The purpose of this thesis is to examine the treatment of Herod
the Great in medieval art and literature. Since the iconographic and
other traditions of the subject are European, the scope of this study
is European, except that the chapter on late vernacular non-dramatic
literature, when the traditions are well established and more or less
stereotyped, is confined to English sources. The opening chapters
examine the accounts given by early historians, patristic commentators
and the church liturgy for the traditions which they established and
the interpretations which they sanctioned, and thereafter chapters
deal in chronological sequence with the art and literature of the
medieval period in their response to these traditions and interpretations.
The most creative period in the iconography of scenes involving
Herod in the visual arts was the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Artists of the Early Christian period were relatively conservative in
their treatment of Herod the Great; not until the twelfth century did
artists give visual expression to the early dramatic commentaries on
Herod's violence and evil. A full flowering in the visual arts took
place in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when a vast array of
motifs related to Herod in the Meeting with the Magi scene as well as that
of the Massacre of the Innocents was developed. Other events from his life were
introduced into art at this time, his suicide and death being the most
important. Earlier artistic attempts to represent him as a regal and
aloof emperor were abandoned in favour of more ingenious pottrayals of
this king who was associated with devils and accustomed to wielding a
sword. This was true for both English and Continental art. The art of
the fifteenth century does not reflect the same vitality in its treatmen
