Volume 8:Number 2, April/May, 2008
Published by The DAISY Shop, women's couture resale (almost 14 years of operation come June 10, can you imagine?)
67 East Oak Street, 6th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 USA
(001 International +1) + (312) 943-8880
FAX: (001 International +1) + (312) 943-6660, a secure line for ordering by credit card (VISA, M\C, Disc)
To “Reserve” merchandise (24 hour hold), e-mail us. E-mail address Head Daisy
Publisher: Barbara, Head Daisy
Feature Writers: Ms Terry; Ms Romance
Assoc. Editors: Anna Daisy, Herta Daisy
Foreign Correspondents: Rym Daisy
Critic Emeritus: The Daisy Mother, Bea
All prices shown $US. All sales are final sales. All merchandise is authentic, 2nd hand couture.
Our popular historical articles have been compiled into an e-book, An Interpretive History of Sorts. If you have Microsoft Reader software, you can download the e-book and read the compilation to your Aug2006IssueSubscribersPage_files's content. Click here to go to the e-book: An Interpretive History of Sorts.
If you have Adobe Reader, you can access the articles in .pdf format at this link: An Interpretive History of Sorts.
By popular demand, an archive of past issues of The Perspicacious Woman OnLine is available in .pdf format. Click here to obtain any of the past three issues: Archives of The Perspicacious Woman OnLine (C)
THE PERSPICACIOUS WOMAN ONLINE© BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY:
If you have perspicacious friends, send us their e-mail address. We’ll put them on our fashion ezine subscription list, and let them know you referred them to us. E-mail us at Editor. All email addresses are held in privacy. None will be released, distributed, sold, or traded. We thank you for your referrals. Be sure to add editor@daisyshop.com to your "Permitted" list of e-mail addresses on your e-mail program.
LAY AWAY AVAILABLE AT THE DAISY SHOP!
No service charge. Minimum of 30% deposit. Maximum of 4 months to pay! E-mail us at Customer Service with your FAX number and we’ll send you a form to complete and return to us via 1st Class Mail.
ADVERTISING NOW ACCEPTED IN THE PERSPICACIOUS WOMAN ONLINE©
Have a product or service that perspicacious women might be interested in? Perhaps, an ad in our fashion ezine might be good for you. Here’s some information:
* Our proprietary, opt-in subscribers list exceeds 1,000 email addresses
* 89,700 unique visitors come to our website in a two month period
* 1,207,942 hits occur from these unique visitors
* These website visitors spend an average of 16 minutes on our website
* The fashion ezine is the 3rd most popular web page on our website
* Google ranks the newsletter page as 4.
* Google has 2,650 listings for The Perspicacious Woman OnLine
At publisher’s discretion, advertising will be accepted in this fashion ezine. No adult content products or services, financial schemes and offers, work-at-home offers, religious, political messages, philanthropic requests will be accepted.
Should your advertising contract be accepted and your payment information verifiable, the advertising contract constitutes a 2-month agreement between The Daisy Shop and you in exchange for $100 flat for the following advertising:
* A text ad containing no more than 50 words (spell check, please)
* A .jpg format image (72 or 96 resolution), sized 200x200 pixels
* A link to your website, should you have a website; other wise, address information (part of the 50-word text)
The text ad, image, and link will be published in The Daisy Shop's bi-monthly fashion ezine, The Perspicacious Woman OnLine©, located at http://daisyshop.com/newsletter.asp, at various ezine directories, various search engines, and sent one time to subscribers of The Perspicacious Woman OnLine©, a private, opt-in subscribers list, owned by The Daisy Shop, which will NOT be made available to advertisers.
Deadline for text, image, and link information is 15 days prior to the publication date:
June publication - May 15
August publication - July 15
October publication - September 15
December publication - November 15
February publication - January 15
April publication - March 15
Should you miss the deadline, your ad will be published in the next bi-monthly issue.
The Daisy Shop, The Perspicacious Woman OnLine©, and all parties involved in these two entities are held harmless for any and all malfunctions of the Internet which prevent a two month display. No refunds or accommodations will be given in compensation.
GoTo http://daisyshop.com/AdContract.htm for a printer friendly contract. FAX this to The Daisy Shop, (312) 943-6660.
SPRING PREVIEW
I'm so very glad for Spring. It's been a cold, snowy Winter in Chicago with far too many dreary days in January and February. We Daisies yearn for Spring, whose garments and accessories we've been collecting for you, Dear Reader, since December, 2007. We've relied on style.com, neimanmarcus.com, and bergdorfgoodman.com to show us the way to select what's fashionable, what's now, what's IN, and what we think will work for frugal, fashionable women such as yourselves. The word wizards at style.com came up with clever name tags for Spring Trends in December, when couturiers showed their Spring Collections: Bare Market; Boy Meets Girl; Hippie Revival; Neon Bible; Nice Stems; Style Tribes; Blanc Expressions. That's their job, you see, to hook us in to read the articles that Those Who Know have written about the couturiers' offerings for Spring, 2008. I was hooked and I looked and read. Here's what I found:
Bare Market:
Gauze\lawn, chiffon, and transparent tulle\organza garments=bare, a trend that's to my taste, when you opt to wear lacy undergarments, which the couturiers' stylists did not opt the models to wear. Modesty with a tad of skin showing is good; in-your-face nudity outside of your private space is not, and those are the facts, ma'am. Here are our selected choices of tulle\organza and chiffon and gauze from our Spring stock of inventory:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Boy Meets Girl:
Wanna look like a Depression Era newsboy wearing his older brother's too tight garments? then, go with this awful Trend. I selected nothing for this look.
