nabataean prince Sillai (that's who deserves a separate post!), she was free, like a bird, for new love. And it is not her fault that Herod disliked this Sillay, the Nabataean "Ivan Susanin", with political hostility and made it a condition of marriage to convert to circumcision. And Sillay was weak for Great love and too proud to give up the smallest part of his body. In a word, it did not grow together, as they say. And the Nabataean Casanova, not sipping salty, left for Rome to Augustus (oh, what a post he earned there with his behavior!). And Herod attached his sister to Alexa, who, probably, brought her the last glass of water.
Husbands were husbands, and the main man in her life was her older brother. And when he had a wife, and even a beloved one, this should have seemed to Salome the height of world injustice. Well, what a talent one had to have in one's business, to be able to turn a man's love into a bunch of jealousy and anger and bring the matter to the execution of Mariamne I (ID, XV, 7:4)!
And what was she, Salome, to 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, not 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 partners. With the help of the elder, he pleased Augustus. The first man of Rome saw in the family a model for his world superstate, and encouraged subject kings to enter into family ties with their neighbors. So Herod took for Alexander Glafira, the daughter of the Cappadocian king Archelaus (the first Israeli-Turkish alliance, if you like).
If Alexander's marriage was a "sacrifice" to Augustus, then Herod realized his own ambitions regarding the rest of the children. He needed a strong close-knit family, clenched into a single fist. And he created intra-clan couples at the level of cousins. And the first experiment was the marriage of Aristobulus with Berenice, the daughter of Salome.
Dear frends! I ask you to 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 Aristobulus can be forgotten, but at the same time, keep in mind that he exists. When Philo has "four sons of the king, not inferior in honor to the king himself," then this will be our trio plus Herod Antipas. And forget for a while what I just said.
But Herodias must be remembered! First, Herod the Great, grandfather, gave her in marriage to Herod Boethos, an uncle. Then he appointed her husband as heir, and after a while sent him into eternal political oblivion. But when another uncle, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch (that is, the king, by the way) of Galilee and Perea, appeared on her horizon, her grandmother's power-hungry blood boiled in a young fifty-year-old woman. And Herod Antipas also grew up in a family where intra-clan marriages were the norm, the tribal paradigm. And they fell so deeply 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, all of them, the evangelists Mark and Matthew, together with Josephus Flavius, write that Herod fell in love with Herodias and ... And I say that there was no love between them, but only pure calculation on both sides. And he, unlike love, is always rational, and he can be understood. And there will be a separate post about this, although, in my opinion, there has already been, and 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, the emperor Claudius turned the province of Judea into an independent kingdom. That's it, neither more nor less! Agrippa I the Great deserved not only an independent post, but also a fascinating novel.
As did Herod. Having become king, Agrippa I procured for his brother the tetrarchy of Halkiah (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 his nephew, Aristobul Irodovich, mark somewhere in your place. Not so 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 she asked for the head of John the Baptist. This man made us all priceless gift! We will see it in the next publications. Promise.
Those who have managed to completely get confused by this place, 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 "knocked" her mother on her husband. And she collected dirt on him for her brother. And at the right moment, she laid everything on the table.
Salome, daughter of Herodias, and her husband Aristobulus A talented person, after all, this Salome the Elder. She managed to bring things 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 a 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 exalted his firstborn, Antipater. Well, so what, that he did not pose any danger to Salome? She already felt the taste of someone else's blood and did not want to refuse a new portion. And she whispered to Herod that Antipater planned to poison him ...
Now tell me, was Herod supposed to thank his little sister somehow? 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 environs (once) and the Fazaelida district in the Jordan Valley (two). Now it is the site of several kibbutzim and moshav Ptzael with large date plantations from the northern edge of the village of El Ouja to the Valley Monument (pictured).
Before dissolving into the province of Judea, this toparchy changed three owners. They were all women and constituted 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 get ahead of ourselves a lot. But the fate of the corners native land requires, at least, to name the names of these ladies. The first of them is the wife of Octavian Augustus and the mother of Tiberius, Livia Drusilla (that's who you need to learn from female wisdom!). After her death, she deified Augustus, took 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 " gray cardinal"Tiberius, his widow younger brother, Drusus, Anthony the Younger.
Igor Tribelsky

STRING.

