Salome (c14 - c67). Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. According to the New Testament, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas demanded and received the head of John the Baptist. According to Josephus, Salome was first married to her uncle, Philip the Tetrarch, who reigned over Ituraea, Trachonitis, and Batanaea. After Philip's death in 34 AD, she married her cousin Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. As Salome is not named in the New Testament, she is sometimes referred to as the daughter of Herodias. Salome is commonly identified with the daughter of Herodias who, according to the New Testament, danced for Herod. In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus mentions marriages and children of the daughter of Herodias named Salome. According to Mark 6:21-29 a daughter of Herodias danced before Herod at his birthday celebration, and in doing so gave her mother the opportunity to obtain the head of John the Baptist. Although the New Testament accounts do not mention a name for the girl, this daughter of Herodias is often identified with Salome. According to Mark's gospel, Herodias bore a grudge against John for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful; she encouraged her daughter to demand that John be executed. Mark's account reads: A convenient day arrived when Herod spread an evening meal on his birthday for his high officials and the military commanders and the most prominent men of Galilee. The daughter of Herodias came in and danced, pleasing Herod and those dining with him. The king said to the girl: Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you. Yes, he swore to her: Whatever you ask me for, I will give it to you, up to half my kingdom. So she went out and said to her mother: What should I ask for? She said: The head of John the Baptist. She immediately rushed in to the king and made her request, saying: I want you to give me right away on a platter the head of John the Baptist. Although this deeply grieved him, the king did not want to disregard her request, because of his oaths and his guests. So the king immediately sent a bodyguard and commanded him to bring John's head. So he went off and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter. He gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. The parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew: But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a dish: and it was given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother. Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read Herod's daughter Herodias. To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and western Church Fathers, therefore, tended to refer to Salome as Herodias's daughter or just the girl. Nevertheless, because she is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe. Herodias's daughter is arguably not Salome the disciple, who is a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40. However, the apocryphal Book of the Resurrection of Christ, psuedonomically attributed to the apostle Bartholomew, names a Salome the temptress as among the women who went to the empty tomb; perhaps reflecting an early tradition that Salome, the daughter of Herodias, was at the tomb.