That's an authentic, impoverished, yet, plucky newsboy at left; Karl Lagerfeld's goofy styling, middle; Rodnik's goofy hair styling, at right.
Hippie Revival:
Oh, good Lord! Been there, done that. I wish the couturiers would stop reviving this era. It looks dated, costumey, absurd now that the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius has passed. I selected nothing for this look. You're on your own.
Neon Bible:
This, we all liked, although none of us understand why bible was appended to neon by the word wizards. Yellow appears to be the favorite neon and fuchsia is not far behind. Here are selected choices of our stock from our Spring inventory:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Nice Stems:
Meaning florals, which I like very much. We were much too subdued during Fall and Winter, I think, and I'm as guilty as are you. I intend to flower it up this Spring and Summer. How about you? Here are our selected choices from our stock of Spring inventory:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Style Tribes:
Equals ethnic patterns. The fabrics and prints are glorious, but you gotta watch out that the garment/outfit is not walking the person. An tribal accent is a good thing.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Blanc Expressions:
Equals white accessories, a nice touch for Spring and Summer, I think. Here are selected choices from our Spring Inventory.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Chanel, curiously enough, has not gone with any of the above Trends;
rather, he's showing denim, polka dots, stripes and 5-pointed stars on a
black background, a "Missoni like" knitted cotton fabric (shown at right,
because I like it very much), black and white gauzy fabrics with grommets,
some transparent fabrics, soft and floating pants, longer skirts, and
clunky shoes for Spring, 2008 Ready To Wear. There's not one
particular silhouette I can identify for you, Dear Reader, but I can tell
you it's sleak, well designed, and Chanel.
Interestingly, forbes.com, the place where order reigns, has come up with 15 ways to supercharge your Spring wardrobe, an intriguing title. I took a look and here's what Nicola Ruiz' recommends for women: a white crepe pencil skirt, geometric necklace, neon yellow top; a safari dress; a luxurious belt; colorful accessories, eg., yellow or green sling backs; a neutral outfit with a flash of neon; a silk pajama styled garment; a ruffled blouse; a spring scarf; a polka dot something; lightweight denim garments; an all white outfit. I'm not sure Ruiz has her finger on the pulse of people who are frugal and fashion conscious, although I do agree with her white skirt idea, her colorful accessories idea, her polka dot idea, her all white outfit idea, and spring scarf idea. Here are some photos of our stock using Ruiz' recommendations:
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
On the other side of the fashion spectrum, I checked target.com, Izaac
Mizrahi, to see if his line is on target. One nice '50's Look is his
"Special Edition" Dress, manufactured in many colors at $69.99. It's
shown
on
right.
Two skirts in nice fabrics, but too short, are shown at $24.00. Photos at left.
A couple of cardigans, one in cotton print, the other in jersey are pretty
good at $27.99. Photos below, at
right.
Only one blouse hit a chord with me, unfortunately,
Mizrahi
is only showing it in black (ugh), but it's priced right, at $24.99.
Photo at left.
The only purse styles he designed that are somewhat passable, he spec'd silver and I don't like silver for Spring. Take a pass on them.
I've been looking forward to Vera Wang's collection at kohls.com, which she named Very Vera, since she and Kohl announced their collaboration a while back. Her line is large, about 200 items; her prices are modest; her colors are off the mark, rather muddy; her stylings are okay. I haven't handled the merchandise, so I can't tell you about how well the merchandise is constructed or what quality fabrics and detailing are used in the products. Here are some items for you you see, so you an get a taste:
From
left, Trench Coat, $64.00; Nylon Tote, $53.40; Skirt, $40.50; Purse,
$46.99
From left, Straw Purse, $%5.30; Dress, $46.80
Payless sometimes gets it right. They've only come up with one patent pump
(vinyl, of
course) in yellow that I think shows good fashion sense.
I don't think wearing vinyl all day in Summer is a good idea, but I will
show you this $17.99 style at right. Others, at prices varying from
$17.99 to $24.99, two of which are vinyl, three of which are cotton (I
think), are shown below:
MOTHER'S DAY
The
history of Mother's Day is centuries old and goes back to the times of
ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honor Rhea, the mother of the
gods. The early Christians celebrated the Mother's festival on the fourth
Sunday of Lent to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. Interestingly, later
on a religious order stretched the holiday to include all mothers, and
named it as the Mothering Sunday. The English colonists who settled in America
discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday because of lack of time. In
1872, Julia Ward Howe organized a day for mothers dedicated to peace. It
is a landmark in the history of Mother's Day.
In
1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a
movement to set up a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann
Maria Reeves Jarvis. She solicited the help of hundreds of legislators and
prominent businessmen to create a special day to honor mothers. The first
Mother's Day observance was a church service honoring Anna's mother. Anna
handed out her mother's favorite flowers, the white carnation, on the
occasion as they represent sweetness, purity, and patience. Anna's hard
work finally paid off in the year 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson
proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of
mothers.
Slowly and gradually, the Mother's day became very popular, and gift-giving activity increased. All this commercialization of the Mother's day infuriated Anna, as she believed that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. Regardless of Jarvis's worries, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States. Actually, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year in the US. Mother's Day lives on and has spread to various countries of the world. Some countries celebrate Mother's Day at various times during the year, but others, such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium, celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, as the US does.