John the Baptist openly opposed this marriage. The prophet of God openly rebuked Herod for cohabiting with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. After the Baptism of the Lord, Saint John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas. He did not stop reproaching Herod even after he was imprisoned in the fortress. Therefore, the prisoner was dangerous for Herodias and she was looking for a reason to deal with him.

Giotto, Feast at King Herod, 1320

CULMINATION.

On the day of his birth, Herod arranged a feast. There were many guests of honor from military leaders to the elders of Galilee. Herod asks to dance the daughter of Herodias - Salome ritual dance seven veils, with which a woman tells a man that she is in his power, Salome agrees for a reward that she will announce later. She performed an incendiary Syrian dance in front of the guests and pleased the birthday man. The guests, as if bewitched, looked after her - she was so beautiful, her movements were so light and graceful. They asked her to dance again and again.

And when Salome finished, the drunken Antipas exclaimed: “Ask me for whatever you want! I swear - everything you want will be yours, at least half of the kingdom !!!

He called those present to witness that he would swear to fulfill any wish of the princess. Salome decided to consult with her mother. The mother, hating the prophet for his words that he dared to say about her, suggested: "The head ... Demand the head of John! And that they bring it immediately!"

Salome, returning to the hall, said: “I ask for the head ... .. the head of John the Baptist himself”

And the guests fell silent. More recently, they admired Salome's dance. And now they were dumb with horror. Many of them were dishonorable people. They have done many bad things in their life. Yes, and John himself, many disliked. But kill the prophet! None of them would have dared to do this. Antipas' face darkened. The Prophet always inspired him with respect. However, Herod, wanting to keep his word given in front of distinguished guests, ordered the young girl to fulfill the request. John the Baptist was immediately beheaded and brought to Salome. And then the servants appeared with a large shiny dish. Recently, on those dishes, the same servants brought refreshments to the guests. Now on one of them lay the severed head of John. Salome took the terrible gift to her mother.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Herod's Feast, 1530

EPILOGUE.

God's wrath fell upon those who dared to destroy the prophet. In winter, on the Salome River, she fell through the ice. Her head, cut off by a sharp ice floe, was brought to Herod and Herodias, just as the head of St. John the Baptist, but her body was never found. The former father-in-law, the Arabian king Arefa, moved his troops against Herod and defeated him. The Roman emperor, in anger, exiled Herod along with Herodias to Spain, where they died.

Benozzo Gozzoli, The Dance of Salome at the Feast of King Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, 1461-1462

"Salome" Gaston Bussiere (1862-1929)

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dance-dance appeared in ancient times, and then he was treated with reverent respect. He served not for the entertainment of mere mortals, but for the delight of the gods. Revenge of the seven veils. Strip dancing. The Jews also had almei. The dancers were girls from noble families. They received excellent education and were highly respected. The gospel tells how the strip dance enchanted the children of Israel. In AD 39, at the birthday party of the Jewish king Herod, guests were entertained by his great-granddaughter, the dancer Salome. After the “dance of the seven veils”, which the beauty threw off one after another, the admiring king declared that he would give her everything she wanted. At the instigation of her mother, Salome demanded the head of John the Baptist. This request was granted. So Salome - perhaps for the first time in history - used striptease as a weapon of revenge. The strip dance began to transform from a sacred ritual into a source of personal gain for the performer.

Hans Memling, Altar of St. John the Baptist, 1474-1479

Salome. Bartolomeo Veneto

***

Coins with her image have been preserved, dating back to the years. On the front side of the coins, her husband Aristobulus of Chalcis is depicted with the signature ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΡΙΣΤΟΒΟΥΛΟΥ (“King Aristobulus”), on the back - Salome with the signature ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣ ΣΑΛΟΜΗΣ (“Queen SalomeΣ”).

Initially, Salome married her uncle, tetrarch Herod Philip II. After his death, she married her maternal cousin, Aristobulus, son of Herod of Chalcis; gave birth to him three sons: Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus.

The daughter of King Herod Salome was involved in the murder of John the Baptist. A person who claims this is most likely associated with cultural figures, rather than clergymen. A common plot, repeatedly replicated in art, when a beauty demands the head of John the Baptist for her dance, turned her into a femme fatale.

The plot about the participation of Salome or Salome in the death of John the Baptist is a common plot of Western European art for several centuries. Titian and Picasso, Heine and Wilde, painters and sculptors, poets and playwrights perpetuated the image of this femme fatale. In the Orthodox icon-painting tradition, the plot is known as "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist."

