Melvyn Bragg: Hello. The French mandate forces remained in Syria throughout the Second World War, representing at times the Third Republic, Free France, Vichy France, and the Provisional Republic through governments liberal, conservative, socialist and fascist. Stationed in Damascus during all twenty-three years of the French Mandate was an Alsatian consul and amateur Assyriologist named Richard Westenbach who came to French Syria in search of a work long regarded as a mere grandmother's tale: the Tales of Classical Perversion by Sharlappius of Palmyra - a telling of power's wares in the classical world so revolting it puts to shame anything in Tacitus and Gibbon. So shameful were the tales that they were burned and banned by the Prophet Mohammed. For 1300 years, the only mention of the work which survives to this day is in Pyrrus Menander's Chronicle of Historical Shame, and yet oral tradition of its tales persisted among Syrian tribes for centuries - entire tales recounted in detail from first word to last.
Yet as Europe burned, this government clerk used his off hours to toil in search of a text that would rewrite the entire history of antiquity. Pyrrus Menander makes mention of a multivolume work with separate texts for the eras of Pharaonic Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Hellenic Greece. Yet after twenty years of search, Westenbach found an enormous scroll within the stone seat of a Syrian church pew. While a sizable portion of the contents are illegible, many of the remains corresponded to Syrian folk tales about Judea word for word.
What Westenbach found in 1945 was not merely a work that rewrites the entire cultural history of antiquity but something far more disgusting. A work which claims that Julius Caesar enjoyed Cleopatra shitting in his mouth and would have us believe that Herod spoke Greek in patois that switched between Shakespearean grandeur and Quentin Tarantinoesque vulgarity.
But missing until 1989 was the supposed crown jewel upon which the entire volume sat. All we knew of the Mariamneia came from Pyrrus Menander who mentions a dramatic triptych of this name which he calls 'Judea's greatest gift.' Contained in the Tales of Classical Perversion is only the briefest fragment of the Mariamneia, a work of literary quality as negligible as the rest of the volume. And yet the Mariamneia arrived upon the world like a hydrogen bomb of sublimity that sold out runs in every major metropole around the world, revived classics studies for a new century, and reduces even schoolchildren to tears. Every city schoolboy now knows the quote 'Caesar's dead but the Jews won't leave,'
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Scott Gruenberg
4/20/2023
Mrs. Feder
Grade 12
In this assignment about the beginning part of the Mariamneia by Sharlappius of Palmyra I will show that Herod is actually the hero of the story, and the women are the villainesses. Herod is oen of the great leaders of Jewish history who made the Jews into a great power again while Rome made the rest of its empire into slaves and he undergoes the hero's journey. Whenever he undrestimated the cleverness of woman characters, he learned from his mistakes and didn't think they were stupid anymore.
When Herod learned that Mariamne's mother Alexandra was smart because she was talking to Cleopatra while he was talking to Anthony, he knows he needs to give Cleopatra something she wants to stop Alexandra and Cleopatra from being friends. So he gives her the ballsam in Jericho, but is clever enough to knwo he knows he can get it back.
Herod knows he has to keep Mariamne a prisoner or else Cleopatra might kill him, so he has his Uncle Joseph take her as a prisoner and tells his uncle Joseph to kill her if he gets killed. I think Herod loved Mariamne and he knew he wouldn't get killed and Uncle Joseph wouldn't kill her.
When Cleopatra agreed with his plan, Alexandra still tired to get Cleopatra to kill Herod, so he told Alexandra that her daughter was kidnapped and would be killed if Herod got killed. So she stopped trying to get Herod killed. This shows that Herod was smart enough to outsmart Alexandra and that he learned from his mistakes.
In conclusion, I think Herod is the hero of the Mariamneia and he was a good king. Alexandra was a bad person and Cleopatra understood that.
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"There is no projective finality in Sharlappius, particularly in that Euripidean masterpiece within the masterpiece: the Mariamneia. To read Sharlappius in the original Latin, with its untranslatable embrace of colloquial Hellenisms and Hebraicisms, is to enter history at an era of Rabbinical paradoxes: of classicism at its close and medievalism at its inception. It embodies the Hebraic paradox of the dialectic, of philosophy become poetry, and embraces both the sensuality of classical reason and the phenomenology of medieval irrationalism. It is a simultaneous statement for God and a forsaking of him. A world of constant historical recursions where events distant from even Sharlappius's lifetime become forever new with regenerative possibilities of meaning for new eras to decipher.
