Cultural depictions of Herod the Great explained

This page lists cultural depictions of Herod the Great, grouped by order and arranged by date.

Art and literature

Plays

• Herod appears in some cycles of the Mystery Plays, such as the pageant Herod the Great in the Towneley Cycle, played as an over-the-top villain. Such portrayals were still in folk memory in William Shakespeare's time, for Hamlet instructs the players not to "out-Herod Herod" (Act 3, Scene 2).^[1] This line is in turn quoted in regard to Prince Prospero in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Mask of the Red Death." Medieval dramatic portrayals of Herod may also have influenced Shakespeare's portrayal of Macbeth, King of Scotland in Macbeth.^[2]
• Herod the Great is a central character in Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry (1613). The play is a work of historical fiction, set in 29 B.C., revolving around Herod's second wife, Mariam, and their families, when Herod is believed to have been killed by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus).

Sculpture and paint

• The Feast of Herod (Donatello)
• The Feast of Herod (Rubens)
• The Feast of Herod
• The Dance of Salome (paintings)

Film, radio and television

Film

• From the Manger to the Cross (1912), played by George Kellog
• The Star of Bethlehem (1912), played by William Russell
• Cleopatra (1934), played by Joseph Schildkraut
• King of Kings (1961), played by Grégoire Aslan
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), played by Claude Rains
• The 3 Kings (2000), played by Ron Moody
• The Nativity Story (2006), played by Ciarán Hinds
• The Star (2017), voiced by Christopher Plummer
• Journey to Bethlehem (2023), played by Antonio Banderas

Radio

• He appears in the first play of Dorothy L. Sayers' radio play cycle The Man Born to Be King.

Television

• Jesus of Nazareth (1977), played by Peter Ustinov
• The Nativity (1978), played by Leo McKern
• Rome (2007, episode 19, Death Mask), played by René Zagger
• The Bible (2013, episode 3, Hope), played by Sam Douglas
• Killing Jesus (2015), played by Kelsey Grammer

Notes and References

1. David Staines, 'To Out-Herod Herod: The Development of a Dramatic Character', Comparative Drama, 10.1 (spring 1976), 29-53, .
2. R. Chris Hassel, Jr., '"No Boasting like a Fool?" Macbeth and Herod', Studies in Philology, 98.2 (Spring, 2001), 205-24.