Herodias and Her Daughter Salome

Herodias was a princess of the Herodian family, the daughter of Aristobulus IV and his wife Berenice. She lived from about 15 BCE to 39 CE. According to Josephus, she was married to Herod II (Herod Philip) and then to his half brother Herod Antipas (called “Herod the tetrarch” by Josephus and “King Herod” in the Gospel of Mark, though he was never king). After her brother Agrippa I became king (ca. 40 CE), she convinced her husband Herod Antipas to go to Rome to request a crown for himself. Hearing of their intentions, Agrippa successfully thwarted their plans by sending letters disdaining Herod Antipas to the emperor, who banished them to Lyons, in Gaul, and stripped Antipas of his tetrarchy. The emperor permitted Herodias to return home, but she chose to live in exile with her husband, a decision that angered the emperor so much that he transferred her property to Agrippa. Her divorce and second marriage may have been met with scrutiny in Jewish circles, because according to Jewish law it was unlawful for a woman to marry her husband’s brother unless the first husband had died childless. The Gospel of Mark relates that Herod Antipas imprisoned John the Baptist for calling attention to the breach of law, and the Gospel of Luke also mentions John’s condemnation of the marriage. (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.116–117, refers to Herod killing John but does not provide details.) The Gospel of Mark also mentions Herodias’ antipathy toward John and his beheading at the behest of the daughter of Herodias. Numerous later works of art depict the head of John the Baptist presented to Salome on a platter.