Virtual Vertep Vision is a series of articles and videos dedicated to each character of the traditional Ukrainian Vertep. Created as part of the project “BoykoTravel: Vertep PreServes Ukraine”, implemented with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
At Herod’s decree, blood was poured like sea;
Children they were killing, searching Christ to see.
(Carol “Do Not Weep, Rachel,” 17th–18th c.)
Herod’s Soldier is one of the darkest figures of the second act of the Vertep. He is the mindless executor of a tyrant’s orders – the embodiment of mechanical evil, acting without compassion and without a will of his own. His presence highlights the abyss between human conscience and blind obedience to power.
In the Sokyrynskyi Vertep (18th c.), the soldier is called Herod’s “bodyguard.” Both he and Herod address Rachel – the grieving mother of Bethlehem whose infant is being slain in her arms – with harsh, contemptuous words, calling her simply “hag” (“baba”), in a coarse, Muscovite manner. This detail intensifies the atmosphere of spiritual blindness and cruelty in which evil becomes ordinary.
In 19th-century Vertep versions, these characters were called “soldiers” or “armed men.” Their behavior is stern, abrupt, and devoid of emotion – they are not individuals but a backdrop of tragedy, figures who kill without thought.
Most often, Herod’s Soldier is portrayed as a Roman legionary – in scaled bronze armor, with a round shield and a helmet topped with a red crest. But unlike the historical short gladius, he wields a long sword – symbol of the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem. His movements are harsh, his face covered in metal: not a man, but the embodiment of punishment, a force that doesn’t think – only kills. He is the personification of the war machine – powerful, heartless, faceless.
In some Vertep versions, the soldier meets a tragic end: Death takes not only Herod, but also his soldiers. It is an act of heavenly justice – punishment spares neither the ruler nor the executor of his crimes.
Herod’s Soldier in the Vertep represents a human being without an inner world – one who has lost the ability to discern between good and evil. He reminds us that evil does not begin with the command – but with blind obedience. And that the most terrible weapon is not the sword, but silence in the face of injustice.