Herod II (ca. 27 BC - 33 or 34 AD)^[1][2] was the son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon Boethus the High Priest (Mark 6:17). For a brief period he was his father's heir. Some writers call him Herod Philip I (not to be confused with Philip the Tetrarch, whom some writers call Herod Philip II).

Herod was the first husband of Herodias, and because the Gospel of Mark states that Herodias was married to Philip, some scholars have argued that his name was actually Herod Philip. Many scholars dispute this, however, and believe the Gospel writer was in error, a suggestion supported by the fact that the later Gospel of Luke drops the name Philip.^[3][4] Because he was the grandson of the high priest Simon Boethus he is sometimes described as Herod Boethus, but there is no evidence he was actually called this.^[5]

Life and marriage[link]

Herod the Great's execution of his Hasmonean sons, Alexander and Aristobulus IV in 7 BC, left the latter's daughter Herodias orphaned and a minor. Herod engaged her to Herod II, her half-uncle, and her connection to the Hasmonean bloodline supported her new husband's right to succeed his father.

As Josephus reports in Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):

Herodias, [...], was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon the High Priest. [Herod II and Herodias] had a daughter, Salome...^[6]

This marriage led to opposition to the marriage from Antipater III, Herod the Great's eldest son, and so Herod demoted Herod II to second in line to the succession. Antipater's execution in 4 BC for plotting to poison his father seemed to leave Herod II, now Herod I's eldest surviving son, as first in line, but his mother's knowledge of the poison plot, and failure to stop it, led to his being dropped from this position in Herod I's will just days before he died.

Divorce[link]

Herodias later married Herod II's half-brother, Herod Antipas. According to Josephus:

Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod Antipas^[6]

According to the Gospel of Matthew^[7] and the Gospel of Luke,^[8] it was this proposed marriage that John the Baptist opposed. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that John was executed because he criticized this marriage.^[9] Josephus does not say this but the two events, the marriage and the execution — and the resulting war with Aretas IV Philopatris, King of the Nabataeans^[10] — may be linked.

Herod had lived in Rome with Herodias as a private citizen^[11] and therefore survived his father's deathbed purges. Herod Antipas and his other remaining half-brothers shared Judaea out amongst them.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Kokkinos, Nikkos (1998). The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 236–240. ISBN 1-85075-690-2. 

External links[link]

• Herod Dynasty Family Tree

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Herod (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס‎, Hordos, Greek: Ἡρῴδης, Hērōdēs), also known as Herod the Great (born 73 or 74 BCE, died 4 BCE in Jericho^[1]), was a Roman client king of Judea.^[2][3][4] His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."^[5][6][7] He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima. Important details of his biography are gleaned from the works of the 1st century CE Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius.

The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BCE to 6 CE, referred to as the tetrarchy of Judea. Archelaus was judged incompetent by the Roman emperor Augustus who then combined Samaria, Judea proper and Idumea into Iudaea province^[8] under rule of a prefect until 41. Herod's other son Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE – 39 CE.

Biography[link]

Copper coin of Herod, bearing the legend "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΗΡΩΔΟΥ" ("Basileōs Hērōdou") on the obverse

Herod was born around 74 BCE in the south (Idumea was the most southern region).^[9][10] He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under Ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean. Herod was a practicing Jew, as the Edomites and many Nabateans had been converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans.^[11] A loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Antipater appointed Herod governor of Galilee at 25, and his elder brother, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem. He enjoyed the backing of Rome but his brutality was condemned by the Sanhedrin.^[12]

In 43 BCE, following the chaos caused by Antipater offering financial support to Caesar's murderers, Antipater was poisoned. Herod, backed by the Roman Army, executed his father's murderer. After the battle of Philippi towards the end of 42 BCE, he convinced Mark Antony and Octavian that his father had been forced to help Caesar's murderers. After Antony marched into Asia, Herod was named tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans.

