When the play Salome, written by Oscar Wilde, was released in 1894, it faced an enormous amount of negative criticism for its unconventional character. Salome combines the biblical story of John the Baptist and Wilde's original and eccentric ideas. The feelings of contempt that literary critics placed towards Salome were a response to her superficial and unusual nature. The censor at the Palace Theater was so outraged that he banned its performance while it was still in the midst of rehearsals. However unconventional, eccentric and bizarre the work may be, it nevertheless adheres to the guidelines established in Aristotle's Poetica and Horace's Ars Poetica. Analyzing the work through the lenses of Aristotle and Horace, the brilliance of Wilde's writing shines through. This not only discredits Wilde's criticisms, but also highlights the importance of the literary theories of Aristotle and Horace. The application of their criticism to a work written centuries later establishes the eternal importance of their ideas. Wilde validates their literary philosophies by incorporating elements of them into Salome. The coherence that Poetica and Ars Poetica have in the work corroborates the ideas exposed in their analysis. Their theories are not only legitimate but also applicable to literary works outside their era. Salome exemplifies the philosophies of Aristotle and Horace, where they present the characteristics of a tragedy along with the role those characteristics provide. Aristotle's Poetics seems more like a scientific procedure, or an outline containing systematic steps towards achieving a cathartic tragedy, than an in-depth look. to literature. It is through rigorous and rigid definitions that it expresses the components of great literature. Aristotle defines… half of the paper… the quality of a literary work. Using a fragment of Aristotle's theory reveals a deeper and more profound meaning in Salome, a work once "greeted by a chorus of derision." (Ross, xiii)Unlike Aristotle, whose style resembles an instructional manual, Horace approaches literary theory and criticism in a relaxed and almost colloquial manner. The Ars Poetica is organized in a disorganized way; Horace organizes his ideas by topic, but does not join the topics together. Two of the themes, which are in agreement with Salome, are Unity and Coherence and Emotion and Characters. Through subcategories, Horace divides his theory into small and simple paragraphs, easier to understand and manage. The application of these two categories, as in the case of Aristotle, will not only highlight Salome's brilliance, but will also establish the importance of Horace's analytical ideas.