In the early 1900s, German opera composer Richard Strauss saw Max Reinhardt’s production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé; Strauss’s adaptation of the play would be his first great operatic success. In both Wilde and therefore Strauss’s versions of the Salome story, she is the mastermind behind the beheading of John the Baptist, not an innocent bystander.

Thanks to the biblical and shocking themes of the story, both the play and the opera were embroiled in great controversy when they were unveiled to the public. You can find out more about that, and other operas that shook society, in our article.

Oscar Wilde read À rebours (Against nature) (1884), the most important novel of the Decadence period (late nineteenth century), the year it was published. He would later refer to it as one of the best novels he’d ever read. The novel had such a profound effect on Wilde, he is thought to have used it as inspiration for the ‘poisonous’ book in his The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The novel contains a scene where Jean des Esseintes, the main character, becomes obsessed with two paintings of the Salome story by artist Gustave Moreau. In it, Huysmans describes the paintings in vivid detail, visualising the paintings and the context surrounding them. Wilde’s obsession with these descriptions meant he even mirrored some of the language Huysmans used in his play. For example, Herod’s description of his jewels, pearls and precious stones in the play are very similar to that of Huysmans description of the jewels in the paintings.

Known as one of the first symbolist artists, Moreau’s main inspirations for his paintings were biblical and mythical characters. Moreau focused on the Salome theme over 150 times, with drawings, watercolours and paintings. The most famous of these works are L’Apparition (The Apparition) and Salome Dancing before Herod.

L’Apparition (1876) depicts the biblical tale of Salome, dancing in front of Herod. A vision of John the Baptist’s head floats in the centre of the painting, highlighting what is to come. Moreau was one of the many artists who chose to depict Salome as a seductive femme fatale, rather than the innocent victim of her mother’s plot. As well as Huysman and Wilde, many artists responded to Moreau’s most famous work through paintings and short stories, highlighting how influential it really was.

The World’s Wife, published in 1999, was poet Carol Ann Duffy’s first collection of themed poems. The poems in the collection are each told by a different female voice. These well-known characters from the bible, myths and legends or history, are lesser-known compared to their male counterparts. Instead of recounting the tales of Charles Darwin or Sigmund Freud, Duffy gives Mrs Darwin and Frau Freud a voice.

In Salome, Duffy tells the biblical tale, although her Salome is colloquial, as if talking to her friends. Because of this, Duffy’s heroine uses modern language; referring to her hangover and the ‘booze’ and ‘fags’. The poem ends with Salome declaring – without remorse – that she has John the Baptist’s head on a platter.