Salomé Timeline and Summary

•  Back
• More 

• Salomé enters the terrace. Sick of being stared at by Herod, she's left the banquet. She's glad to get away from him and all the foreigners down below.
• The Syrian attempts to speak with her, but she ignores him.
• She looks up at the moon; she is sure the moon is a virgin, not defiled by men.
• When she hears Jokanaan crying out, she asks the soldiers about him. She has heard of him before. She knows that Herod is afraid of him, and that he insults her mother.
• Both a slave sent by Herod and the young Syrian urge Salomé to go back to the banquet. She refuses.
• She continues to ask questions about Jokanaan.
• When she hears him call out again, she asks the soldier to let her see him.
• The soldier tells him that it's impossible—they're not allowed to let him out.
• She insists.
• Eventually, she goes up to the young Syrian. She asks him if he's afraid of the prophet; she reminds him that she's always been kind to him. He resists.
• She promises to give him a flower the next day if only she'll let him see Jokanaan. He resists again, but she won't give up. He tells the soldiers to bring out Jokanaan.
• When Jokanaan emerges from the cistern, he continues to prophesy, saying cryptic things. Salomé is sure he's talking about her mother.
• She is fascinated by the way he looks; Jokanaan does not appreciate her staring. He tells the soldiers to get her away from him.
• She introduces herself. He tells her again to get away from him. She continues to badger him.
• Soon, she has fallen into a sort of trance. She keeps talking about his body and asks if she can touch it. When Jokanaan curses her, she curses him back, and acts as though his body is horrible.
• But she immediately begins to praise his hair. The praise-curse routine continues.
• Jokanaan tells her she must repent, but she does not listen.
• Salomé insists that she will kiss his mouth. She repeats it again and again; Jokanaan soon walks back into the cistern.
• Herod enters, looking for Salomé. When he asks her to come and drink with him, and eat fruit, she declines the invitation.
• Eventually, Herod begins to ask Salomé to dance for him. She denies him again and again.
• Eventually, Herod promises to give her anything she wants if she'll dance.
• Salomé perks up at Herod's offer. She forces him to swear an oath.
• Soon, she dances the Dance of the Seven Veils, despite her mother's objections.
• Salomé makes her request: she asks for Jokanaan's head on a silver platter. Yikes.
• Herod, flabbergasted, pleads with her; he offers her all sorts of treasures if only she'll change her mind.
• She doesn't change her mind.
• Herod calls for the beheading of Jokanaan, and the prophet's head is brought to Salomé on a silver platter.
• Salomé addresses Jokanaan's head. She asks him why he wouldn't look at her; she reminds him that she is alive and he is dead and that she has power over him.
• She tells him that he awakened an unquenchable passion in her, going on and on about the beauty of his body, his hair, his voice. She still does not understand why he wouldn't look at her. She blames God for his inability to see her. She insists that, had he looked at her, he would have loved her.
• "If thou hadst looked at me," she says, "thou hadst loved me" (375).
• Herod, disgusted, begins to leave and calls for the lights to be put out.
• In the darkness, Salomé kisses Jokanaan. "There was a bitter taste on my lips," she says. "Was it the taste of blood…Nay; but perchance it was the taste of love…" (379).
• Herod tells his soldiers to kill Salomé.
• She is crushed to death beneath the soldiers' shields.