Salome: The Secret Love Of The Third Maria (Book Part V)

 

 

The celebration on July 20th in every Prophet Elias Monastery throughout Greece

“Prophet Elias is the beginning of Christianity. He was sent down by God as a forerunner of the Messiah of the world. He is the one who spent two years in the widow’s house and store in Zarephath. While he was there was called upon by God to fight idolatry.” continued the old man taking a deep breath. “He was a prophet who lived in the middle of the Eighth Century BC in the kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. His stern prophetic fervor in the defense of monotheism of one non-imaged God and his fierce fight against the pagan influences and many

Prophets of Idolatry, made him the ‘The Guardian Angel’ of the monotheistic Hebrews and therefore he was considered as the forerunner of the Jewish Messiah. On the other showing, you will see, Prophet Elias was arrogant violent and the constant companion of thieves and corrupted priests to the point where God send him into the desert to wait for theMessiah, who according to prophecy he was to come by sea, but I believe in essence he was sent there to rethink his performance. Having spent almost six years on the Mount Carmel, he was recalled by God to go and give a message to king Ahab and Queen Jezebel who believed in Baal, the God imaged as bull. To prove them wrong about Baal and to show them that his un-imaged God was the true one, he invited them to Mount Carmel to witness a contest and the winner of the contest would be the true God. By some power from heaven or some human ingenuity Prophet Elias came up as victorious and the people learned that his God was the true God. He immediately ordered the execution of 950 prophets of Baal’s and other prophets of idolatry faiths.

That of course made Queen Jezebel angry and ordered Prophet Elias’ death. As Prophet Elias with his assistant Prophet Elisheah crossed the River Jordan from the west heading East, God ordered him to ascend to heaven and he did in a fiery chariot but made it understood to him that he could not enter His Kingdom of Heaven unless he would die on earth and promised to him that he would send him back to earth as a forerunner of the Messiah. If you believe the existence of God you should believe that God had many problems with the human race in the beginning, so he communicated with men those days in a very frequent basis.”

Socrates, according to what he was saying, believed that Prophet Elias was sent back to earth with a different name, about eight hundred and fifty years later for two logical reasons; one as forerunner to pave the road for the Messaiah, Jesus, and to die so he can take his rightful place in the Kindom of Heaven, as he was promised by God when he was assented the first time to avoid death by Jezebel. As a forerunner for Jesus, going under the name Iaokonnan, took an active part in ministering the word of God and baptizing the people in Jordan River, including Jesus, therefore he took the name of John the Baptist. John the Baptist made many loyal friends and followers and created some enemies. One of his most besieged adversaries, this time, was Herodias, Salome’s mother and the wife of Herod Antipas, who in turn made him one of her most despised man.

Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great lived in the Herod the Great palace, with his stepdaughter Salome and her mother Herodias

 

Chapter IV

The Return of Salome from Rome to Jerusalem

 

 

Herod Antipas, Herodias’ new husband

“The children of the rich, the powerful and famous seem plenty of times that can grow up without the fear of anything bad can happen to them,” Socrates went on, “Salome, Herodias’ beautiful daughter and Herod’s stepdaughter was their spoiled child. In that beautiful head and gorgeous body a miserable beastie soul was harbored, guided by the worst spirit of the worst criminal, her mother, Herodias, a beautiful, ambitious and unscrupulous woman. Before she became the wife of Herod Antipas, she was married to his half brother Herod II who was the son of Herod the Great the, king of Judea.