Two years later Antigonus, Hyrcanus' nephew, took the throne from his uncle with the help of the Parthians. Herod fled to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power. There he was elected "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate.^[13] Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio (40 BCE), but Appian places it in 39 BCE.^[10] Herod went back to Judea to win his kingdom from Antigonus and at the same time he married the teenage niece of Antigonus, Mariamne (known as Mariamne I), in an attempt to secure a claim to the throne and gain some Jewish favor. However, Herod already had a wife, Doris, and a three-year-old son, Antipater, and chose therefore to banish Doris and her child.

Three years later, Herod and the Romans finally captured Jerusalem and executed Antigonus. Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus (Gr. Βασιλευς, king) for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. Josephus reports this as being in the year of the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus (37 BCE), but also says that it was exactly 27 years after Jerusalem fell to Pompey, which would indicate 36 BCE. (Cassius Dio also reports that in 37 "the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note" in the area.^[14]) According to Josephus, he ruled for 37 years, 34 years of them after capturing Jerusalem.

Model of Herod's Temple

As Herod's family had converted to Judaism, his religious commitment had come into question by some elements of Jewish society.^[15] When John Hyrcanus conquered the region of Idumaea (the Edom of the Hebrew Bible) in 140–130 BCE, he required all Idumaeans to obey Jewish law or to leave; most Idumaeans thus converted to Judaism, which meant that they had to be circumcised.^[16] While King Herod publicly identified himself as a Jew and was considered as such by some,^[17] this religious identification was undermined by the decadent lifestyle of the Herodians, which would have earned them the antipathy of observant Jews.^[18]

Herod later executed several members of his own family, including his wife Mariamne.^{[citation needed]}

Architectural achievements[link]

Herod's most famous and ambitious project was the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of his reign (20–19 BCE), Herod rebuilt the Temple on "a more magnificent scale".^[19] Although work on out-buildings and courts continued another eighty years,^[19] the new Temple was finished in a year and a half. To comply with religious law, Herod employed 1,000 priests as masons and carpenters in the rebuilding.^[19] The finished temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE, is sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple. Today, only the four retaining walls remain standing, including the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. These walls created a flat platform (the Temple Mount) upon which the Temple was then constructed.

Some of Herod's other achievements include the development of water supplies for Jerusalem, building fortresses such as Masada and Herodium, and founding new cities such as Caesarea Maritima and the enclosures of Cave of the Patriarchs and Mamre in Hebron. He and Cleopatra owned a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which was used in ship building. He leased copper mines on Cyprus from the Roman emperor.

Discovery of quarry[link]

On September 25, 2007, Yuval Baruch, archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced his discovery of a quarry compound which provided King Herod with the stones to renovate the Second Temple. Coins, pottery and iron stakes found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked on by hundreds of slaves.^[20]

New Testament references[link]

Herod the Great appears in the Gospel according to Matthew (Ch. 2), which describes an event known as the Massacre of the Innocents. According to this account, after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East visited Herod to inquire the whereabouts of "the one having been born king of the Jews", because they had seen his star in the east and therefore wanted to pay him homage. Herod, as King of the Jews, was alarmed at the prospect of a usurper. Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the "Anointed One" (the Messiah, Greek: Ο Χριστός (ho christos)) was to be born. They answered, in Bethlehem, citing Micah 5:2. Herod therefore sent the Magi to Bethlehem, instructing them to search for the child and, after they had found him, to "report to me, so that I too may go and worship him". However, after they had found Jesus, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod. Similarly, Joseph was warned in a dream that Herod intended to kill Jesus, so he and his family fled to Egypt. When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he gave orders to kill all boys of the age of two and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until Herod's death, then moved to Nazareth in Galilee in order to avoid living under Herod's son Archelaus.

Regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, although Herod was certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, no other known source from the period makes any reference to such a massacre.^[21] Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of two might not exceed 20. This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history,^[22] although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically. Modern biographers of Herod tend to doubt the event took place.^[23]

Death[link]

Coin of Herod the Great

Since the work of Emil Schürer in 1896^[24] most scholars have agreed that Herod died at the end of March or early April in 4 BCE. ^[25] However, Schürer's consensus has not gone unchallenged in the 20th century, with several scholars endorsing 1 BCE as the year of Herod's death.^[26][27]

Evidence for the 4 BCE date is provided by the fact that Herod's sons, between whom his kingdom was divided, dated their rule from 4 BCE,^[28] and Archilaus apparently also exercised royal authority during Herod's lifetime.^[29] Josephus states that Philip the Tetrarch's death took place after a 37-year reign, in the 20th year of Tiberius (34 CE).^[30]

Josephus tells us that Herod died after a lunar eclipse.^[31] He gives an account of events between this eclipse and his death, and between his death and Passover. A partial eclipse^[32] took place on March 13, 4 BCE^[33], about 29 days before Passover, and this eclipse is usually taken to be the one referred to by Josephus.^[34] There were however three other, total, eclipses around this time, and there are proponents of both 5 BCE^[35]– with two total eclipses,^[36][37] and 1 BCE.^[10]

Bronze coin of Herod the Great, minted at Samaria.

Josephus wrote that Herod's final illness – sometimes named as "Herod's Evil"^[38] – was excruciating.^[39] From Josephus' descriptions, some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene.^[40] Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.^[41] More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.^[42] Similar symptoms attended the death of his grandson Agrippa I in CE 44.

Josephus also stated that Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and he gave order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place ^[43]. Fortunately for them, Herod's son Archilaus and sister Salome did not carry out this wish ^[44].

After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided among three of his sons by Augustus. Augustus "appointed Archilaus, not indeed to be the king of the whole country, but ethnarch or one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip and to Herod Antipas, that Herod Antipas who disputed with Archilaus for the whole kingdom. Now, to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted annually to two hundred talents, while Batanea with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called House of Lenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archilaus, but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude."^[45] Archilaus became ethnarch of the tetrarchy of Judea, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and Philip became tetrarch of territories east of the Jordan.

Tomb discovery[link]

Aerial photo of Herodium from the southwest

The location of Herod's tomb is documented by Josephus, who writes, "And the body was carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried."^[46] Josephus provides more clues about Herod's tomb which he calls Herod's monuments:

So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.^[47]

Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, read the writings of Josephus and focused his search on the vicinity of the pool and its surroundings at the Winter Palace of Herod in the Judean desert. An article of the New York Times states,

Lower Herodium consists of the remains of a large palace, a race track, service quarters, and a monumental building whose function is still a mystery. Perhaps, says Ehud Netzer, who excavated the site, it is Herod's mausoleum. Next to it is a pool, almost twice as large as modern Olympic-size pools.^[48]

It took 35 years for Netzer to identify the exact location, but on May 7, 2007, an Israeli team of archaeologists of the Hebrew University led by Netzer, announced they had discovered the tomb.^{[49][50][51][52]} The site is located at the exact location given by Flavius Josephus, atop of tunnels and water pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to Herodium, 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem.^[53] The tomb contained a broken sarcophagus but no remains of a body.

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council intend to recreate the tomb out of a light plastic material.^[54]

Chronology[link]

30s BCE[link]

• 39–37 BCE– War against Antigonus. After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over Antigonus, Mark Antony executes Antigonus.
• 36 BCE– Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law, Aristobulus III, high priest, fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III "King of the Jews" in his place.
• 35 BCE– Aristobulus III is drowned at a party, on Herod's orders.
• 32 BCE– The war against Nabatea begins, with victory one year later.
• 31 BCE– Israel suffers a devastating earthquake. Octavian defeats Mark Antony, so Herod switches allegiance to Octavian, later known as Augustus.
• 30 BCE– Herod is shown great favor by Octavian, who at Rhodes confirms him as King of Judea.