Recall this famous story. Salome danced before Herod during his birthday celebration. Herod liked the dance of the young girl so much that he promised her everything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom! At the instigation of her mother Herodias, Salome asked Herod for the head of John the Baptist. Herod ordered John the Baptist to be beheaded and his head to be brought on a platter.

There is no mention of her name in the pages of Holy Scripture in connection with the death of John. Neither in the Gospel of Mark nor in the Gospel of Matthew is the girl's name mentioned. "And when they celebrated the birthday of Herod, his daughter danced in front of the guests ...". But her name is not mentioned. Only the historian Josephus Flavius, on the pages of his "Jewish Antiquities" found this name.

French historian and writer, esotericist and occultist Robert Ambelain in the book "Jesus, or deadly secret Knights Templar" offers his version of why Salome could not have been at that sinister feast. Herod the Great died in 5 BC. After his death, the eldest son, Archelaus, sailed to Rome so that Emperor Augustus would confirm him on the throne of Judea. His brother, Herod Antipas, returning from Rome, persuaded Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip, to cohabit with him.In the Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius ​​Josephus reported that Herodias agreed to this shortly after the birth of Salome's daughter.

“Consequently,” Ambelain writes, “the aforementioned Salome was already born in 5 BC, and by that time she was about a year old. The death of the Baptist took place in 32 AD, which means that by that time Salome was ( 5 + 32) not less than thirty-seven years".

According to the same Josephus Flavius, the first time Salome married her cousin Philip, the son of Herod Antippa, who was at the same time her own uncle and, due to marriage with Herodias) stepfather. After the death of Philip Antippa, leaving no offspring from her marriage to Salome, she remarried Aristobulus, brother of Agrippa. In this marriage, she gave birth to three sons: Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. Preserved coins with her image, dating from 56-57 years. On the obverse is the image of Aristobulus, on the reverse - Salome.

In his palace in Tiberias, Herod Antipas arranges a great feast. Suppose Salome is seated at a table where the highest dignitaries of Judea have gathered, along with her second husband, Aristobulus. Historian R. Ambelain asks: "How plausible is it that the Idumean tetrarch asked Salome, the mother of the family, to dance in front of her husband?"

And he answers himself: “In the East in those days they didn’t dance, as in our time in European dances, “in their own circle” and “for their own pleasure.” There were dancers for whom it was a craft, and a very despicable craft. stepdaughter, who at the same time was his niece, to start making seductive entrecha in front of her husband and in front of the whole court was an unthinkable thing: it would mean inflicting a grave insult on both. we are talking about a woman of 37 years old, who, as happens in the East and taking into account the era, most likely blurred prematurely.

It is doubtful that the tetrarch offered Salome a reward in the amount, as the Evangelist Mark writes, up to half of his kingdom? It won't get any better if you try to replace Salome with Herodias, who was fifty years old at the time.

It seems that the talented writers Mark and Matthew decided to present the execution of John the Baptist not as an ordinary political prisoner, but as a victim love affair. And in this capacity, the plot fell on the fertile ground of art and was remembered by many generations. The opposition of dance and death turned out to be the personification of both ancient myths and historical anecdotes. Passion and crime figured in the Bible itself: Samson and Delilah, but especially Judith with the head of Holofernes. AT real history suffice it to recall the names of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart or the spy Mata Hari.

Following the logic of Robert Ambelain, Herod Antipas imprisoned John the Baptist in Macheronte, in the desert of Moab, in order to deprive him of any influence on the Jewish people. A year later, he ordered his beheading in the same fortress of Macheron, when the uprising of the Zealots began to acquire dangerous proportions. The personality of a member of the French Academy and the World Association of Francophone Writers, Martinist Ambelain and his book can be treated as fiction, and not as scientific work, but it is difficult to disagree with the conclusion he made about Salome and her participation in the death of the Baptist.

“It was just a simple and cruel precaution, but neither Herodias nor Salome had anything to do with it. This explains why the Church Fathers knew nothing about the notorious “Salome’s dance”, an episode that should be attributed to the realm of legends, ”concludes Ambelain.

Herodias(c.15 BC - after 39 AD) - the 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, Salome, by him, 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 away 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 highly discouraged, and incest was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous connection, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet.

