Herodias/Salome: Mother/Daughter Identification

A plethora of artists in nineteenth century France were inspired to create works based on the Salome/Herodias myth. Among the novels, poems, dramas, operas, ballets, essays, and paintings by Flaubert, Poictevin, Huysmans, Mallarmé, Laforgue, Wilde, Gautier, Lorrain, Klingsor, Moreau, Regnault, Willette, Massenet, and Heine, there were 2,789 works by lesser known talents. The variety of interpretations awarded the Salomé/Herodias myth was such that in some cases the work of art altered both the spirit and letter of the ancient myth. I therefore felt it important to study some of the earliest versions of the Salome/ Herodias myth so as to understand better its significance and impact on nineteenth-century creative artists. (BK)