We
put together a nice video of Mother's Day Gift suggestions: estate
jewelry, scarves and shawls and boas, miscellaneous items, estate purses
for your consideration. Of course, Gift Certificates are an easy
option for those inclined to waver on decisions: Click
the photo to take you to our Order Form.
Brought back by popular demand:
SALOME and HERODIAS,
A CURIOUS MOTHER’S DAY STORY©
(Reprint from our April, 2003 issue, The Perspicacious Woman OnLine, Volume 3:Number 2.)
First, a disclaimer:
This article requires information about John the Baptist, whose life and works and words are holy, divinely inspired, to Christians. The sources I’ve accessed are religious, historical, literary, exegetic, and anecdotal. In order to avoid disrespect for the sacredness of the words and concepts with which Christians hold The Gospels and with which Jews hold The Torah, I’ve renamed both ‘translated redactions.’ I also use the euphemism, monotheistic god, to avoid any disrespect to any deity and religion. This is an essay designed to entertain and inform you, Dear Reader, not to cause any religious discussion or foment.
Second, a thank you:
To friend Pam and friend Vanessa, both of whom got my research juices going on Salome, whom, I believed, was trivial, too trivial even for our newsletter. It boiled down to “Who did she do the belly dance for?” I hadn’t a clue, because I didn’t think she was real. They both assured me she was a real person. I checked it out. Yup, she was real and...
…she may have danced or may not have danced. But, if she did dance, it wasn’t a belly dance that she did, nor was it a tap, the tango, or the quick step. The belly dance aspect was imagined in the late 19th century by some artistic guy, and we’ll get there, later, when it’s timely. She did perform, that much is true, and she performed for the host, her stepfather, at the instigation of the hostess, her mother, and their banquet guests.
It was an entertainment interlude, and it occurred about the 1st century AD in a castle located in area called The Galilee. She may have performed in a play about some Greek mythological character or she may have been the one non-Bedouin ( a guest) in a troop of Bedouin entertainers who did folk dances that non-Bedouins enjoyed seeing. If it was the former, the structure of the play was rigid: it was a pantomime, with stringed instrumentals to keep the story line going, mime actors of both genders, all adults, and young children acrobatics of both genders. Everyone was masked. This was a troop of professional entertainers on the payroll of biggies, not a traveling group (a type not yet invented). They were probably on the payroll of her stepfather and she had time to practice with them before the banquet.
If it was the latter, it was a dance, one with a lot of whirling and head tossing, by females in heavy blue robes with cowls, and there was a flute accompaniment. The company did not live in The Galilee, but were nomads from the desert between The Galilee and Arabia, who had come by request of the biggie. It is unlikely that Bedouin dancers were involved in this banquet, for they had to walk a fine line in their desert migrations, land that abutted both The Galilee and Arabia at that time There was bad blood between Aretas IV King of Arabia and Antipas, stepfather of Salome, Tetrarch of The Galilee, the place where the banquet and the entertainment took place and the place where Salome lived. And, Salome would not have had time to practice the whirling and head tossing before the banquet.
So, it was a Roman style play about Greek mythology that
was probably performed as the intermediate event between courses or the closing event of
a posh banquet. The host, her stepfather, was a Herod we’ll call Antipas,
(not as high as a King) and the hostess, her mother, was named Herodias (a former Queen, divorced from her 1st
husband, Phillip, a King, and now married to a mere Tetrarch, making her a Tetrarchess, I guess). These were minor players in the times’ political stage and the definition of
‘posh’ was relative to their stature…minor. The guest list contained: nobles visiting from
Rome, Roman nobles
stationed in The Galilee by
Rome,
aristocrats from
The Galilee and
maybe Judea, and Antipas’ Steward, Chuza. Some sources say the
banquet was thrown by Herodias because it was Antipas’ birthday, an
unnecessary embellishment, to my way of thinking. Most sources are
silent about the reason for the banquet, so I tend to go with most when
it’s a fact such as this kind.
Any banquet takes
preparation, whether you’re a Queen, a Tetrarchess, or merely the
wife of
a mope. So, along with the timing, guest list, menu, food preparation,
and seating plan, Herodias prepared for the entertainment. She had to
decide that Salome’s participation in the entertainment would be the thing
to do long before the banquet took place. Herodias is described as a
savvy kind of gal by the benign tellers of the tale (she’s vilified by
most) and Salome was her only child (by Phillip), so she probably made
time to watch Salome rehearse. A lot was riding on Salome being real real
good. Nothing anywhere says whether Salome wanted to be a part of the
entertainment or was unwilling to be a part of the entertainment.
Herodias planned a staid, Roman affair. It could not have been a bacchanal type banquet (similar to the present Wild On’s on E!), as some sources suggest. There were stringent Roman rules about highborn women and what they can attend and do in while in attendance. Herodias was high born and from Judea. (Antipas, her second husband, was not as high born, coming from an Idumean father and possibly a Samarian mother.)
