Herodias

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Herodias (painting by Paul Hippolyte Delaroche , 1843)

Herodias (* 8 BC ; † after 39 AD ) was a daughter of the Jewish prince Aristobulus and his wife Berenike as well as a granddaughter of Herod the Great and his wife Mariamne , a princess from the Hasmonean royal house . She is said to be mainly responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist .

youth

Herodias' father Aristobulus was born 7 BC. Executed by King Herod, his own father, for alleged coup plans. Herodias was probably only a year old at this point. Her mother Berenike settled in Rome after Herod's death († 4 BC). Herodias probably also spent her childhood and youth in the capital of the world empire.

Marriage to Herod Antipas

Herodias was first married to her uncle Herodes Boethos , a son of Herod the Great from his marriage to the second Mariamne, daughter of the high priest Simon Boethos . From this marriage, the daughter Salome was born. Herod Boethos, who was not considered in King Herod's will († 4 BC), lived as a private citizen ("Herod without land") after the death of his father.

Perhaps this was the occasion for his ambitious wife Herodias to enter into a relationship with his half-brother, the tetrarch Herod Antipas , one of the main heirs of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas then expelled his wife, the daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas, and married Herodias. This double adultery aroused strong offense among Herod Antipas' Jewish subjects. John the Baptist sharply criticized the sinful couple in public sermons, which is why Herod Antipas imprisoned him. His angry father-in-law, King Aretas, undertook a retaliatory campaign in which the tetrarch's army was defeated.

Beheading of John the Baptist

At a festival, Herod Antipas is said to have approved a wish by his stepdaughter Salome, delighted with a veil dance. According to the report in the New Testament of the Bible , the "daughter of Herodias", incited by her mother, who was a thorn in the side of the prisoner of John the Baptist , asked for his beheading ( Mt 14.3-12  EU ; Mk 6.14- 29  EU ; Lk 3,19-20  EU ). According to popular belief, this daughter means Salome, although her name is not mentioned in the Bible.

Exile to southern Gaul

In 37 AD, Emperor Caligula granted Herodias' brother Herod Agrippa I , a hitherto sluggish private man but with good connections to the Roman imperial court, the title of king and rule over Judea. Herodias thereupon urged her husband Herod Antipas to also demand the royal dignity. When his father died, he had already reached out in vain for the royal diadem, now he followed his wife's request and traveled to Rome. But instead of being made king by Caligula, he was deposed as tetrarch in 39 and exiled to southern Gaul , where Herodias followed him. There are no reports in the sources about the further life of the couple and their end.

Herodias in Art and Literature

Herodias appears as a figure in numerous artistic designs of the Salome legend. In some, she is even the title character:

Eponyms

The asteroid (546) Herodias is named after her.

See also

swell

  • Flavius ​​Josephus: Jewish antiquities (Antiquitates iudaica). Fourier, Wiesbaden undated
  • Flavius ​​Josephus: The Jewish War (De bello iudaico). 2nd Edition. Wilhelm Goldmann, Munich 1982.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1 in the Google Book Search
personal data
SURNAME Herodias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Granddaughter of Herod the Great, mother of Salome
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century