Salome Was a Dancer

DESCRIPTION: "Salome was a dancer, She danced before the king, And every time she danced, She wiggled everything. 'Stop,' said King Herod, 'You can't do that here.' Salome said 'Baloney,' And kicked the chandelier."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Evans, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: dancing royalty
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #507, "Salome was a dancer" (1 text)
Roud #24174
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salome" (character of Salome)
cf. "I'm Shirley Temple" (character of Salome in some versions)
NOTES [464 words]: Salome was the name (known from Josephus, not the Bible) of the "daughter of Herodias" who danced before Herod Antipas and so induced him to execute John the Baptist (Matthew 14:6ffff; the best manuscripts of Mark 6:22 make Herodias Herod's own daughter; so ℵ B D L Δ 565 -- a short list, but it includes the only two surviving fourth century manuscripts of Mark; the first manuscript to call her "the daughter of Herodias" is from the fifth century. On the other hand, Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.136, agrees with Matthew in saying she was the daughter of Herod Philip by Herodias).
The name "Salome" thus became associated with sexy dancing -- but the Bible never actually says her dance was erotic. Of course, it doesn't mention her name, either.... The Greek word ορχεομαι, "orcheomai" in fact is used of children's games elsewhere in the New Testament, and in classical Greek is also used of miming, and of jumping and bouncing around. Nonetheless the tradition is firm that Salome daughter of Herodias danced a lascivious dance before Herod Antipas and so induced him to offer her whatever she wanted And what other sort of dancing would so attract Herod's attention? -- can you imagine someone getting that excited about a pantomime?
Josephus does not say that Salome danced before Herod Antipas or asked for John the Baptist's head. And Salome was not the daughter of Antipas, which would be required by the Markan account. But most people assume that it was Salome who did the dancing.
As a result, Salome has become the subject of very many portrayals centered around her behavior and lack of attire. The earliest of these were literary, but Richard Strauss composed an opera "Salome" in 1905, based on a book by Oscar Wilde. "The Dance of the Seven Veils" is often said to have been danced by Salome (see the Wikipedia entry). - RBW
Note that Herod Antipas is not the same as Herod the Great, the king allegedly responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents (and certainly responsible for killing a lot of innocent people); Antipas was one of the younger sons of Herod the Great, and despite the impression given by the Bible, he doesn't seem to have been a particularly bad ruler except that, like all members of Herod's dynasty, his family life was disastrous.
Salome, presumably after this, married her great-uncle Philip "the Tetrarch." Philip died in 34 C.E., about five years after Salome's dance. They had no children; Salome then married Aristobulus, the son of Herod of Chalcis, a grandson of Herod the Great who was the nephew of Herodias. They had three children, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus, who seem to have been non-entities (Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.137). So after a scandalous youth, Salome seems to have settled down to a fairly normal life.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR507

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