Salome was just a kid at the time of the banquet. Some sources say she was a teenager, but they have to in order for other parts of the legend to fit. (We’ll get to the other parts later.) I doubt if she was a nubile teenager. She was royalty, a Princess, in fact, with very good blood on her mother’s side, Maccabean blood, which was respected even by Rome, who, by the way, had conquered Judea (and The Galilee) long before this time and made this area a part of their Empire. Modesty and chastity were required for this type female from a Roman standpoint and a Maccabean standpoint (her bloodline was matriarchal). She had to be dutiful, respectful, and learn at her mother’s knee, an important custom amongst the Maccabean women. She was a good kid. So, she couldn’t have been a teenager and allowed to perform. It would diminish her future value in the marriage market, Roman or otherwise, and it would have been a sin. I would opine she had to be less than Nadia Comaneci’s age when she blew away the Olympic judges in 1976, but she was probably just as agile.
It’s probable that Herodias recognized her daughter’s agility long before the banquet, for kids have a tendency to display what they’re good at long before there’s a use for the tendency. It could have been a genetic throwback to the time before the Maccabees were promoted to highborn, the time when the men were just about the best guerilla fighters in Judea and found the mountainous regions around Judea excellent terrain to entice their foes into combat. She was probably proud of this tendency and tedious of this tendency (“Watch me, Momma,” once too often can be tedious.) and savvy enough to see a utilization for her own good. This also presupposes that Herodias might have had more contact in Salome’s upbringing than Roman highborn mothers, for Maccabean women were responsible for (both gender) children to ‘learn at their knee’ a minimum of 613 rules the monotheistic god required of adherents, or that there was a lot of contact between highborn mothers and their daughters at that time. In either case, Herodias planned the banquet and the entertainment and included her agile daughter in the entertainment, making sure Salome rehearsed and would do a good job in the acrobatic kid part of the troop…a multi-tasking woman for sure.
Protocol at posh and formal banquets where Roman mucky mucks were invited was stringent. This would have been very important to Antipas, also. He had been raised in Rome (maybe even a hostage child) and the land he administered at the time of the banquet had been bequeathed to him by Rome. Augustus (of the Cleopatra story) had handled the apportioning of Antipas’ father’s enormous estate when he, known as Herod the Great, died. Antipas was not happy with the way Poppa’s estate was apportioned, felt he had gotten the short stick amongst his four brothers. (He had.) He would have been very, very Roman at this Roman banquet in order to make nice and have this get back to Rome.
The men would have reclined on the equivalent of 1st century Barco-Loungers and ate lovely things and drank lovely wine moderately, while trading amusing stories and quips and bantering amongst each other. I’m not sure just what bantering is, but I am sure they bantered. They would have been arranged in a horseshoe U pattern. The women guests and their hostess would have sat on chairs and I couldn’t figure out where the chairs were placed, within the horseshoe in a line or outside the horseshoe in a line. But in any case, they would have sat on fancy, but hard backed, chairs in a line and would not have eaten or drunken wine, but I suggest they may have bantered. Their job was to just sit, all gussied up and smellin’ good. (They would eat and drink, later, when they got home or when the guests left, depending on your perspective.)
Salome could not have been invited. If she had been invited, she would have left her fancy, hard-backed chair vacant in order to get into costume and perform. Antipas would have noticed the empty chair and have asked someone, “Where did the kid go?” And, someone would have said, “She’s going to perform.” That would have taken the drama out of this next part of the story. Let’s agree; she was not invited to the banquet.
At the proper time, the play was performed, and the audience clapped after it was over. Antipas complimented the performers, then singled one out. Because it was Salome that was singled out, I believe she was one of the masked acrobats. It only makes sense. Antipas apparently didn’t recognize the stepdaughter he had raised since infancy as the excellent acrobat in the play. Rather, he thought her one of the professionals, for if he had recognized her, he wouldn’t have offered the gift\reward. He just would have said, “Good job, sweetie. Go get washed. You’ll catch cold.” Therefore, because he didn’t recognize her, he made a magnanimous gesture (It’s not unlikely that he was showing off for the guests, for Antipas was a doodle-head, didn’t think things through. We’ll get to that, later.), and he offered the acrobat-Salome anything she desired as a gift from him for her fine performance. This is exactly what Herodias had planned to happen. She knew her guy pretty well and she knew her little girl real well. The benign tellers were right: she was a savvy gal.
Since all sources attribute what comes next as engendered by Herodias, the acrobat-Salome had to have asked him to wait a minute and had to have gone to the chair line, where her mother and the other women were sitting, otherwise Herodias would not have been associated with what comes next. (It would have been only Salome who would have been associated with what comes next.). So, the mother and daughter had to have conferred quietly, while Antipas (and the guests) watched. Perhaps, Salome said, “Euwww,” as kids do when they hear something revolting; or perhaps, not. She was a 1st century kid and they may have been different from 21st century kids. I think not. Kids are kids. She said “Euwww.” Dutifully, she listened closely to what her mother told her and she probably repeated it back to Herodias, so that she got it right and straight. Then, she, the acrobat-Salome, came back to Antipas with the gift idea: the head of the long time prisoner John (who later became John the Baptist, but who was merely the prisoner John at this time) on a platter (which was probably not a platter, but a charger).
It’s possible that he recognized Salome at this point. It doesn’t really matter. I do know he knew he had been set up by his wife, Herodias, via this acrobat-Salome, when he heard the performance reward. And he was startled and embarrassed and in a public quandary. It’s possible he questioned the acrobat-Salome with an ‘are you kidding? kind of question, while looking in Herodias’ direction, who either shrugged her shoulders or nodded ‘yes.’ From a legal standpoint, he did not have to honor this acrobat-Salome’s request, for it wasn’t hers. It was Herodias.’ It is possible that Chuza, his Steward, jumped in at this point, for he had been financing John’s nascent ministry through his wife, Elizabeth, but it’s just as possible, he did not, for that’s not how it went down.