 

Salome and Herod Antipas are playing

“In the year of 14 AD, while Herodias was married to Herod II, she had a girl whom she named Mariamne, the name of her paternal grandmother. In the year of 23 AD Herodias divorced Herod II, realizing that he was not going to be the king because of his mother’s attempt to kill his father Herod the Great. Herodias, thinking she had a better chance of being a queen, in the same year of 23AD married Herod Antipas, who divorced Phasaelis the daughter of Areta IV, an Arabian king to marry Herodias. The marriage to Herod Antipas took place when the daughter Mariamne was nine years old. Marriage to the ex-wife of ones brother was not uncommon; Herodias was also the daughter of Antipas’ half brother, Aristobulus.  It was evident that Herodias wanted to name her daughter, Salome, for her grandmother’s name, Salome the Cunning, but the Hebrew religion would not allow anyone to be named after a person who is still living. Herodias seeing her daughter’s character and attitude to be turning similar to Salome the Cunning, that was one more reason to call Mariamne, Salome. The name ‘Mariamne’ was very uncommon, but it was an exclusive name in the Herod the Great  family line. Salome (Mariamne) lived in Rome with her father Herod II and was educated there. She would visit Israel where her mother and Herod Antipas lived in Herod the Great Palace, about thirty miles east of Jerusalem, near Jericho. As time went by and Salome began to show signs of womanhood, her mother Herodias, being afraid that Herod Antipas would find a younger woman that would replace her, she encouraged relations of questionable taste between her daughter, Salome, and her husband Herod Antipas, as Socrates tells the story.

In the eastern side of the Dead Sea rose the citadel of Machaerus, which was built a few miles east of Jerusalem and across the Dead Sea, on top of a hill and it was surrounded by four deep valleys. At the base of the citadel, a group of houses sat within the circle of a wall whose outlines undulated with the unevenness of the soil. A winding road cutting through rocks and ravines connected the citadel with a fortress. The fortress was surrounded by high stonewalls and in there stood a very elaborate palace, the Herod the Great palace. One can only imagine the elegance, the beauty and style of that structure, the home of Herod the Great who had built during his reign the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the city of Tiberius on the shores of Galilee. It was decorated with many carved arches and long and wide balconies sitting on arched walls and adorned by guard-rails made of sycamore wood.  After the death of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas took the palace and made a home for him his new wife Herodias and her young daughter Mariamne, better known as Salome now after the death of Salome the Cunning.

 

It was a habit, almost a ritual, according to historians and to Socrates, for Herod Antipas as soon as he woke up every morning to go out on the balcony and stand there enjoying the sunrise.

It was a summer morning and the sun had just begun to show a part of its face from the top of the mountain, when Herod Antipas came out. He gazed at the crests of the hill-tops in the valleys as the sun began to rise from behind Machaerus citadel and spread rosy flush over the sky, lighting up everything around and shining on the far away mountains of Judea. Standing on the balcony and looking with great admiration at the Hebron Mountain and the fields of sesame and imagining far to the west, the tower of Antonia dominated the city of Jerusalem, Harod Antipas, slowly turned to his right uttering a deep sigh as he gazed in the direction of Ierohori (Jericho) contemplating of the rocky hills footing on a long rug of sand, shaded by the numerous palm trees. With his thoughts laden with nostalgia upon the cities of his beloved Galilee wandered if God’s good intentions would of ever allow him to return to them as a victor and defeater of the Roman Empire. In that early hour of the up coming day, from the balcony, he could see the Dead Sea welcoming the River Jordan with open arms that extended all the way down to Yemen border.  From that spot near the Dead Sea across from Jerusalem and to the southeast from his balcony, he could see men with spears moving among a group of horses and dying camp-fires suffocated by the beams of the rising sun. Those men, he knew, were the soldiers of the sheik the Arab leader whose daughter Herod repudiated to marry Herodias. Suddenly while observing the sunrise and marveling at the scenery of his surroundings, his mind flew to his wife Herodias.

Although Herodias was the sister of Agrippa, coming from a powerful family where murder, bribery, outrage and many other atrocities were nothing but common, Herod was more concerned and alarmed with his previous wife’s family, revengeful Arabs, than Herodias’ violent kinfolk who hated each other.

His fears of the unexpected, the continuous twelve-year war, and his anxiety of becoming a king did not age the tetrarch terribly.  As he stood there the beholder could see a strong and muscular body beneath his green-border toga. His grayish hair came curled down to his shoulders and some of it was touching his trimmed brown beard.