20s BCE[link]

• 29 BCE– Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his wife, Mariamne I. She learns of Herod's plans to murder her, and stops sleeping with him. Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery. His sister, Salome I, was chief witness against her. Mariamne I's mother Alexandra made an appearance and incriminated her own daughter. Historians say her mother was next on Herod's list to be executed and did this only to save her own life. Mariamne was executed, and Alexandra declared herself Queen, stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve. Josephus wrote that this was Alexandra's strategic mistake; Herod executed her without trial.
• 28 BCE– Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar^[55] (husband of Salome, father to Berenice) for conspiracy. Large festival in Jerusalem, as Herod had built a theatre and an amphitheatre.
• 27 BCE– An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled. To honor Augustus, Herod rebuilt Samaria and renamed it Sebaste.
• 25 BCE– Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid programme to combat the widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought. He also waives a third of the taxes.
• 23 BCE– Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea. He married his third wife, Mariamne II, the daughter of the priest Simon Boethus; immediately Herodes deprived Jesus the son of Phabet, of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity on Simon.^[56]
• 22 BCE– Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbour. The Roman emperor Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis, Batanaea and Auranitis to the northeast.
• Circa 20 BCE– Expansion started on the Temple Mount; Herod completely rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herod's Temple).

10s BCE[link]

• Circa 18 BCE– Herod travelled for the second time to Rome.
• 14 BCE– Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene. Owing to the prosperity in Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes.
• 13 BCE– Herod made his first-born son Antipater (his son by Doris) first heir in his will.
• 12 BCE– Herod suspected both his sons (from his marriage to Mariamne I) Alexander and Aristobulus of threatening his life. He took them to Aquileia to be tried. Augustus reconciled the three. Herod supported the financially strapped Olympic Games and ensured their future. Herod amended his will so that Alexander and Aristobulus rose in the royal succession, but Antipater would be higher in the succession.
• Circa 10 BCE– The newly expanded temple in Jerusalem was inaugurated. War against the Nabateans began.

First decade BCE[link]

Tomb of Herod the Great

• 9 BCE–Caesarea Maritima was inaugurated. Owing to the course of the war against the Nabateans, Herod fell into disgrace with Augustus. Herod again suspected Alexander of plotting to kill him.
• 8 BCE– Herod accused his sons by Mariamne I of high treason. Herod reconciled with Augustus, who also gave him the permission to proceed legally against his sons.
• 7 BCE– The court hearing took place in Berytos (Beirut) before a Roman court. Mariamne I's sons were found guilty and executed. The succession changed so that Antipater was the exclusive successor to the throne. In second place the succession incorporated (Herod) Philip, his son by Mariamne II.
• 6 BCE– Herod proceeded against the Pharisees.
• 5 BCE– Antipater was brought before the court charged with the intended murder of Herod. Herod, by now seriously ill, named his son (Herod) Antipas (from his fourth marriage with Malthace) as his successor.
• 4 BCE– Young disciples smashed the golden eagle over the main entrance of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Pharisee teachers claimed it was an idolatrous Roman symbol. Herod arrested them, brought them to court, and sentenced them. Augustus approved the death penalty for Antipater. Herod then executed his son, and again changed his will: Archelaus (from the marriage with Malthace) would rule as ethnarch over the tetrachy of Judea, while Antipas (by Malthace) and Philip (from the fifth marriage with Cleopatra of Jerusalem) would rule as tetrarchs over Galilee and Peraea (Transjordan), also over Gaulanitis (Golan), Trachonitis (Hebrew: Argob), Batanaea (now Ard-el-Bathanyeh) and Panias. Salome I was also given a small toparchy in the Gaza region. As Augustus did not confirm his will, no one received the title of King; however, the three sons were granted rule of the stated territories.

Marriages and children[link]

It is very probable that Herod had more children, especially with the last wives, and also that he had more daughters, as female births at that time were often not recorded.^[57]

Family trees[link]

Marriages and descendants[link]

Herod the Great + Doris
                |
            Antipater II
             d. 4 BCE?