Everyone at the banquet knew there had been a big mad between Herodias and Antipas regarding John for a long, long time. She had wanted him killed outright for talking often and badly about her and her marriage to Antipas to everyone and anyone who would listen to him. John had labeled it incestuous and it was, kind of, but by only a technicality, the small print in a big, long contract. Herodias’ first husband, the Herod we’re calling Phillip, was Antipas’ half brother. They shared the same father, Herod The Great, but had different mothers. Phillip was still living in Judea where he was King (Rome gave him a large portion of his father’s estate, larger than Antipas.) and as long as Phillip lived, Herodias and Antipas had an incestuous marriage. As soon as he died, it would be an okay marriage. But, he hadn’t died, yet.
Although it was the gossip that bothered Herodias (A good spin doctor would have helped, but they were 2000 years down the road in development.), it was the religious twist John put on the technical incest that bothered Antipas. John attributed all the stuff that had gone wrong in The Galilee since they married (and stuff had gone wrong, for Antipas was a doodle-head) to the marriage. And, John said that the monotheistic god was angry with her, more than Antipas, because of her good Maccabean blood (a mix of Idumean and Samarian blood results in a person that the monotheistic god doesn’t expect much from), and would stay angry with her and get more so, so the anger would spill over to the whole of The Galilee, until she and Antipas split (or, I guess, until Phillip died, a factor that was out of her hands).
People listened to that kind of stuff at that time and in that place and they got real scared. A monotheistic god’s anger was a terrible thing. Famine, drought, disease, pestilence, flood, invasion, even eclipse – anything could happen when a monotheistic god was angry. While there hadn’t been famine, drought, disease, pestilence, flood, invasion, or even an eclipse in The Galilee, Antipas had lost a war, his first, with Nabatea, their neighbor in Arabia.
Herodias could have been a vulnerable position should important people have listened to John’s predictions. Luckily for her, the important people had other things on their mind. Antipas said ‘no’ to killing John and ‘yes’ to imprisoning him, believing that would shut John up. Some sources said Antipas had a feeling that John’s predictions were true; others said he had a feel for the monotheistic deity. Still others say he was merely acting like a political animal, notably, a fox. At any rate, John was not killed, but imprisoned, and he had been languishing in the prison for many years at the time of the banquet.
Now, killing a local prisoner was no big deal anywhere in the 1st century world of the Roman Empire and having a prisoner killed to reward an agile acrobat was stretching the reward idea, but... it could work. The thing is that the head on a platter\charger was the note that made it a bigger deal. This touch was a gruesome, certainly barbaric, dramatic thing and would cause a scandal and gossip all over Judea and in Rome, what Antipas did not need if he were to ever get any more land from his dead father’s estate from Rome. (And it did, for Flavius Josephus in his book, “Antiquities,” writing to and for Rome about 100 years after the event, included the event for it was still so juicy. This, by the way, is how we know about some parts of it.) (An important question occurs to me and that is this: How and where did Herodias get this notion? Two ideas come to mind: (1) the Greek myth of Perseus and Medusa and their fight to death: Perseus won. He decapitated Medusa and waved her head around and took it a bunch of places as a talisman. It must have been awful after a time. Maybe that’s where she got it, for she was well educated. (2) A similar event took place in Rome 50 years earlier: Pemejus, a political competitor to Julius, lost his political battle, and his foes brought Julius, the winning Caesar, his head. She might have heard this gossip. Perhaps, she then pragmatically adapted decapitation to the situation at hand. Beheading was a popular type of death and an honorable type of execution for criminals and warriors amongst the Romans and the Maccabees and the Arabians. This, I discovered, from plunking around on the Internet to some very weird websites. I don’t recommend you check this out for yourself. Truthfully, I cannot imagine where she got this embellishment. One of these weird websites calls her talented.)
The doodle-head complied.
A messenger was sent to the fortress named Macharerus (now called Mukawir) in an area called The Perea (now part of Amman, Jordan) where John was imprisoned. A nameless guard cut off his head, and got a messenger to convey it to the castle somewhere in The Galilee, where the banquet guests were waiting, the males still bantering with one another, I guess, to pass the time; the females still sitting quietly on their hard chairs, smellin’ good. The acrobat-Salome probably went off somewhere to bathe and change clothes, then returned to the banquet room to stand next to her (talented) Momma or stand with the performers. The guards put the headless body somewhere, waited for further orders.
I couldn’t find out how far away the area The Parea was
from The Galilee, for I couldn’t pin down exactly what city the castle
was located in the area known as The Galilee, then, the area where the
banquet occurred. Let’s believe it wasn’t terribly far, so the
messenger conveying the head could get from there to there quick. He
arrived and a kitchen servant brought a platter\charger (No one knows if
it was a platter made out of silver, gold, porcelain, or stoneware. In
fact, no one cared. Furthermore, it may not have been a platter, but a
charger, which is larger than a plate and smaller than a platter and
rested under a plate at a table service and was often of precious metal.
