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The story of Salomé,
the beautiful and
murderous seductress,
is one of the most
well-known in Biblical
history for its
lurid drama and
sexual undercurrents.
Salome was a historical
figure, no mere
myth. According
to the bible, she
used her charms
to beguile her step-father,
the tetrarch Herod,
into beheading St.
John the Baptist
as a favor to her
mother, who hated
the prophet for
his accusations
that her marriage
was adulterous.
Oscar Wilde was
inspired to write
a play involving
the Biblical characters
and events, but
with one important
revision. Wilde's
Salomé is
not a tool of her
mother's wishes,
but rather a deadly
and scheming woman
with her own motives.
The prophet seals
his fate by rejecting
Salome's kiss, after
she is taken with
a consuming infatuation
for him.
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Wilde wrote the
text of Salomé
in French to avoid
an English prohibition
upon Biblical characters
in stage plays.
He gave his prophet
the name Jokanaan.
Salomé obtains
the power to avenge
her injured pride
on Jokanaan by coaxing
a promise from Herod
to grant a wish
in exchange for
her dancing for
him. Her wish (which
horrifies the reluctant
ruler) is to be
given Jokanaan's
head. At the climax
of the play, Salomé
taunts the dead
prophet and takes
the kiss from him
that he had denied
her in life.
"I was a princess,
and thou didst scorn
me... Ah! wherefore
didst thou not look
at me? ...Well I
know that thou wouldst
have loved me, and
the mystery of Love
is greater than
the mystery of Death."
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