Herodias was already married to Herod's brother Philip before she married Herod. It is assumed here that Herodias was not forced by Herod to marry him. If she had been forced to do so, she would not have held a grudge against St. John the Baptist who chastised Herod for unlawfully marrying his brother's wife, and she would not have wanted to kill St. John the Baptist.
Based on the foregoing assumption, therefore, it can be concluded that Herodias married Herod who was the king so that she could be queen and have everything that comes with being one, such as her title, royal living quarters, personal attendants, fine clothing, accoutrements and so on. This conclusion is supported by this statement from New Advent.org: "Herodias longed for social distinction, and accordingly left her husband and entered into an adulterous union with Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, who was also her uncle (Jos., Ant., XVIII, v, 1, 4)." [2]
How Herodias was able to gain Herod's attention would have depended on the circumstances at the time, just as those nowadays who want to gain wealth, fame, influence and power, or have something as basic as a more prominent position and a better paying job, whether male or female, who will do whatever that is necessary to get what they want, by flattery, by lies, by sexual favors and the like, but will probably not be doing a provocative dance in front of guests at a party like Salome who perhaps thought that she would be rewarded by Herod in some way. If this had crossed her mind, it turned out that she was right.
Even though Salome might not have thought to have the head of St. John the Baptist on platter as a reward, she nonetheless was under the control of her queen mother whose wish Salome had wisely carried out by asking for St. John's the Baptist head even though she likely knew that it was wrong. Salome probably reasoned that it was better to have others suffer and die than to risk her own comfort, just as people do around the world, exploiting Mother Nature and turning it into a toxic dump without giving it a second thought, leaving the mess for future generations to clean up.
Salome was not an innocent little girl. She was a player. She knew how to please Herod and Herodias. What happened to Salome? Quoted in part below is from The Last Dance of Salome published by Catholicism.org [3]:
Cornelius a Lapide quotes one Nicephorus (probably St. Nicephorus of Constantinople, +829) describing the scene: “As she was journeying once in the winter-time, and a frozen river had to be crossed on foot, the ice broke beneath her, not without the providence of God. Straightway she sank down up to her neck. This made her dance and wriggle about with all the lower parts of her body, not on land, but in the water. Her wicked head was glazed with ice, and at length severed from her body by the sharp edges, not of iron, but of the frozen water. Thus in the very ice she displayed the dance of death, and furnished a spectacle to all who beheld it, which brought to mind what she had done.”
The dance of Salome is similar to the dance of people with ideals of making this world a better, cleaner place while at the same time they continue to leave their own larger than necessary carbon footprints and to satiate their insatiable greed.
Unlike the death of Salome, there is no detail on the death of Herodias. The online references that were consulted mentioned that Herodias went into exile. Quoted in part without references [4]:
Herod lost his kingdom on account of Herodias, with whom also he was condemned to be banished to Vienna, which was their place of exile, and a city bordering upon Gaul, and lying near the utmost bounds of the west.
This was not the Vienna of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or of Johann Strauss. Herodias "died [in] AD 39." [5]
[1] https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/6, 17-29.
[2] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07292a.htm, quoted without hyperlinks.
[3] https://catholicism.org/the-last-dance-of-salome.html
[4] https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/what-ever-happened-to-herodias-and-salome/
[5] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodias
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