Since it’s a Roman banquet, people took morsels of this and that from
servant-held chargers, didn’t have a table service at all. They were
reclining.) Another servant, a serving type, brought the head to the
banquet hall and stood in front of Antipas. It’s possible he directed the
servant to acrobat-Salome, who took the platter\charger and gave it to
her Mother. One redactor source makes Herodias even more gruesome
stating: she got a sword and stabbed the tongue. This is an
embellishment that even Flavius Josephus didn’t believe, so he doesn’t
mention it. What she really did with it, I don’t know. (People who
thought John had a direct line to the monotheistic god requested his
body and his head from Antipas, who released both parts to them. They
took it to an area called Samaria, which was close to The Perea, and
buried it.)
What happened after this part of the banquet took place, I don’t know. I imagine some guy yawned and said, “It’s been quite an evening. I think it’s time to get going.” And the guests all went to their lodgings. It’s probable that Antipas and Herodias had a long conversation, after the guests left. When they were alone in their private rooms, he probably opened the conversation with: “We never talk anymore, Herodias. Tell me what’s going on with you.” Salome, who had been up long past her normal bedtime, was probably overtired and went to sleep or was put to sleep immediately.
And there you have it. Salome didn’t dance, didn’t wear veils, and had a strong bond with her Mother.
To discover how the belly dance became associated with Salome, we have to veer away from her. It’s Herodias and John who carry the story line forward.
At
the time of the banquet, Herodias was the 2nd wife of Antipas,
and they had been married for about 10 years. (Antipas was the only
father Salome had known.) Salome’s biological father was Phillip, who
was King of Judea, a large land mass, much larger than the area
called The Galilee, and he and Herodias were divorced when Salome was
about 1 year old. Herodias had been an important wife when Phillip was
first made King by Rome because of her Maccabean blood. The Maccabees
had been rulers of Judea long before Phillip came on board, but through a
lot of circumstances, Judea was ruled by the Herod bunch and had accepted
Rome’s yoke by that time. The Maccabees were prolific (as was Herod The
Great), and there was a large pool of eligible Maccabean women for rulers
to marry. It was a stable region in Rome’s empire. In any event, the
divorce was with Rome’s permission. Phillip was allowed to marry someone
else with Rome’s permission, and I didn’t check out whom. He never asked
for visitation rights.
Some sources say Antipas first met Herodias when Herodias was on a trip to Rome with Phillip petitioning Rome for something or another at the same time that Antipas was in Rome (alone) petitioning Rome, yet again, for the title of King and more land from his father’s estate, neither of which Rome never granted him in his lifetime. I don’t think it matters how they met. They met, they talked, a deal was struck.
I don’t know why Herodias left Queenship of Judea to become a Tetrarch’s wife. There are always sources that attribute lust to this sort of situation, and these sources do arise in this story, some attributing lust to Herodias, others attributing lust to Antipas. Personally, I find lust a poor reason. A Queen, one of royal blood, just doesn’t think lust. She thinks power and lineage. A tetrarch, although not as powerful as a King, doesn’t have to go far from his little castle, even as far as Judea, to satisfy any lustful thought. An unhappy Tetrarch thinks power and lineage, too. Maybe it was her Maccabean blood and her Maccabean ties that Antipas thought would help him become a King of a landmass that included Judea, which her ancestors ruled before Rome put the Herods there. Maybe she thought The Galilee plus Judea is bigger than just Judea. Maybe she thought that The Galilee plus Arabia, which abutted The Galilee, is bigger than Judea should Antipas go to war for the Arabian territory. In any event, she left Phillip before the divorce (which came through quickly) and went to Antipas’ puny area, The Galilee.
She also jumped the gun. Antipas was not yet rid of his first wife, Phasaelis, when Herodias and the baby arrived. And, he hadn’t petitioned Rome to get rid of Phasaelis and marry Herodias, something he should have done. Although Phasaelis was a Princess by blood and the daughter of a powerful neighbor and King, Aretas IV of Nabatea (Arabia), Antipas decided to circumvent Rome by merely ‘putting her aside,’ an ignominy. This was not nice. Phasaelis went home to Poppa (and took the kids, if there were any with her and Antipas) who bided his time a bit, then attacked The Galilee, because of the dishonor.
Troops from all of Herod the Great’s sons (half-brothers to a man) jumped in to help The Galilean troops, even Phillip (inherited family land was a big thing; a former wife was nothing) and Roman legions jumped in to help, too. But land was lost and that, by definition, means The Galileans lost the war. He never did divorce Phasaelis and she never returned to him.
Herodias stayed put and she and Antipas married (with Rome’s permission, whose attitude toward provinces was very pragmatic: the war is over; they lost; let ’em marry; who gives a damn?) and lived in a castle somewhere in The Galilee with the baby.
Antipas’ reputation went from an annoying pest to miserable in Rome’s eyes because of this double screw up (stupidly and unnecessarily dishonoring a neighbor’s daughter thereby incurring an unnecessary troop expense on Rome’s tab and loosing land to a King who was not conquered by Rome). He decided to Make It Better. Tiberius was now the Caesar and Antipas decided to build a city to honor him. He commandeered land in The Galilee and his construction people began building a city. But, Antipas and his building contractors either didn’t do their homework, or if they did, they didn’t think it through. The land upon which the city was being built was a cemetery, sacred ground to every person in the world then, as well as today. There was an uprising amongst the folk that local troops could not quell. Again, Rome had to help Antipas out, for Judea wouldn’t, since they sided with the people, not Antipas. The people were quelled and the city was built. It remained uninhabited. No one would go there to live no matter how sweet the pot Antipas created (free homes, free land, tax abatement). Rome had to send troops to forcibly move families to Tiberius and to guard them so they wouldn’t move out in the dark of the night. Flavius Josephus liked this morsel a lot when he heard of it. He checked around and then comments that riff-raff were recruited to populate the city. He observes that even the riff-raff were afraid of the monotheistic god, so local holy people made a rule: the new settlers would only be defiled for 7 days, then everything would be okay.
