Esther : Royal Beauty (9781441269294) (29 page)

T
HOUGH
THE
DAYS
OF
P
URIM
have faithfully been celebrated by Queen Esther's people ever since that first amazing victory, the fate of my master and his empire has been largely forgotten. I was fond of my king, devoted to him and his charming queen, but not everyone in the empire saw his tender side or knew of his weaknesses.

Seven years after the events of that first Purim, when Queen Esther was but thirty years old, my master returned his attention to what he had always considered his greatest failing: the conquest of Greece. Like a man who cannot ignore a phantom itch, he mounted yet another campaign, traveled to Greece with his armies, and was soundly defeated again.

But not all his enemies were found on foreign soil. Though I cannot prove my suspicions, I am convinced that Vashti, the former queen, devised the tragic events that occurred next.

After my master's return to Persia, on a night when illness pre
vented me from occupying my post, Artabanus, the captain of the king's bodyguard, assassinated my king as he slept. Crown Prince Darius claimed the throne, but a few months later, in an attempt to avenge his father, eighteen-year-old Artaxerxes killed his murderous older brother and Artabanus, the conspirator.

If only he'd thought to kill his mother, as well. For though Vashti had a son on the throne, noble Artaxerxes was not the son of her choosing. In time she goaded her second son, Hystaspes, into attacking the king. Alert guards foiled the evil plot, and Artaxerxes was forced to execute his only surviving brother.

Twenty-one years after his father had assumed the crown, Artaxerxes moved into the palace at Susa and claimed his father's throne. He was nothing like Vashti, his mother, and resembled his father in form only. I believe he modeled his nature after the kind and gentle Esther, who spent many afternoons with him and the other children in her garden. Artaxerxes proved to have a quiet and noble spirit, much like Esther's, and he was king over the empire when Nehemiah the Jew served as the king's cupbearer. Artaxerxes thought so highly of the children of Israel that he willingly dispatched Nehemiah to Jerusalem to oversee the rebuilding of the ruined city walls.

After the king's death, my beloved friend Queen Esther and her maids left the queen's palace and retired to quiet rooms in the harem. Vashti clung to her authority as the queen mother, and Damaspia, Artaxerxes's wife, became queen.

But Esther would forever be loved and admired by her people, by both the Jews and the Persians. She died while the royal household was dwelling at the palace in Ecbatana, and now she rests in her tomb there.

As for me, when I am able to stand, I work in the kitchen. The king has graciously allowed me to remain in the palace for as long as I live. I am no longer able to run up and down the grand stair
case as I did in his father's day, but I still count it a joy to be able to serve. I spend my hours roasting meat, polishing silver goblets, and overseeing the details of royal banquets—
small
royal banquets.

When my little room is quiet, I lie down, breathe deeply, and remember. Because my weary eyes have witnessed greatness, and my heart has been stirred by love. My spirit too has been touched by men and women who placed their trust in a God they could not see.

Unlike Ahura Mazda, this God did not delight in murder, destruction, and lies. This God cared for His people, imparted wisdom and courage, and encouraged His people to love one another.

When I die, I hope to meet Hadassah and Mordecai again . . . so that we may worship that God together.

1. Angela Hunt has said that she tries to invent as little as possible when writing about historical characters. Assuming that her historical sources are correct and much of this novel is based on actual facts, what surprised you about the story of this biblical heroine?

2. The biblical book of Esther tends to give us only the facts, a spare canvas on which the story plays out. Theologians and storytellers have interpreted the story in various ways, painting Esther either as a beautiful girl who won an ancient beauty pageant or as a girl who was taken by force and raped by a lascivious king. What was your impression of Esther before you read this novel? What was your impression after reading it?

3. Many religious people, Jewish and Christian, have considered Esther an almost perfect person. Some rabbis believe that Esther was married to Mordecai, and she remained righteous, even though she had to sleep with the king, because a heavenly being “filled in” for her when she had to perform her conjugal duty. Some Christians tend to think of Esther as almost
without sin and completely heroic in her actions. But Esther was human, and some of her recorded actions—her insistence that Mordecai remove his sackcloth, for instance—seem to reveal a superficial mind-set. Has this novel influenced your ideas and thoughts about Esther's nature? About her actions?

4. Angela Hunt writes from a Christian perspective, and she has said that she sees parallels between her place in today's American society and Esther's place in Persian society. In one scene, Esther ruminates about her world:

We walked in it, traded in it, communicated in it, and did acts of kindness for it. To the casual observer, we might have looked like ordinary people, but we were not. About that, at least, Haman was right.

We were children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we served an invisible God, who remained close to us no matter where we lived. But our hearts did not—should not—belong to this world.

What parallels do you see between these two worlds?

5. Hunt chose to tell this story from only two character viewpoints: Hadassah's and Harbonah's. Do you think the story should have been told from another point of view? What other character would you like to hear from?

6. Is this story similar to other biblical historical fiction you have read? How was it similar or different? Do you prefer historical fiction or contemporary fiction? Why?