The passage of exchange between Joseph and Mariamne is a love story so rich with unique resonance for our time. The dialectic paradoxes continue within the Shakespearean richness of Joseph's language against the unstinting sparseness of Mariamne's speech, so reminiscent of the articulate silence of Corneille and Racine which express that which cannot be expressed through a paucity of speech, which implies the continuous battle against totalitarian vacuity in the form of expressing its leavetaking to the classical era of Greek rationalism, so geometric in form yet hermetic in content. Joseph teaches the ability to become love itself, and articulates the possibility of a greater, more knowing poetic optimism within the predeterminism of the fates. In this post-Holocaust agony of knowledge, when the horror of organized noise assaults the ear with unremitting mercilessness, such silences imply possibilities of meaning unknown to our era of barbarity."
George Steiner - In the Garden of Regeneration - 2000
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"The path for us is so rough,
Oh baby, like Mariamne and Joseph
The princess and the jailer tell tales
But love gets hunted down like white whales"
Bob Dylan - Skywriting of Louisville - 1997
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"In Sharlappius's unconscious agon with Shakespeare Herod prefigures the war on the cosmos of Iago and Edmund. Yet the Mariamneia lacks Shakespeare's prophetic force. Herod cannot self-overhear after the manner of Hamlet and Falstaff, but Mariamne's tragic eloquence retains a metaphysical projection of gnostic splendor."
Harold Bloom - The Prophets and the Kings, 1999
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"There are those who presuppose that asserting a woman's right to choose whether to carry her child to term is something inherent in the constitution, and an assertion of autonomy as brave as Mariamne's monologue of defiance against Herod."
Antonin Scalia - Nirenberg vs. Irving, 2009
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Graduate thesis proposal of
"Mariamne acts the part of a woman and queen but in fact she is truly performative in the sense that Herod's generation of capital produces a hegemonic projection of power upon Mariamne's body through a vast succession of performative acts which are accepted as the normative standard of Herodian court life. Mariamne assumes a the only performative role available to her within the superstructure of courtly life and over time her ability to maintain her performance disappears, whereupon Herod feels compelled to kill her, and even in death she has insufficiently submitted to Herod's will. The sodomization of her corpse in death is a means by which Herod requires her in an eternal submission prefigurative to the eternal submission of sinners in Christianity. In each act of sexual dominance, Herod reasserts his hegemony and rearticulates his power, but the totality of his superstructure remains unfulfilled against Mariamne's sole act of rebellion."
Judith Butler - Recursions and Dispersions in the Mariamneia, 2007
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Melvyn Bragg: Until 1989, all we had was an outline of Sharlappius's Mariamneia in Byzantine Greek in with some dialogue corresponding to the full script but with different handwriting, perhaps summarized from stage notes or from Sharlappius's assistant, or perhaps even from an early monk of Byzantium. Here we have the first play acted out from the stage notes: with Emma Thompson as Mariamne, Vanessa Redgrave as Salome, Kenneth Branagh as Herod and Brian Blessed as Joseph. The name of the first play is "Listen, Whore."
1. Solilioquy of exposiition from Herod in which Herod tells of how he had underestimated Mariam's mother, Alexandra, who was communicating the entire time separately to Cleopatra in Egypt while Herod was communicating to Antony in Rome. All involved parties were summoned to to explain what happened to Cleopatra, who summoned him to Cairo to Laodicia (in Turkey). Knowing that Cleopatra is venomous in her pursuit of justice for her friends, he may not make it out of this meeting alive, Herod knows he has to offer Cleopatra something inordinately valuable, not just jewels and rainment (though he must present her those) but something of great advantage. He therefore presents her the deed in perpetuity for all the balsam in Jericho, a city with enormous numbers of palm trees - and as a token of its esteem, presented her with huge vats of its essential oils. Knowing, however, that he had to rescind the command for his death, Herod put his wife Mariam under the charge of his uncle, Joseph. Should word reach Joseph that Herod was executed, Joseph should murder Mariam immediately "It is a shame, for I have grown to love the sweet girl. Perhaps I can console myself with the thought that she could be mine again in the great sheol to come." Even after Herod's offer of good will to Cleopatra, Alexandra refuses to rescind her claim and reminds Cleopatra of her oath to avenge Aristobulus's murder. Cleopatra calls for a recess during which she will consult her oracle, during which Herod tells Alexandra of Mariam's secret captivity and what will happen if Herod is murdered. Alexandra, humiliated in horror, announces at the reassembly that she withdraws her claim on Herod.