And life went on in The Galilee.
John, during some of this, had been going about his
business in The Galilee. One particular thing he did caught on amongst
the folk. No one knew what to call it, so it had two different names:
sprinkling and laveing, both of which were already accepted cleansing
rites in most, if not all, religions before that time and during that time
in that area and most of the known world. Water was always the cleansing
agent and John used the nearby Jordan River as the sprinkling and laveing site. What
John did was total body immersion, a new twist, one the people liked a
lot, for it made sense to them and made them feel good and purified from
sins committed previously. This total body immersion always occurred
after John would talk about sinning and give definitions. He would call
for penitents, people who wanted to cleanse themselves. They would step
forward and get in a line, so he could do them one-by-one. He had set
himself up as a person who knew what the monotheistic deity expected of
good folk (mostly it was to stop acting like Romans and revert to the
Galilean ways, the ones prevalent before Rome took over the area). While
he was in prison and after his death, other people did the immersion for
him. What he had said before he was imprisoned was credible to the folk.
But then, John was imprisoned and killed years after he was imprisoned.
Very soon a very lot of other things happened in The Galilee. These events were written down and pondered and interpreted by brilliant, eloquent, and sincere men, three of whom decided that John and what he said and his immersion twist was a ceremony that would be important to incorporate as a ritual for their testimonials. They were the redactors whose words have been translated and pondered for centuries. Their decision caused his death to be discussed (and his childhood, parents, vocation, inspiration, relationships, etc. to be determined) and this is how Herodias’ name was never forgotten.
The earliest redactor, a stickler for details, had a problem with her daughter’s name, when he read Flavius Josephus, who says ‘a damsel, the daughter of Herodias, brought the head…’ in his book to Rome. This was not good enough for him. He did some easy homework, for Herodias’ royal lineage was known and available. He determined that Herodias’ daughter was named Salome. This was not good homework. Herodias was Maccabean. No Maccabee, male or female, would ever name a child for a still living person, let alone the actual name of a relative, this case, a blood aunt, who was living at the time of her daughter’s birth. But, it’s all we have, so she must remain misnamed Salome (which means ‘peace,’ a nice touch, don’t you think?) when John’s beheading is talked about and when Herodias’ progeny is included.
And this is how Salome and Herodias and John were tied together forever more. Many centuries have to pass by before the triangle comes into focus again. We have to wait for society to go from antiquity all the way to modern…at least 1,970 years or so. More specifically, we have to wait for a religion to formalize; we have to wait until John’s contributions become important and incorporated; we have to wait for churches to be invented; we have to wait for representational art to be used for something other than decorative purposes; we have to allow for the Bubonic Plague interlude when absolutely nothing happened except the death of millions; we have to wait for literacy to occur; we have to wait for Gutenberg and his printing press; we have to wait for portraiture to be invented.
Once churches were invented, representational art was
applied as a method to tell the stories to the illiterate, devout people.
The triangle story was not as popular as other stories, so it was
represented only some times. The scene chosen was most always was when
the platter\charger is proffered takes place. No one character of the
triangle is more important that the other. It’s the story behind the
scene that’s important, and that is John’s death (but not as a martyr, I
don’t think, but I may be wrong). Typical friezes and frescos from
churches in the early 14th show the scene with figures that are
medieval in demeanor and costume. That’s what the medieval people
needed; that’s what they got. Their eyes could roam the church for
something to center on, if their attention drifted from the devotions at
hand.
Everything gets pretty quiet everywhere, beginning 1330, when the first Bubonic Plague episode begins and we have to wait a long time, about 150 years, for normalcy to occur.
In 1485, the beheading surfaces. Portraiture had been
invented by then, and art has gone
into homes of wealthy people, who ask
artists to do pictures for them, often of them and their family members.
One type of portraiture allowed the viewer to be a voyeur, to glimpse an
intimate scene, a freeze frame, if you will, from a larger story, if the
artist was good. Religious art was a popular theme. The artist selected
the motif and there was a lot of symbolism to get the whole story line
into the canvas. It’s Salome and the platter\charger that’s chosen, when
this subject is chosen at all, and truth be told, it’s lousy, static
portraiture. She’s not portrayed as a child, but she’s not portrayed as
a woman, either. “Damsel,” was apparently interpreted as that twilight
zone a female has between childhood and woman. I don’t know why the
subject matter was chosen by the patron or the artist, who apparently just
couldn’t get into ‘it.’ I guess my opinion was shared by the patrons from
500+ years back, for this theme dies out.
John and his sainthood, not his death or Herodias or Salome, become the theme of most art, and we have to wait until 1630 to find the others of the triangle depicted again.
In 1630, a blockbuster piece of art is produced (my opinion) that
asks you to consider Herodias, not John. It’s my absolute favorite, by a
guy named Francesco del Cairo, “Herodias with Head of John the Baptist.”
It is so different from all others than came before (and after). Is she
exhausted, meditative, musing, or in a trance? A closer look might
surprise you. Could she possibly be
holding his tongue while on the verge of stroking his
hair? I believe she is. What could del Cairo have been thinking? What
is he asking us to believe about Herodias? Frankly, I don’t wanna go
there. No one else did either, for depictions of Herodias (and Salome)
simply stop until the 1800’s and John in his sainthood continue...with one
exception.