 

Herod Antipas and Jesus                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Herodias, being married to the tetrarch for almost ten years now, had doubts and fears thinking that he would send her away for a younger woman and the love she sought to rekindle had died long ago but her dreams of becoming a queen some day still lived within her breast eating on her little by little. In the first place, the marriage was not a brilliant one from the point of view of birth, fortune, or distinction. The rumor was that she married Herod Antipas in the hopes of becoming a queen, thinking that he had a better chance of being named a king of Israel by the ruling Romans, but there were strong indications that they also loved each other passionately for the first years of their marriage. Under normal circumstances that marriage would have been a marriage made in paradise with the merging of two great powers plus accompanied with abundance of love, but it had a reverse affect on the people of Israel. Because she was the daughter of Aristobulus, who was executed by his father Herod the Great, and the older brother of Herod Antipas, the ex-wife of his younger brother Herod II and were all the sons of Herod the Great, the Israelis thought of it as incest and incest didn’t sit well with their monotheistic morals; so the marriage was doomed to fail from its beginnings.

 

The free spirited Salome, the daughter of Herodias’ and Herod II’s, who was also known as Philip, was Herodias’ last hope in keeping Herod Antipas from looking at younger women, therefore Salome’s behavior,  was not very reserved in the presence of him. Seeing and admiring Salome’s young body which was often covered slightly with transparent silk veils and cloak, Herod was seen to have bowed to the young lady in many occasions. He was seen to parade in the palace with Herodias on his left, Salome on his right and with his arms stretched around the shoulders of mother and daughter, but his head rested on Salome’s head as if he were whipped by Salome’s existence.

This summer morning as the tetrarch was gazing out and away from the immediate palace grounds, there was the town of Machearus made up of dingy old houses that  were  brightened up to look almost cheerful as  the sun’s rays gleamed upon them. Servant after servant hastened around the palace grounds going to their choirs, each one faster than the other in a greater perspiration than his predecessor. Among them was a figure with swift and rapid steps hasting out from one marble column and hiding behind the other. That figure eventually was recognized to be the figure of a woman who was no other than Herodias concealed behind the pillars appearing to be in a mischievous mood to play a hiding game with her husband, while he was engaged in surveying his surroundings, unaware of her presence a few meters behind him. She, a medium size woman, was enveloped in a light blue robe falling down to her sandaled feet. She glistened with jewelry, as she normally did when leaving her chamber. Her thick dark hair was combed and hung down passed her shoulders with the ends hiding in her bosom. Her olive skin, full lips, large dark eyes and high cheek bones was much evidence that a lot of beauty had harbored there, but the years began to scratch and cover some luster and replace it with wrinkles, pointing the way that some of her beauty had gone.

Suddenly Herod turned and walked into the palace rather hastily, as if he had just remembered that he had to attend something of great importance. The movement was sudden, but Herodias who watched him was not thrown off her guard by it, as she shrank in the dark corner of the columns and the high wall. Herod passed by on the opposite side of the hall without taking a hint of her. She saw him making a left turn in the hallway and not taking a chance of losing him in the palace, she slipped away from her hiding place and ran to the end of the corridor she saw him opening a double white door and going in, and closing the door behind him very softly. Herodias advanced a little distance towards the door; she hid there again and waited out shivering with anxiety, realizing where he had gone.

