“‘He demands!’ Everything is ‘He demands’!” Herodias had sprung to her feet, her eyes blazing, her shaking finger extended across the table toward the suddenly interrupted Arabian. Now she turned fiercely upon the Tetrarch. “Didn’t you hear him, O Tetrarch? ‘He demands!’ That old goat of Arabia demands of you, Herod, Tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea. He writes you an evil, insulting message abusing you and your wife, and you sit here calmly listening while that man reads it before these your guests and me your Tetrarchess....”
“But, my beloved Herodias”—Antipas clutched the table’s edge as he straggled to get to his feet—“these men are only the messengers of King Aretas. What you hear are not this man’s words, they are the King’s.”
“Of course I know that, Antipas; I am not entirely a fool. I know they are the King’s words, but don’t they say that Aretas has empowered these men to represent him in your negotiations over me? Over me, do you hear? Negotiations designed to force me from the palace in Tiberias, to return her....”
Gently Antipas caught his wife’s arm and tried to calm her, to get her to take her seat. “Of course not, my dear, of course you’ll not be sent away, you’ll never be supplanted....”
She jerked her arm free, turned upon him, eyes blazing now in utter fury. “Then send them back to her doting old father! Send them packing, Antipas!” She shook her finger under his nose. “Or else, by all the great and little gods, I myself will go away!”
Antipas faced the still shocked Arabian. “Perhaps you had best excuse yourself,” he said evenly. “Tomorrow, in the calm of our council chamber, we shall be able....”
“No!” shouted Herodias. “Let them leave tonight, immediately. I can abide their insulting presence here no longer!”
The Tetrarch, ignoring his wife’s outburst, beckoned to a servant hovering nearby. “Escort these men into a suitable chamber, and see that they are adequately provided for with our best food and wine,” he commanded, “and after they have dined, show them to their bedchambers. They must be in need of replenishment and rest after their arduous journey to Machaerus.” He bowed to the delegation’s leader. “We shall defer further consideration of the matter until the morning. We are all greatly fatigued and agitated.”
The servant stepped forward and bowed to the visitors. They in turn, without any further word from their spokesman, bowed to the Tetrarch and turned with the escorting servant to withdraw from the triclinium.
Herodias, seated now and apparently calm, twisted around to watch them depart. But when at the doorway Aretas’ spokesman glanced over his shoulder toward the Tetrarch, she suddenly grabbed the goblet beside her plate. “Go!” she screamed. “Go! Go!” With all her strength she hurled the goblet toward the man; it shattered on the wall near the door. As a servant came running to pick up the broken bits of glass, she sank to the couch, pulled up her sandaled feet, and, sobbing wildly, buried her face in the pillow.