The Jewess

The protagonist is Salome, who is condemned to an eternal succession of lives on Earth, because she prompted the execution of John the Baptist. Her driving quest is to achieve superiority over men, and she begins by arousing the love of Isaac Laquedem, who appears as the Wandering Jew; but she is still adolescent, and the net result of this attraction is her vow to conquer the Moon, which keeps women in biological bondage. After two quick and unhappy marriages, she leaves her home to wander into the desert, where she meets Jokanaan (John the Baptist), who is preaching that he is Elijah. She is greatly impressed by him, and manages to get him thrown into prison, instead of being summarily executed as a heretic. When she tries to tempt him, he rejects her. She angrily causes his death in the manner described in the Gospel of Mark; but before he dies, Jokanaan says that she must continue to live for an eternity, because she is *"too vile for the grave".* Back in Jerusalem, she meets Cartaphilus, whom she recognizes as the former Isaac, the son of a cobbler, who has first excited her. However, she takes no part in the Crucifixion, and so she is ignorant of the curse imposed upon the Wandering Jew. One century later we find her in Arabia, the wife of King Hussein. She cannot have children by Him because He is sterile, but she realizes that He may try to kill her to cover up this fact. His brothers prevent Him from this deed by killing Him, and then each brother marries her, but she remains barren. She first learns of the Wandering Jew through the wise man Apollonius, her teacher, and expresses the hope that she may someday meet him. Resuming her wandering life, she meets the formidable Queen Zenobia, of Palmyra. The two try an experiment in female domination, in which Zenobia frees all of Her female slaves, and places women in important governmental positions. Zenobia, who vies in glory with Her predecessor Queen Cleopatra, insists that the defeat of the Serpent of the Nile by the Romans has come about not from the superiority of the Romans, but from the physical handicaps of the female sex. Then Zenobia dies, and Salome temporarily retires to a quiet life upon the Rhine, meanwhile becoming enamored of an immortal turtle, Lakshmi, which is a symbol of the revolt of women. At her first opportunity she and her turtle travel to the Temple of Cartaphilus, who has by now become the God Ca-Ta-Pha. He is absent, and while awaiting his return, she proceeds to create a

Year

1995

Language

English

Publisher

Salt-of-the-Earth (SALE)

Editions

1

Pages

438

ISBN

9781895507867

Data source: Wikidata