Herod the Great + Mariamne I, d. 29 BCE?, dt. of Alexandros.
                |
       —————————————————————————————————————————————
      |          |          |                       |
 Aristobulus   Alexander   Salampsio + Phasael II     Cypros
  d. 7 BCE?     d. 7 BCE?                |             m. Antipater(2)
 m. Berenice                       Cypros
      |
     ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
    |                |              |                |               |
Mariamne III      Herod V      Herodias     Herod Agrippa    Aristobulus V
m. her uncle   King of Chalcis      +         King of Judea              |
   Archelaus ?              m. 1. Herod II Boethus Herod Agrippa II
                                her uncle
                                2. Herod Antipas
                                her uncle

Herod the Great + Mariamne II, dt. of Simon the High-Priest.
                |
           Herod II
           Boethus

Herod the Great + Malthace (a Samaritan)
                |
    ————————————————————————————————————————————————
   |                                   |            |
 Herod Antipas                     Archelaus    Olympias
   b. 20 BCE?
   + Phasaelis,
   dt. of Aretas IV, king of Arabia
 "divorced" to marry:
   + Herodias,
   dt. of Aristobulus (son of Herod the Great)

Herod the Great + Cleopatra of Jerusalem
                |
       Philip the Tetrarch
             d. 34 CE

Notes.

• Herod's Family Tree^[58]
• Antipater(2) was the son of Joseph and Salome
• Dates with ? need verifying against modern findings

Ancestors[link]

Antipater the Idumaean + Cypros, Princess from Petra, Jordan in Nabatea.
                       |
    —————————————————————————————————————————————
   |              |            |        |        |
Phasael    Herod the Great  Joseph  Pheroras  Salome I
          (74-4 BCE)

Alexandros + Alexandra
           |
      ———————————————————————————————————
     |                                   |
Aristobulus III            Mariamne, dt.
(d. 35 BCE)                              m. Herod the Great
(last Hasmonean scion;
appointed high priest; drowned)

See also[link]

• Cultural depictions of Herod the Great
• Herod's Palace

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Brandon, S.G.F. (1962). "Herod the Great: Judaea’s Most Able but Most Hated King". History Today 12: 234–242. 
• Grant, Michael (1971). Herod the Great. New York: American Heritage Press. ISBN 0-07-024073-6. 
• Günther, Linda-Marie (hg.). Herodes und Jerusalem (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009).
• Guenther, Linda-Marie (hg.), Herodes und Rom (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007).
• Jacobson, David M. and Nikos Kokkinos (еds), Herod and Augustus: Papers held at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005 (Leiden, Brill, 2009) (IJS Studies in Judaica, 6).
• Kokkinos, Nikos, The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse (Sheffield, Sheffield Academic, 1998).
• Marshak, Adam Kolman (2006). "The Dated Coins of Herod the Great: Towards a New Chronology". Journal for the Study of Judaism 37 (2): 212–240. 
• Netzer, Ehud, The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006).
• Perowne, Stewart (1956). The Life and Times of Herod the Great. New York: Abingdon Press. 
• Richardson, P., Herod the King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Edinburgh, 1999).
• Roller, Duane W. (1998). The Building Program of Herod the Great. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91935-8. 
• Sandmel, Samuel (1967). Herod: Profile of a Tyrant. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 
• Witztum, Eliezer, King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor. A Case Study in Psychohistory and Psychobiography (Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2006).
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1963). "Herod: A Malevolent Maniac". Jewish Quarterly Review 54: 1–27. 
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1962-1978). The Rise and Fall of the Judean State. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. 

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2009)

• Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Herod and the Herodian Dynasty The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Halachic Status of Herod
• Family trees
• Encyclopedia.com
• Outline of Great Books Volume I - King Herod: extracts from the works of Josephus
• Timeline 49 to 1 BCE
• Herod surnamed the Great in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Herod
• King Herod the Great
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Herod I

Tomb

• Tomb Found
• Herod's Tomb -images
• King Herod's Tomb Found Biblical Archaeology Review

Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭, Ifukube Akira^?, 31 May 1914 – 8 February 2006) was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies by Toho.

