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Herod the
king, later dubbed by historians Herod the
Great, was well known for his cruelty.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Herod appears as a
latter-day Pharaoh ready to murder all the
infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill
the just-born messiah.
Herod's patron, the emperor Augustus, even
joked that it was better to be Herod's pig (hus)
than his son (huois), which is a pun
in Greek. Paranoid that his sons would
attempt to inherit his kingdom before his
natural death, Herod killed at least three.
But Herod's pigs, had he raised any, would
be safe, for he did not eat pork, adhering
to the dietary laws proscribed in Leviticus
11. |
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Copyright
2013 by Gila Yudkin |
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| Only 3 miles
from Bethlehem, at Herodion, Herod built a
sumptuous palace complete with a spacious
swimming pool, intimate theater seating 300,
with his closest cronies noshing hors
d'oeuvres in a royal room exquisitely
decorated with paintings of naval battles
and rural landscapes. At the summit he
built a nine-story penthouse with a
panoramic view of the Judean wilderness.
Herod later added his own mausoleum, 75 feet
high, which could be seen even from
Jerusalem. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Herodion as seen
from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem |
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| Today at
"Herod's Final Journey," a SPECTACULAR
exhibit in Jerusalem's Israel Museum, you
can appreciate the jaw-dropping opulence,
wealth and impeccable taste of the cruel
Judean despot ruling at the time of Jesus'
birth. |
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| We are
stunned as we step into a reconstruction of
the throne room where Herod died.
There we see original frescoes painted on
the wall with rare and costly colors. Most
brilliant is cinnabar, a bright red pigment,
imported from Spain from a quarry owned by
the Emperor Augustus himself. The red
pigment covering the walls would broadcast
to Herod's guests that he was a close
confidante of Augustus. But it
reminded me -- of Herod's gory history! |
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| It was in
this room in the Jericho palace that Herod's
body was laid out on a golden bier encrusted
with gems. Wrapped in purple, with a
crown on his head and a scepter beside his
right hand, Herod departed on his final
journey to Herodion where his corpse was
laid in the sarcophagus and mausoleum he had
prepared. |
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| Next we have
a flashback to the nitty gritty of how Herod
lived: how he bathed and what he ate. |
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| We see
Herod's personal bathtub quarried from a
stalactite cave, found in the bathhouse at
the top of his mountain-fortress overlooking
the Jericho-Jerusalem road. The fort was
named Cypros, after his mother. The
royal bathtub weighs more than one ton.
I wonder how in the world they carried it up
to the top of the fortress in one piece! |
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| The bathtub
is nearly five feet long. (Once, when
I was attending a seminar for guides in the
courtyard of the Rockefeller Museum of
Antiquities, I suddenly noticed I was
sitting next to the famous bathtub and it
was accessible. I didn't dare step
into it not with everyone watching while
the lecturer was speaking. So I lay
down on the ground next to it and nearly fit
in! I'm 5 feet 6.) |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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Herod's personal bathtub,
once displayed at the Rockefeller Museum |
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| Now, while
admiring the bathtub next to the huge floor
tiles of contrasting colors, I wondered
whether Herod bathed with salts extracted
from the Dead Sea nearby. And did he
favor the popular Dead Sea Ahava
moisturizers? |
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| Herod was a
connoisseur of fine wine. Excavators
at Masada and Herodion found evidence of a
shipment of 22 amphorae (large clay storage
jars) filled with imported wine, inscribed
with the date of 19 BC to King Herod from
the vineyard of Lucius Laenius, a known
aristocrat with estates in southern Italy. |
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| In the
exhibit I counted 55 large amphorae which
would have been filled with not only wine,
but apples, fish sauce and onions.
Some inscriptions even explicitly mention
the owner of the goods: Herod, king of
Judea. |
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| One delicacy
found on Herod's table was Spanish Garum
which was a fish sauce prepared from the
fermentation of fish in brine or salt.
Fish bones at the bottom of one jar
identified them as anchovy and herring.
At Jericho, archeologists found an amphora
that contained high-quality Garum produced
from mackerel. Garum, however, had one major
disadvantage: it stank! |
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| Even so,
Garum was on the table at every upper class
Roman banquet. This gourmet stinky
sauce was apparently as ubiquitous as Heinz
ketchup at summer camp! |
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| Herod's
dinner table conformed to Roman culinary
standards not only in boutique wine and
gourmet sauces, but also in the choice of
dessert. Although Judea was known for
its luscious dates and juicy figs, Herod
apparently served apples, just like the
emperor. The apples were from Cumae, north
of the Gulf of Naples. Being imported,
the apples obviously could not have been
eaten fresh. One scholar suggests that
they were preserved in honey. As they
say, "We are what we eat." Herod's
wining and dining would have demonstrated
his affinity for Rome. |
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| But as a
holy land guide, I couldn't help but
contrast the venue, the menu and the elegant
dishes to that of the Last Supper. |
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| The exhibit
ends with the reconstructed tomb.
Actual stones 13 tons of them -- were
brought from Herodion. They were so
heavy that the Israel Museum had to
strengthen the building's foundations before
receiving them. |
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| Even as we
admire Herod's mausoleum with its splendid
red sarcophagus, we can't quite forget how
he died. First century AD historian
Josephus Flavius colorfully describes
Herod's afflictions: a constant fever, an
unbearable itching all over his body,
swelling on his feet, inflammation of the
abdomen, worms in his genitals, pain in his
colon and spasms in all his limbs. Whew. |
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Photo:
Gila Yudkin |
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The late Ehud Netzer by
Herod's(?) ornate sarcophagus found in the
mausoleum |
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| After all
the glory and riches and despite enormous
economic prosperity for Judean residents,
Herod's sarcophagus was smashed to pieces
within a century. At his funeral I
imagine the vast majority of Judeans heaving
a collective sign of relief while perhaps
muttering Shalom Al Yisrael. If
you know Hebrew, then you understand it
literally means "Peace to Israel." But
when we use it today in modern Israel, we
really mean, "Good-bye and good riddance!" |
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Copyright 2013 Gila Yudkin. Permission
needed for any reuse. |
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Gila
Yudkin, who calls herself a
Connecticut-born Yankee living in King
David's court, has been following the Herod
story ever since 1981 when she went on Ehud
Netzer's tour of his ongoing excavations in
Jericho. The following year he showed
Gila and her colleagues where he thought he
would find Herod's tomb. But no dice.
Until the grand unexpected discovery 25
years later in 2007. You can read
about it at:
"Let's
find Herod's Tomb at Herodion." |
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| When Joseph
and Mary hear of Herod's death, they return
to the land of Israel. But when they
hear that Herod's son Archelaus was ruling
over Judea, they went instead to Galilee and
settled in Nazareth. (Matthew 2: 21-23)
At that time, Herod' son Antipas had
initiated a building boom in nearby
Sepphoris where Joseph may have found work.
For more, see "Let's consider whether Jesus
visited Sepphoris." |
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