Entering the large room, Herod stood by the door and gazed at a female body covered up to her shoulders and lying on her side facing away from the tetrarch.  After a few minutes of staring at that beautiful female object he advanced. In the twinkling of an eye, he divested himself of his clothes, dropped his sandals on the covered floor, placed both hands on the bed, then his knees, he bend down, kissed the woman on the side of the face and said softly,  “Salome, my dear young love, wake up and look at me. Now I am completely free from any daily attachments. ”

Salome opened her dark eyes, turned on her back and slowly placed her arms around her stepfather and whispered, “I am tempted to say that you are too late for what you have in mind. I have been waiting for you to come.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter VI

Herodias Visits John the Baptist at his Dungeon

 

Waiting outside her daughter’s room, Herodias, after a while, abandoned her post of observation, turned and walked away visibly trembling from head to foot, knowing her husband had entered her daughters room, something she had suspected and discreetly supported, but that was the first time that reality appeared like an evil spirit displayed on silver platter the evidence that her husband and her daughter carried on a love affair, but a thought rushed through her head that affair would keep him home and close to her. Thinking along these lines, she imparted a bitter smile, and if bitter smile wasn’t invented yet in the world, it was she who invented it then. She walked through the spacious hall that was built with marble columns standing one after the other. As she was walking she suddenly stopped, seeing the wide stairs going downward, as if another thought came into her head, discovering another world for her to explore or take shelter. She followed that stairs down two flights. The wide stairs ended into a narrow hall leading to the left and away from the daylight. Turning the corner she saw two servants, a man and a woman, coming her way. They were both wrapped with old tattered garments protecting their persons from the cold damp in the day-lightless cellar.

Herodias hid because, even though it was a part of the palace, it had been known to be the residence of some desperate ruffians who would sneak in to get away from the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer and eat what ever they could find or steal; and it had also been known that crimes of robbery and even murder were committed. The man was carrying a lantern, from which however no great light shone, and trudging a few paces ahead of the woman as he now and then would relax his pace and turn his head around as if to make sure that the woman was following and seeing her close to his heels, mended his rate of walking with a considerable increase. . They passed by where Herodias was hiding, with profound silence.

Coming out of her hiding place and on the presumption the couple was harmless; Herodias yelled ‘wait!’

With that authoritarian command, the couple was startled; stopped and turned and saw the figure of a female standing a few paces away. With the little light of the lantern, after a short time of observation they both recognized that figure to be Herodias and they immediately approached and went down on their knees.

“Your Highness,” said the man, “Can we be of any assistance to you?”

“Yes, you may tell me first who you are and what you are doing here,” she said firmly.

“My wife and I, Your Highness, are the caretakers of a prisoner. We are returning from his prison cell after we served him with some breakfast.”

“I want you to take me to him,” she ordered, as if she knew who the prisoner was.

“Your Highness,” pleaded the man still on his knees, “This particular prisoner has much contempt for you.”

“I am not afraid of him, take me to him,” she replied in the same authoritarian tone of voice.

“Oh, no; he will not bring any physical harm on you, Your Highness, but only some verbal invectiveness because of your status and stance.”

“I know, I have heard of it before; not to my face but behind my back. Now, I want him to tell it to my face.”

“Let us go, if you insist,” said the man, getting onto his feet, motioned his wife to do the same, “You must follow me, Your Highness, because the cellar is an indefinite chaos.”

They all turned and headed back the way the couple had come from. The man was leading the way holding the lantern up high to light the way for his immediate followers Herodias and his wife close behind

Herodias looked around her and seeing the strange place in a strange condition, became terrified. If her desire to see the prisoner was not stronger than her fears being in that desolate place, she would have turned back and run out. Spiders had built webs in the corners of the walls and ceilings; and as they walked cautiously in that cellar hallway, the mice ran across the floor and went terrified into their holes. With those exceptions and the couple that guided her and an occasional soldier going somewhere there was neither sight nor sound of any living thing. There were no windows or any openings for natural light to enter the place.

They came upon an opening of the subterranean cellar. She gazed at some objects resembling breastplates hanging on the wall, then she stopped and looked at them with great interest; it was evident that she had never been there before. The man rushed ahead, placed the lantern on the floor and with strong arms, devoting his entire strength, he opened the door and the door disappeared into the wall. There were corridors cut into the rocky foundation of the castle and vaults had been built and formed on both sides of the corridor with pillars set at regular distances from one to another. Standing there and staring with an astonished look in her face, she demanded the vaults to be opened. The first vault was opened, it was observed that was filled with old armor; the second vault was filled with spikes. After a long and careful survey by Herodias, they moved on to the third then to the fourth.