Because of a single painting of Herodias by Paul Delaroche
in
1843, it’s the literary arts, the poets and authors and playwrights,
who pick up the story and fiction supercedes reality. Herodias, first,
and Salome, next, sans John, are the motifs for the first time. They
move from real people to fictional characters.
Delaroche shows Herodias as exotic (read, non-European) (The euphemism used for most any type non-European at that time was Occidental.), regal (He did his homework.), authentically dressed (more good homework), and very, very lovely. The look on her face is open to interpretation. Has the grotesque event occurred or not yet? Is she serene or is she challenging us to question her? I don’t know who is represented in the background, for it certainly cannot be Salome. Herodias is a person in her own right. I would like to tie Delaroche’s interpretation to having viewed del Cairo (although I don’t know if this occurred, not having the resources to track the provenance of the del Cairo picture to align its location with Delaroche’s life).
Apparently Heinrich Heine, a German poet of some renown, was enchanted by the picture. He wrote a poem in 1843, “Atta Troll,” which sources say is a mock epic about Herodias. I was unable to find an English translation, so I have to accept what sources say as true. What I do know is that an epic is a very long and twisted story (The Iliad and the Odyssey are epics.) about fanciful adventures of a protagonist (usually heroic) in pursuit of good end. How Heine got enough ideas about Herodias, who was minor player in the first place and arcane by this time, to go on and on about her pursuit of an end, good or not good, I don’t know. I guess that’s called talent. In any event, he catapults Herodias (and the triangle) back into the minds of artistic people and they make her (and the triangle) interesting enough for public contemplation.
This mock epic and Delaroche’s painting next enchanted Stephane Mallarme, another poet of some renown, a Frenchman. He got his juices flowing and wrote a poem in 1869, “Herodiade,” whose English translation I was unable to find. I have absolutely no idea what his poem says. Critics say she described sultry (for the first time). I have to believe that Mallarme associated Occidental with sultry, not an uncommon association amongst fanciful European guys. Herodias is changing to heroic (maybe if Heine’s epic shows her to be this), Occidental, and sultry (read sexy).
All this got a French artist (of some renown) all excited.
Gustave Moreau pondered the triangle and centered on Salome, instead of
Herodias. He figured if Herodias was sultry, then Salome was more
sultry. I don’t know why, but that’s what he did. He worked and worked
this theme and ended up with a bunch of pictures with her as the
(undressed) focal point, a first in Salome’s depictions, and threw in
John’s head to make it all understandable. They were finished in 1876.
All are amazing. The very last time Salome was the chosen subject matter
was in 16th century (bad) portraiture. She’s always holding
the platter\charger and has a boring look on her face and is all dressed
up in 16th century costume. What the hell did Heine’s mock
epic and Mallarme’s poem allude to with regard to Salome? I don’t know.
Anyway, Gustave Flaubert, a French writer of some renown, apparently read Heine and Mallarme and saw the picture interpretations of Delaroche and Moreau. All inspired him to write a short story in 1877 about Herodias, which indicates excellent homework, by the way. This, I read, and in this short story, she is called a Jezebel, albeit an aging one, for the first time. Her daughter is described as resembling her mother in her youth. You can read it, too. Go to http://www.classicbookshelf.com/library/gustave_flaubert/herodias/0/. It’s now fictional open season on Herodias and by association, her daughter, Salome.
Then came Joris-Karl Huysman, who liked what Heine,
Mallarme, and Flaubert wrote and
liked Delaroche’s and Moreau’s pictures.
He went with Salome, not Herodias, in 1884, for his essay, “Against the
Grain.” The essay is really prose poetry in the style of “The Song of
Solomon,” real, real sexy. The essay was labeled decadent after it was
published. You can read it, too, if and when you get in the mood for 19th
century decadence. Go to
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/salome1.html.
In the 19th century, certain people loved decadent stuff, especially the artistic types who felt stultified with conservative stuff and who felt they had to push the envelope of public taste. This decadent Salome idea percolated for ten years in Oscar Wilde’s mind before his play, “Salome,” was performed in 1893. An interesting touch was his collaboration with Aubrey Beardsley to do playbill artwork. Wilde was jailed it was so damn decadent.
Within a year after Wilde’s play, Beardsley came out with a folio of images of Salome. It’s racy for the bare breasts and belly button, but it’s also a curiously clunky, non-sexy posing of Salome. Why is her midriff covered? Why is she wearing high heeled shoes with bows at the ankle? What the hell is going on here? Mere titillation, nothing more. Shame on you, Beardsley.
Everything rested until 1905, when Richard Strauss, a German of music renown, chose Salome as his opera subject. His librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, an Austrian poet of some renown, put words to the decadent musical motifs. A costume designer, whose name I could not find, turned her eastern Byzantine and gave her a harem twist and a costume of 7 veils. A choreographer had her shimmy (belly dance). In the first performance of “Salome,’ Marie Wittich, described as an ample soprano Salome, refused to do the dance or wear the costume. A nameless ballerina accommodated the scene and this became a tradition each time the opera was performed. One critic, a word wizard, called Strauss the apostle of decadence. This made the people want to see it for themselves. Strauss’ “Salome” was performed 50 times in the first two years after it was written in opera houses all over the world.
This chronicle has ended.
PS. A beheaded John, no