Biography[link]

Akira Ifukube was born on May 31, 1914 in Kushiro on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, the third son of a Shinto priest. Much of his childhood was spent in areas with a mixed Japanese and Ainu population, and his father, unusually for the time, socialised with Ainu. Ifukube was strongly influenced by the traditional music of both peoples, and studied the violin and the shamisen. His first encounter with classical music occurred when attending secondary school in Hokkaidō's capital, Sapporo. Legend has it that Ifukube decided to become a composer at the age of 14 after hearing a radio performance of Igor Stravinsky's ballet, The Rite of Spring. He also cited the music of Manuel de Falla as a major influence.

Ifukube went on to study forestry at Hokkaido University and composing in his spare time, which prefigured a line of self-taught Japanese composers such as Tōru Takemitsu and Takashi Yoshimatsu. His first piece was the piano solo, Piano Suite (later the title was changed to Japan Suite, arranged for orchestra). This piece was dedicated to the pianist George Copeland who was then living in Spain. Atsushi Miura, musicologist and Ifukube's friend in university, sent a fan letter to Copeland. Copeland replied, "It is wonderful that you listen my disc in spite of you living in Japan, the opposite side of the earth. I imagine you may compose music. Send me some piano pieces." Then Miura, who was not a composer, presented Ifukube and this piece to Copeland. Copeland promised to interpret it, but the correspondence was unfortunately stopped because of the Spanish Civil War. Ifukube's big break came in 1935, when his first orchestral piece, Japanese Rhapsody, won the first prize in an international contest for young composers promoted by Alexander Tcherepnin. The judges of that contest—Albert Roussel, Jacques Ibert, Arthur Honegger, Alexandre Tansman, Tibor Harsányi, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, and Henri Gil-Marchex—were unanimous in their selection of Ifukube as the winner.^[1] The next year, Ifukube studied modern Western composition while Tcherepnin was visiting Japan, and in 1938 his Piano Suite obtained an honourable mention at the I.C.S.M. festival in Venice. In the late 1930s his music, especially Japanese Rhapsody, was performed in Europe on a number of occasions.

On completing University, he worked as a forestry officer and lumber processor, and towards the end of the Second World War was appointed by the Japanese Imperial Army to study the elasticity and vibratory strength of wood. He suffered radiation exposure after carrying out x-rays without protection, a consequence of the wartime lead shortage. Thus, he had to abandon forestry work and became a professional composer and teacher. Ifukube spent some time in hospital due to the radiation exposure, and was startled one day to hear one of his own marches being played over the radio when General Douglas MacArthur arrived to formalize the Japanese surrender.

From 1946 to 1953, he taught at the Nihon University College of Art, during which period he composed his first film score for The End of the Silver Mountains, released in 1947. Over the next fifty years, he would compose more than 250 film scores, the high point of which was his 1954 music for Ishirō Honda's Toho movie, Godzilla. Ifukube also created Godzilla's trademark roar – produced by rubbing a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass – and its footsteps, created by striking an amplifier box (in which he discovered stepping it on accident while composing another music).

Despite his financial success as a film composer, Ifukube's first love had always been his general classical work as a composer. In 1974, he returned to teaching at the Tokyo College of Music, becoming president of the college the following year, and in 1987 retired to become president of the College's ethnomusicology department. He trained the younger generation composer such as Toshiro Mayuzumi, Yasushi Akutagawa and Kaoru Wada, Yssimal Motoji.Imai Satoshi. He also published Orchestration, a 1,000-page book on theory.

He died in Tokyo at Moguro-ku Hospital of multiple organ dysfunction on February 8, 2006 at the age of 91.

Honors[link]

The Japanese government awarded Ifukube the Order of Culture.