The walls of the third and fourth vault were covered with rows of helmets, the tops of which looked like a group of fiery serpents. The fifth and the sixth were full of greaves, protection of the legs in battle with bracelets and armlets hung in every empty space of the chamber; the seventh vault, one could see in the deep shadows, hideous instruments, invented by barbarians; axes resembling the American Indian tomahawks, which were known to men many years later and studded with sharp nails, pincers resembling the jaws of crocodiles and other tools of torture and prolonged death.

“These remains of weapons,” said the male servant, lifting his lantern eye high to provide a better view to his mistress, “are leftovers of weapons used by Herod Antipas’ father, Herod the Great. His majesty Antipas is in possession of them for memories, or if the occasion should arise, to defend the palace against brigands, murderers and especially Arabs, he is ready. As you will see, Your Highness, this space of weapons is guarded day and night. My wife, I and Mannaeus, the Samaritan who is His Majesty Antipas’ private executioner, are permitted to enter in here.” Saying this the man kicked the door of a vault three times, arithmetically one long and two short, then immediately, about twenty armed guards came out of their hiding places silently and calmly, and stood at attention one next to the other looking straight ahead with disdained faces.

Having given Herodias enough time to see and study the guards, the man kicked the door only once again and the guards disappeared behind the walls.

A little farther from the last vault it was the eighth, guarded by two soldiers holding burning torches and standing at attention by the door that led to the vault, which resembled a chamber more than a vault.

“This is where he is imprisoned,” said the man, looking at her eagerly.

“Open the door,” she ordered, without taking a second to consider her next move.

The man hesitantly opened the door, and a few feet from the entrance, iron bars came to view and behind them lay a half dressed human being on dirty hay.

“Your Highness, this is as far as we can go. Mannaeus, the executioner has the only key,” said the man in a low voice.

Upon hearing the man’s voice, the prisoner stood up slowly. His head touched a grating embedded in the wall. His dark hair hung down to his shoulders resting on his camel hair robe. His face was pale-white and his eyes were restless. Not knowing the purpose of the unexpected visit, and not seeing Herodias yet, who was hiding behind the wall, he only moved about without casting his eyes on his visitors, knowing them as his care takers paid very little attention. As he moved about, he disappeared from time to time in the shadows of the dungeon. His way of walking, his graceful movements and the expression on his face were still showing signs of charisma and fascination, but his hands visibly trembled as he attempted to run his fingers through his uncombed hair and beard.

Herodias felt compelled to show herself to him, so she came out from behind the wall and stood by the doorway; breathing heavily with parted lips, she gazed in the darkness of the prison cell with an expression of fear and hatred.

“Is that man, John the Baptist?” she asked with a trembling and a piteous voice that sounded different from her feelings.

“Yes, Your Highness; in the flesh and the bones,” replied the man with the lantern.

Seeing her and recognizing her, Iaokonnan grasped his prison bars with both hands, shook them fiercely at first, he then pressed against them with his bearded face as his eyes shined with fury. Seeing Herodias so close to him as never before, his face became distorted into wild leer, resembled a picture of some violent hand had painted it and by some ungodly power had come to life, rather the work of nature’s hand.

‘Ah! Is it you, Jezebel? You have captured your lord’s heart with the twinkling of your eye. You set your bed with him and shared it with him, who is not your husband. You have convinced him to commit an adulterous act with you, so you can secure your future and fulfill your dream of some day becoming a queen. Jezebel, Jezebel, daughter of Babylon, and a true believer of the Baal, the bull.’ At that moment Socrates stopped telling his story, rose from his chair with the assistance of his cane, walked and sat where Dimitri had sat before.