7. Hunt has said she never knowingly contradicts the biblical or historical record—unless historical records disagree, then she chooses the view she believes is the most logical. Prior to reading this novel, had you read much about ancient Persia? Were you aware of how advanced their culture was? In what ways is ancient Persia similar to the United States?

8. What lessons or ideas will you take away from the novel? If you read the biblical book of Esther again, how will the story be different for you?

9. Who was your favorite character? Who was your least favorite?

10. Would you recommend this novel to a friend? Why or why not?

Whenever I write a historical novel, I am always asked how much of the tale is fact and how much fiction. I hope you will be pleased to know that nearly every event in this novel comes from the historical record. The biblical account is accurately represented here, and I have supplemented that story with writings from the Greek chronicler Herodotus. He wrote extensively of the Persian court and its kings, particularly of Xerxes and his Queen Amestris (Vashti). He did not mention a queen called Esther, but just because he didn't mention her doesn't mean she didn't exist.

The casual reader can be easily confused, because anyone researching this period will have to deal with at least four different languages: the Greek version of names, which were applied later and would never have been used by the actual people, the Persian name, and, to those familiar with the biblical account, the Hebrew name as well as the Anglicized version of the Hebrew name. The king represented in the story of Esther, for example, is Xerxes (Greek), Khshayarshan (Persian), Achashverosh (Hebrew), and Ahasuerus (Anglicized Hebrew).

Which is why I often referred to him as “the king.”

I carefully considered which names to use in this novel. The Greek names are the easiest to read and pronounce, but something in me resists referring to characters by names they would never have used themselves. The Persian names are obscure and hard to track down, as well as hard to pronounce. Anglicized Hebrew is more familiar and easier for the average reader to understand, but the Hebrew is the closest thing to what the characters themselves would have experienced. But since most people are familiar with the English Bible, I have chosen to use the Anglicized Hebrew names.

Other details:

Theologians believe that Amestris (Greek) is Vashti (Hebrew) of the biblical account. And while the Bible is silent about what happened to Vashti after her demotion, Herodotus relates the story of how she mutilated the mother of one of the king's lovers. He also tells us that she was alive and well during the reign of Artaxerxes, her son, and as late as 454 BC she had one of his political enemies impaled. She is also rumored to have buried alive fourteen noblemen's children as a sacrifice to Ahura Mazda.

We have no record of Esther ever being pregnant. But the three sons in line for the king's throne were his children by Amestris, so if Esther did have children, they would have been far down the line of succession unless Xerxes had elevated them.

Herodotus tells us that the provinces of Babylonia and Assyria sent King Darius five hundred boys to be made into eunuchs, along with a thousand talents of silver. According to another source, this was an
annual
payment, but I sincerely hope it was a one-time event. So from that fact I fleshed out the character of Harbonah, whose existence is biblical.

Scripture does not tell us that Mordecai had a wife, but since the first of the Torah's 613 commandments is to have children, devout Jewish men would have felt responsible to marry and raise
a family. Furthermore, society would have considered it improper for a single man to raise a young girl without a wife's help, so I invented Miriam.

The Scripture does not tell us that Esther was betrothed, yet most Jewish children were betrothed by their parents at an early age, so it seemed natural and logical for Esther to have a fiancé. And theologians are divided about the king's call for beautiful virgins. Did he ask for virgins as in “young women” or did he want young,
sexually pure
women? The Hebrew word could mean either (see Isaiah 7:14: “virgin” meant
young woman
when applied to Isaiah 8:3–4, and
sexually pure
when applied to Luke 1:34. This is an example of the “law of double reference,” where one Scripture is applicable to two situations).

Some of the Jewish sages believe Esther was actually married to Mordecai and was still taken up by the king's men; in that case the former use would apply. But since the Bible stresses the fact that Esther was as a daughter to Mordecai, I don't believe they were married.

Would a king want a potential bride who'd been married to another man? I doubt it. And since in many Eastern cultures tradition still demands the “blood on the sheets” proof of virginity, I believe it's reasonable to assume that the king wanted young, unmarried women—their youth alone would help explain the yearlong preparation before they were allowed to go into the king's bedchamber. On the other hand, if a man brought a stunningly beautiful woman to the palace or gave her to the king as a gift, I doubt she'd be turned away.

Given all of the above, I believe Esther must have been a teenager when she entered the king's palace, and therefore not much older than many of his children. Her cousin Mordecai loved her like a father and, because he'd lost his wife, invested his life in his work and in his young ward. Because he worked “at the King's Gate,”
or in the courtyard of the palace complex, he undoubtedly heard palace rumors and knew of the many dangers lurking behind the smiling faces belonging to other royal concubines, eunuchs, politically ambitious nobles, and dissatisfied soldiers.

Seen in this light, and supported by the writings of Herodotus and others, we have a thoroughly fascinating story of how God worked within a pagan culture to sustain His people . . . and drew the heart of a distracted daughter back to himself.

——. Vol. 137,
Bibliotheca Sacra Volume
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