Subsequently, he was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class.^[2]

Selected works[link]

Orchestral[link]

• Japanese Rhapsody (1935)[1][2]
• Triptyque aborigene for chamber orchestra (1937)
• Symphony Concertante for piano and orchestra (1941)
• Ballata sinfonica (1943)[3]
• Overture to the Nation of Philippines (1944)
• Salome (1948) – ballet based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name. Ifukube revised and expanded the score in 1987. The piece is written in a conservative, late-romantic style reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky or even Khachaturian.^{[citation needed]}
• Drumming of Japan (1951, revised 1984)
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 1 (1954, revised 1983)
• Sinfonia Tapkaara (1954, revised 1979)[4]
• Ritmica Ostinata for piano and orchestra (1961, revised 1972)
• Ronde in Burlesque for wind orchestra (1972, arranged to orchestra in 1983)
• Violin Concerto No. 2 (1978)
• Lauda concertata for marimba and orchestra (1979)
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 2 (1983)
• Symphonic Fantasia No. 3 (1983)
• Gotama the Buddha for mixed chorus and orchestra (1989)
• Japanese Suite for orchestra (1991)[5]
• Japanese Suite for string orchestra (1998)

Chamber and instrumental[link]

• Piano Suite (1933)
• Toccata for guitar (1970)
• Fantasia for baroque lute (1980)
• Sonata for violin and piano (1985)
• Ballata sinfonica for duo-treble and bass 25-stringed koto (2001)

Vocal[link]

• Ancient Minstrelsies of Gilyak Tribes (1946)
• Three Lullabies among the Native Tribes on the Island of Sakhalin (1949)
• Eclogues after Epos among Aino Races for solo voice and 4 kettle drums (1950)
• A Shanty of the Shiretoko Peninsula (1960)
• The Sea of Okhotsk for soprano, bassoon, piano (or harp) and double bass (1988)
• Lake Kimtaankamuito (Lake Mashū) (摩周湖, Mashū-ko^?) for soprano, viola and harp or piano (1992)
• La Fontaine sacrée for soprano, viola, bassoon and harp (1964, 2000); arrangement by the composer from the 1964 film score Mothra vs. Godzilla

Film scores[link]

• Snow Trail (1947)
• The Quiet Duel (1949)
• Anatahan (アナタハン), also known as The Saga of Anatahan (1953)
• Godzilla (1954)
• Ningen gyorai kaiten (1955)
• The Burmese Harp (1956)
• Rodan (1956)
• The Mysterians (1957)
• Varan the Unbelievable (1958)
• The Birth of Japan (1958)
• Battle in Outer Space (1959)
• The Big Boss (Boss of the Underworld) (1959)
• Daredevil in the Castle (1961)
• The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Chushingura (1962)
• Wanpaku Ouji no Orochi Taiji (1963)
• Atragon (1963)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Dogora (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Whirlwind (1964)
• Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• War of the Gargantuas (1966)
• Daimajin (1966)
• Wrath of Daimajin (1966)
• Return of Daimajin (1966)
• King Kong Escapes (1967)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• Latitude Zero (1969)
• Space Amoeba (1970)
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Sandakan No. 8 (1974)
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
• Lady Origin (1978)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

In addition, his work was used in Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and Godzilla: Final Wars.

References[link]

1. ^ liner notes: Naxos 8.555071 (Morihide Katayarna)
2. ^ L'Harmattan web site (in French)

External links[link]

• Akira Ifukube at the Internet Movie Database
• A guide to Ifukube's concert music on CD
• Information about his death in Japanese
• AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG:A virtual museum dedicated to Akira Ifukube
• Larson, Randall D. Voice of Gojira: Remembering Akira Ifukube at musicfromthemovies.com
• Milner, David. Yohihiko Shibata (trans.) December 1992 & December 1993. "The Complete Akira Ifukube Interview", Kaiju Fan Online.