“You see, Dimitri, Jezebel was the wife, as I mentioned before, she was the wife of Ahab, eight hundred fifty years before Herodias, Jezebel was the Queen who had ordered the death on Prophet Elias. John the Baptist did not mistook her as Jezebel but he was comparing her to his biggest enemy vicious Jezebel, whom Herodias knew from the Israel history. Iaokonnan who was permanently named John the Baptist after his death went on with predictions of Herodias fate.”

‘The lord shall take from you your sparkling jewels.’ “Iaokonnan went on,” continued Socrates, still sitting on the retaining wall leaning his chin on his staff, ‘Your purple robes and fine linen; your bracelets from your arms; your anklets from your feet; your golden ornaments that dangle from your ears; your glittering diamonds,’ “continued Iaokonnan with such strong voice and loud sound it could very well be heard from the citadel of Machearus, ‘Prostrate yourself in the dust, daughter of Babylon, remove your garments, gather them up under your arms and walk in the flowing streams of Jordan River to cleanse yourself. But your sins will follow you; your disgrace shall be known to all men. Accursed one, you will die like a lost and unwanted dog from yourself inflicted wounds without anybody taking notice of you,’ yelled John the Baptist, turning his face away from her for a moment.

“Herodias, at that instant, falling from the spell of his glance as he withdrew, she returned loudly, ‘I am not Jezebel, you wretched one. I am not a daughter of Babylon, I am a daughter Harmosians and the Mecabbees. You have convinced yourself and some other half-wits, that you are Prophet Elijah, but you’re nothing but a wilderness body without a soul. Of all the corruption and unfairness and injustices and blasphemes that is punishing the world and its people you picked on my golden ornaments that dangle from my ears. You picked on the one who never wished you any harm or who had no ill feelings against you or spoken an unkind word about you behind your back in front of your face. You have made me a woman of evil, failing to realize that I, being a woman of royalty have needs and necessities beyond those of a woman from slavery or peasantry. Instead of having pity on me, you have nothing but contempt, as if what I have done has ruined the world. You predict my future, my failing fate and my destruction and my loses, let me predict, oh, man of pretence, that you will die before the new moon appears in the sky.’

“Herodias, without any farther delay or additional words,” said Socrates, “made about face and rushed out, heading away leaving everything and everybody behind her, with tears coming down on her face, plagued with hurt and anger pouring on her from all sides, including her husband spending time with her daughter in her chambers in that precise moment. She felt

as if all the vistas to the outside world were closing on her, she felt being in a windowless room, and she was haunted by the vanity and senselessness of all earthly things, which made her happy, now they began to torment her without mercy. As she quickly walked on, looked shattered from distress, the color of her face had gone, the pain became stronger and her thoughts more confused as she made the final turn to get out of the cellar, as she was trying to escape observation.”

She finally surfaced in the front of the door where her husband had entered a little while earlier, according to Socrates story, and she was visibly tempted to knock on the door and there she stopped.

“Now I am here,” she thought. “The execrable journey is over. The place of execution is here; beyond this door that I see before me. This is the time for my execution. Monday’s crime is Tuesday’s trial and Wednesday is the day of the beheading; today is my Wednesday,” she thought. “I express my wish to make my last declaration before the two of them. To declare what I was made to suffer. They made me walk on dark corridors, and descent stairs, they pushed me through low doors and made me sit in grave rooms, scarcely lighted by daylight. No use declaring my grievances,” she thought again. “It is my fault. I tried to hold onto something by surrendering, and I belittled myself and became humble. I now realize, if I would allow my haughtiness and pride to submit to humbleness, it will only end up disastrous. I know they will laugh and clap their hands at my declaration and I will stand it, because I love them both. Today is not my day; it may be tomorrow the day of recovery or the day of execution.”

Suddenly the color came back on her face; the pain was over as she regained her suitable thoughts. She resolved to go straight to her chambers a few doors down the hall from there.