‘Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women.’ (Esther 2:3). Esther in the harem of Xerxes I, painted by Somerset-born Edwin Longsden Long in 1878.
Part 1 of 3
AT a banquet to close a great exhibition for the princes of his empire, a tipsy King Ahasuerus ordered Vashti, his lovely Queen, to parade herself for his guests’ gratification. When Vashti refused to be exhibited, Ahasuerus, fearing a wave of female insubordination, pointedly divorced her, and crowned Esther, Persia’s most beautiful virgin, in her stead.
Esther’s standing with Ahasuerus rose further when her cousin Mordecai exposed a plot to assassinate the King. His loyalty was duly noted in the national Chronicles; yet when the King appointed a viceroy from among his household, it was not Mordecai, his Queen’s kinsman, but Haman.
All the household now bowed before Haman — all except Mordecai.
Haman’s spies had told him that Mordecai was Jewish, so after prostrating himself before Ahasuerus the indignant viceroy accused the whole Jewish race of sedition, and recommended seizing their wealth and then slaying every last one. Ahasuerus, knowing nothing of Esther’s background, consented, and the day was fixed for the thirteenth of Adar.
The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint) translates Ahasuerus’s name as Artaxerxes, meaning Artaxerxes I (r. 465-424 BC) or Artaxerxes II (r. 404-358 BC). However, Rabbinic and modern Western scholarship are agreed that Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BC), the King who lost to the Greeks at The Battle of Salamis, is the Persian King of the story.
Précis
Esther was a young Jewish girl in the days when the Persians ruled over Babylon and Jerusalem, selected as Queen of Persia by Xerxes I. She and her cousin Mordecai initially won the King’s favour, but the new viceroy Haman hated Mordecai, and organised a persecution of the Kingdom’s Jewish population as an excuse to murder him. (57 / 60 words)
Part Two
The mausoleum of Esther and Mordecai at Hamadan in the Kurdish region of Iran: nearby Mount Alvand was the summer palace of the Achaemenid Dynasty of Persian Kings, to which Ahasuerus belonged. There is some debate as to whether this really is their last resting place, but Iranian Jews (there are about 9,000 today, down from over 100,000 in 1948) still make a pilgrimage here on the holiday of Purim. The current building is of much later date.
ESTHER had Mordecai and the other Jews fast for three days, and then set about using all her charms to win the King’s favour. Yet her efforts only stirred Haman to greater hatred; it was something unexpected that turned the tide in her favour.
One night, after another lavish banquet hosted by Esther, the King could not sleep. He ordered his attendants to soothe his restlessness by reading from the national Chronicles, and one entry in particular caught his attention. He sent for Haman.
‘What would you do’ he asked him ‘to honour a man who had served you faithfully?’ Haman, thinking this could only be himself, replied that he would give such a man a triumphal procession through the capital.
‘Go then’ said the king ‘and array Mordecai for a triumphal procession’. For the entry in the Chronicles had been the one describing how Mordecai had exposed his would-be assassins, and he could find there no record of Mordecai’s reward.
Précis
Esther encouraged the other Jews of Persia to fast and pray, in the hope of frustrating Haman’s plan to murder them all. Meanwhile, the King was reminded that Mordecai had foiled an attempt on his life, and Haman was compelled to reward his arch-enemy publicly. However, Haman’s persecution of the Jews was still slated for the 13th of Adar. (59 / 60 words)
Part Three
An image of one of the 1000 elite troops serving in the bodyguard of King Darius of Persia, from the King’s palace in Susa (Shusha). Darius was the father of Xerxes I and grandfather of Artaxerxes I.
AHASUERUS was by now ready to grant his lovely Queen any favour, so Esther told him about the pogrom planned for the thirteenth of Adar, which would see her and Mordecai killed along with all their people. ‘Who is it’ raged the forgetful king ‘who dares do this?’
Reminded that it was his viceroy Haman’s idea, Ahasuerus abruptly left and went to the gardens to think. He returned to find Haman apparently trying to force himself on Esther - in fact, he was pleading for his life - and all the King’s wrath boiled over. His chamberlain drew his attention to the gallows Haman had prepared for Mordecai, and Ahasuerus willingly put it to use for Haman.
With the King’s permission, the Jews of Persia now fought and utterly routed the mob Haman had assembled for his pogrom. And the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar were afterwards kept as a holiday named Purim, a time for feasting, and for presents for family and the poor.
Précis
With Esther and Mordecai in King Ahasuerus’s good books, a reminder that Haman planned to murder them among all Persia’s Jews affected the King profoundly. When he mistook Haman’s appeals to Esther’s mercy for an attempt to rape her, Ahasuerus ordered his viceroy’s execution, and ever after Jewish people have celebrated their deliverance with the holiday of Purim. (58 / 60 words)
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