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Peaches Christ
Peaches Christ performing on stage at Cat Club, San Francisco at the Trannyshack/Midnight Mass Halloween party, 2009.
Born	Joshua Grannell San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, emcee, filmmaker, performer
Years active	1996–present
Website
http://www.peacheschrist.com

Peaches Christ (stage name for Joshua Grannell) is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor.^[1] Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where her Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based.^{[2][dead link]}

Her Midnight Mass road-show and Short Film Retrospective have been on tour and appeared in Seattle, Berkeley, New York City, Brussels, Belgium, and Lausanne, Switzerland.^{[citation needed]}

On September 7, 2007, the San Francisco de Young Museum hosted a "Decade of Peaches Christ Retrospective" called Cattychism featuring artistic contributions inspired by Peaches. The event included ten years of costume design by long-time collaborator Tria Connell and ten years of graphic design by artist Chris Hatfield.^{[3][4][dead link]}

[edit] Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass is a popular San Francisco midnight movie event series begun in the summer of 1998 at the movie theater that Joshua Grannell/Peaches Christ managed, The Landmark Theatres Bridge Theater in San Francisco, California. The elaborate pre-show stage productions, guest stars, and drag spectacles continue to draw sell-out crowds. Special guest stars have included Mink Stole, Tura Satana, Mary Woronov, RuPaul, Erica Gavin, Patrick Bristow, Cassandra Peterson (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark), John Waters, and more. The summer of 2009 marked the 12th and final season of Midnight Mass showing at The Bridge.^[5]

Stage and screen[link]

The 10th-Annual Season of Peaches Christ's Midnight Mass stage-show was filmed for a national television show airing on the HDnet Movie Channel executive produced by Mark Cuban.^[6] The six-part series is titled Midnight Mass with your Hostess Peaches Christ. Thirty minute episodes centered around Peaches and Midnight Mass preceding televised film screenings. Peaches has appeared on other television productions, including VH1’s Totally Gay!, AMC’s Movies That Shook the World: Pink Flamingos, and IFC’s Cult Movies pilot. Peaches is prominently featured as a protesting drag queen in Gus Van Sant's feature film Milk.

Peaches tours with her short film collection and presents it as part of "An Evening With Peaches Christ". It is a multi-media show that includes live singing, and the screening of her short films.^{[citation needed]}

Peaches appears in numerous other films as well, including Spin the Bottle, a "drag-umentary" send-up of Madonna: Truth or Dare chronicling life behind the scenes at Midnight Mass. The film was written by Grannell and directed by San Francisco filmmaker Scott Boswell. Peaches Christ co-produced the San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival with performance artist and musician Vinsantos. The fest is designed to showcase talented and overlooked Bay Area Filmmakers. In 2005, Peaches released her debut CD single "Idol Worship". Peaches continues to appear on the Trannyshack stage where she got her start in 1996. Christ regularly guest emcees the show, substituting for hostess Heklina.^[7] He directed also in the Indie horror flick All About Evil,^[8] which stars Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekker, Cassandra Peterson,^[9] Mink Stole, Noah Segan, Jack Donner, Julie Caitlin Brown and Patrick Bristow.^[10]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Peaches Christ on My Space^{[dead link]}
• Peaches Christ on YouTube
• Interview with Joshua Grannell on movies.insidepulse.com Part 1
• Interview with Joshua Grannell on movies.insidepulse.com Part 2
• Interview with Joshua Grannell on movies.insidepulse.com Part 3

Press links[link]

• GIANT Peaches Interview: The Evening Class
• SF Chronicle: A Decade Of Drag
• SF Chronicle: A Unique Place of Extreme Behavior
• Time Out NY: Mass Appeal
• Xpress Magazine: Christ on the Rise
• Gay.com: Dating Advice^{[dead link]}
• SFist: Peaches Christ Interview
• Bay Times: Peaches Christ DVD Review
• SF Chronicle: Behind the Curtain at Trannyshack
• SF Bay Guardian: Peaches Christ Interview