Herodias

(Matt 14:3) - granddaughter of Herod the Great and sister of Herod Agrippa I. She first married her uncle Herod Philip I and then entered into an incestuous union with another uncle, Herod Antipas, although her first, albeit unlawful, husband was still alive. She was the chief cause of the martyrdom of John the Baptist, who openly rebuked this vile adultery. Herod, as the holy Evangelist Mark relates, feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and protected him (Mark 6:20); he gladly heard the voice of the preacher in the wilderness and did many things in obedience to him.

Nevertheless, Herodias succeeded in turning Herod Antipas against the courageous and sincere reprover of his lawlessness. The celebration of the king's birthday, Salome's dance, and Antipas's rash oath to grant whatever Salome asked gave Herodias the opportunity to obtain what she had long desired. Prompted by her mother, her daughter came before the king and asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Though the king was deeply grieved, he would not break his oath before his guests; summoning an executioner, he commanded him to behead John in prison and gave the head to the girl, who gave it to her mother (Mark 6:17-29).

According to Josephus, the beheading of the Baptist took place at the fortress of Machaerus, on the frontier of the dominions of the Arabian king Aretas, whose daughter Philip had formerly married and then divorced. Many Jews attributed Antipas's total defeat by Aretas, which occurred soon after the death of John the Baptist, to this criminal deed. Justice requires it to be noted, however, that Herodias did not abandon Antipas in the misfortunes of his life. She followed him when he was summoned to Rome and afterward when he was exiled to southern France - to Lyon, or, according to others, to Lugdunum, probably the present Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges in France - where she ended her ungodly life in seclusion, poverty, and obscurity.