Matthew 14:8

‘And she, being put forward by her mother, says, “Give me here on a large dish the head of John the Baptist.” '

So Herodias stepped in and impressed on her daughter that she should ask for the head of John the Baptist. It tells us all that we need to know about Salome, whose anger and bitterness must have been stirred up by her mother, that instead of protesting at such a thought, she fell in line with it. Both must have known what even the worst of their ‘friends' would think about such a move, but they were filled with such intense bitterness against John that it overcame everything else. Salome, therefore, made her request to Herod, “Give me here on a large dish the head of John the Baptist.” This was to be her birthday dish. The idea was probably that it suited birthday celebrations, and the hope may have been that it would be seen as a grotesque joke, deserving a laugh at such an assembly as her ‘meal' was served up. The very grotesqueness of the request demonstrates to what depths of depravity Salome had sunk, helped on by her mother. She was worthy of the house of Herod.