http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodias#In_medieval_literature
In medieval Europe a widespread belief held Herodias to be the supernatural leader of a supposed cult of witches, synonymous with Diana, Holda and Abundia.<13> See Cult of Herodias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Herodias = Aradia
The Italian form of the name Herodias is Erodiade. It appears that Herodias, the wife of Herod Antipas, in Christian mythology of the early medieval period came to be seen as a spirit condemned to wander the sky forever, permitted only to rest in treetops between midnight and dawn. By the High Middle Ages, this figure seems to have become attached to the train of nymphs of Diana, now also seen as a host of spirits flying through the night across the Italian countryside. Other names attached to the night flight of Herodias included Minerva and Noctiluca.<5> The canon Episcopi is a passage from the work De ecclesiasticis disciplinis by Regino of Prüm (written ca. 906). It became notable as a paragraph of canon law dealing with witchcraft by the 12th century. Regino reports that there were groups of women who believed that they could go on night journeys where they would fly across the sky to meet Diana and her train. The name of Herodias is not present in the text as attributed to Regino, but in the version by Burchard of Worms, written ca. 1012, the reference to Diana (cum Diana paganorum dea) was augmented by "or with Herodias" (vel cum Herodiade).<6>
Magliocco (2002) suggests that the legends surrounding this figure, known as Aradia, Arada or Araja, spread throughout various areas of Italy, and she traced records that showed that two beings known as s'Araja dimoniu (Araja the demon) and s'Araja justa (Araja the just) were found in Sardinia. Magliocco believed that the latter of these two figures, s'Araja justa, was the antecedent of a supernatural witch-like figure known as sa Rejusta in Sardinian folklore.<7>

Judika Illes, in her Encyclopedia of Spirits, noted: "Although venerated elsewhere in Europe, Herodias was especially beloved in Italy. She and Diana are the goddesses most frequently mentioned in witch-trial transcripts and were apparently worshiped together." <9>

Leland also equated Aradia with Herodias, explaining his speculation that Herodias was actually Lilith: "This was not... derived from the Herodias of the New Testament, but from an earlier replica of Lilith, bearing the same name... So far back as the sixth century the worship of Herodias and Diana by witches was condemned by a Church Council at Ancyra".<14> Pipernus and other writers have noted the evident identification of Herodias with Lilith.<13>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holda
In German legends, frau Holda was the protectoress of agriculture and women's crafts. Her name and the names Huld and Hulda may be cognate with that of the Scandinavian being known as the huldra.<1> Jacob Grimm made an attempt to establish her as a Germanic goddess.<2>
..The similarity of meaning and etymology between German "Holl(d)a" and Old English "Hella," as well as both being described as leading the dead, could point to a link between them.

Contents
1 Spinning
2 Winter
3 Protectress of children
4 As Water-Holda
5 Leader of the Wild Hunt
6 Matron of witches

Later canonical and church documents make her synonymous with Diana, Herodias, Bertha, Richella and Abundia. Historian Carlo Ginzburg has identified remarkably similar beliefs existing throughout Europe for over a thousand years, whereby men and women were thought to leave their bodies in spirit and follow a goddess variously called Holda, Diana, Herodias, Signora Oriente, Richella, Arada and Perchta. He also identifies strong morphological similarities with the earlier goddesses Hecate/Artemis, Artio, the Matres of Engyon, the Matronae and Epona, as well as figures from fairy-tales, such as Cinderella.<8>

Sources
Grimm based his theory of Holda on what he took to be the earliest references to her: an eleventh-century interpolation to the Canon Episcopi by Burchard of Worms, and pre-Christian Roman inscriptions to Hludana that he tentatively linked to the same divinity. There were early challenges to connecting this figure with a pagan goddess,<12> since her earliest definite appearance links her with the Virgin Mary, commonly called "Queen of Heaven": an early-13th-century text listing superstitions states that "In the night of Christ's Nativity they set the table for the Queen of Heaven, whom the people call Frau Holda, that she might help them".<13> Lotte Motz<10> and Carlo Ginzburg both conclude that she is pre-Christian in origin, based on comparison with other remarkably similar figures and ritual observances spread throughout Europe. Ginzburg proposes that these mythical structures have their origins in the ancient shamanism of central Eurasia.

2. ^ "Grimm made the attempt to establish her as a benevolent goddess of German antiquity," noted Edgar A. List, "Is Frau Holda the Virgin Mary?" The German Quarterly 29.2 (March 1956, pp. 80-84) p. 80.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundia#Nicnevin = Queen of Elphame
Queen of Elfland in ballads
..In both the ballad and romance forms of the legend of Thomas the Rhymer, the supenatural queen initially mistaken for the Queen of Heaven (i.e., Virgin Mary) by the protagonist, but she identfies herself as "Queen of Elfland" (ballad A) or the queen of some supernatural realm that remains nameless (romance).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berchta
..Later canonical and church documents characterized Perchta as synonymous with other leading female spirits: Holda, Diana, Herodias, Richella and Abundia.

Не получается ли отсюда, что "культ Иродиады" - это одна из форм старого (якобы языческого) культа Девы Марии (она же Артемида-Диана; Richella - Рахиль, которая с трудом родила Вениамина?)?

Возможно Ирод, закалывающий мечом/ножом/кинжалом жену (Иродиаду?) в живот - это вариант сюжета о кесаревом сечении?
http://www.chronologia.org/kazaki_arii/im/k2-053.JP G

Пишут что Иродиада это Лилит, т.е. некая первая жена Адама, мешавшая деторождению женщин (отражение кесарева сечения?) - т.е. также связываемая с деторождением.