2. In Joseph's house, Mariam was, of course, the soul of winning politesse. Joseph is clearly quite taken with her, much to the discontent of Salome, his wife and Herod's sister. It needs to be established that Salome is mean and Mariam is nice and understanding. Joseph, after yet another row with Salome, finds solace in talking with Mariam, and after a while he confesses his mission to her. He tells her that if rumor should be heard of Herod's death, they must immediately sue for Roman protection and Joseph must go into hiding or else he will be held responsible by Ishmael and murdered himself. Mariam takes Joseph by the hand and places it directly on her heart, saying "Why don't we go into hiding together? Just you and I..." After lingering on her breast for a few seconds with closed eyes, Joseph withdraws his hand and exhales "There are no words for how deeply that wish goes to my heart, but I do not dare cross Herod, even in death."
3. Alexandra's caravan is spotted riding in the distance at the Jerusalem ramparts. Joseph immediately runs to Mariam. Your mother is here! Herod is dead. Run to the Roman garrison. RUN! You will be free in moments. "Does this mean?" "There may be time to discuss that later. RUN!" Mariam runs away. Salome however had heard the same and saw Mariam run out of Joseph's palace: "She's supposed to be dead! What plot is this? Herod's dead and you mean to keep her alive so that you can kill me in her place and take Mariam as a better wife!"
4. But in fact, while the caravan is riding under Alexandra's sigil, Herod is riding back to Jerusalem with her caravan, as a show of good faith and confidence in his relations with his mother in law. Joseph comes to receive Alexandra with news of what happened before he stages the 'loss' of Mariam, but from Alexandra's carpentum, out steps Herod. The only person ready for this turn of events is Salome, who immediately shouts 'Mariam has run away after being unfaithful to you with my husband!" "Silence Machshefah (witch)!" "Search our palace! Seeing only Alexandra's sigil we thought you dead! Mariam is not here, and I heard my husband command her to flee at once!" "Joseph I honestly should make you high priest. You did the greatest of all possible services by taking as your wife the Whore of Babylon." "He commanded her to go to the Roman garrison!" "I am Rome and Rome is me. So long as I am alive, no one in Judea avoids the justice of Herod." "But they thought you were dead!" "There's no way they thought me dead! Joseph, I never thought you'd actually have to kill her. How could anyone possibly doubt my powers of persuasion on Antony and Cleopatra whom I've persuaded so many times in situations precisely like this!" "You literally instructed them in the case of your death..." "I was never going to die!" "How were we supposed to know that?" "Sister do you doubt your brother and king is so unloved by his friends that they would stoop to kill him?" (this silences Salome) Herod: "...Fine, Joseph send your valet to the garrison and retrieve Mariam... IF she's even there...."
5. Mariam returns from the garrison and immediately pounces. "Did you retrieve me finally to kill me? Is it bad enough you possess me in life do you have to possess me in the Gates of Sheol too?" At that moment, Herod eyes grow cold, he draws his sword and with one swift stroke beheads his uncle Joseph to everyone's screaming and weeping. He immediately calls in Joseph's slaves, calmly instructs them to clean up the blood of their master and dump his body into the valley of Gahennim. Six Roman soldiers escorted them into Joseph's palace. He tells three to escort Mariam back to the Royal Palace (such as it is...), and three to escort Alexandra to Praetorium Prison, where she is to be lodged for the foreseeable future.
6. Herod and Salome alone. "Listen whore, I know not what you say is true. What I do know is that if Joseph told Mariam, if he even told you, if he even told someone who told you, he's capable of everything you say. If I find out that from which you are capable, you will join your ex-husband in Gahennim more swiftly than Herod meted justice to Joseph." Salome weeps and Herod leaves the room.
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