Herodias was a cruel, treacherous, greedy, depraved and excessively proud woman. In examining her life, even biblically biased historians cannot find anything positive about her. Even among the most depraved high society of that time, her figure stands out noticeably in a negative sense. FROM young years she dreamed of royal crown at any price. Evil Herodias harbored a grudge against the prophet John because he, without fear, spoke of her depravity. Wanting to destroy him, she influenced Herod to imprison the Forerunner. And then Herodias had a chance to destroy John the Baptist.

One night in the year 28 A.D. The palace of Herod Antipas was on fire. The court celebrated the birthday of the ruler, the feast continued after midnight, when the drunken tetrarch wished that Salome, his stepdaughter, the daughter of Herodias, who was skilled in this, danced in front of his guests. Raised by her depraved mother, the 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 her kingdom!

Dance of Salome

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

Decapitation of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)

Having persuaded her daughter Solomeya 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?

By her intrigues, Herodias brought disaster to Herod Antipas and was exiled with him into 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 of all. But she chose this fate for herself when, through Salome, she gave the order to kill John the Baptist, which sentenced herself to death.

And Salome later “married the Tetrarch Philip of Trachon, the son of Herod the Great”, that is, she became the wife of her great-uncle and ex-husband his mother. Philip ruled his area for 38 years, from 4 BC. before 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 an outrageous act in the eyes of monotheist Jews. After the death of Philip, Salome married Aristobulus, son of Herod and brother of Agrippa. They had three children - Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. Aristobulus led a very skillful policy towards Rome, seeking the favor and trust of the emperor Nero, who in 55 AD. gives him the possession of Lesser Armenia, conferring on him the royal title.

Robert Henry, Salome, 1909

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

History has preserved the story of her terrible death. Once, by negligence, Salome fell into the hole, and the ice closed around her neck. No one heard the cries of Solomei, since it was at that time that 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 torso swayed measuredly under the ice until the ice cut her neck in a supernatural way. After that, her body fell to the bottom of the river, and the head of the dead Solomei 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, not even for a moment embarrassed or thinking, Salome signed her own sentence, and not only to terrible death in earthly life, but also eternal death.

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

Herodias(c.15 BC - after 39 AD) - the 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, Salome, by him, 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 away from his brother Philip. Even at that time, from the point of view of the Jewish religion, and indeed moral norms in general, marriages between relatives were highly discouraged, and incest was considered a great sin. John the Baptist publicly condemned and mercilessly denounced the blasphemous connection, for which Herodias fiercely hated the prophet.

Herodias was a cruel, treacherous, greedy, depraved and excessively proud woman. In examining her life, even biblically biased historians cannot find anything positive about 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. Evil Herodias harbored a grudge against the prophet John because he, without fear, spoke of her depravity. Wanting to destroy him, she influenced Herod to imprison the Forerunner. And then Herodias had a chance to destroy John the Baptist.

Yvette Pozdnikova. Herodias and Salome. 2008

One night in the year 28 A.D. The palace of Herod Antipas was on fire. The court celebrated the birthday of the ruler, the feast continued after midnight, when the drunken tetrarch wished that Salome, his stepdaughter, the daughter of Herodias, who was skilled in this, danced in front of his guests. Raised by her depraved mother, the 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 her kingdom!

Dance of Salome

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

Decapitation of John the Baptist (Caravaggio. 1608)

Having persuaded her daughter Solomeya 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?

By her intrigues, Herodias brought disaster to Herod Antipas and was exiled with him into 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 of all. But she chose this fate for herself when, through Salome, she gave the order to kill John the Baptist, which sentenced herself to death.

And Salome later “married Philip the Tetrarch of Trachon, 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 area for 38 years, from 4 BC. before 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 an outrageous act in the eyes of monotheist Jews. After the death of Philip, Salome married Aristobulus, son of Herod and brother of Agrippa. They had three children - Herod, Agrippa and Aristobulus. Aristobulus led a very skillful policy towards Rome, seeking the favor and trust of the emperor Nero, who in 55 AD. gives him the possession of Lesser Armenia, conferring on him the royal title.

Robert Henry, Salome, 1909

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

History has preserved the story of her terrible death. Once, by negligence, Salome fell into the hole, and the ice closed around her neck. No one heard the cries of Solomei, since it was at that time that 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 torso swayed measuredly under the ice until the ice cut her neck in a supernatural way. After that, her body fell to the bottom of the river, and the head of the dead Solomei 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, not even for a moment embarrassed or thinking, 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