AMAN (EBR. HÄMÄN, PROBABILMENTE DI ORIGINE PERSIANA: «ILLUSTRE», «STIMATO»; FORSE CONNESSO AL DIO CLADISTICO HUMMAN)

AMAN (Heb. Hāmān, probably of Persian origin: “illustrious,” “esteemed”; perhaps connected with the Median deity Humman). — All-powerful minister in the court of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, 486–465 BC) at Susa. Son of Hammedatha (Persian name; Vulgate Amadathi), he is styled in Esther 3:1, 10 (Hebrew text) an Agagite, and in the Greek text a Bougaîos. The first epithet is generally taken as geographical (of Agag, a region of Media recently identified by excavations); others, following the ancients, see it as a patronymic: “descendant of Agag,” the Amalekite king (1 Sam 15:8). Even the Greek epithet (already in Homer, Iliad 13.824; Odyssey 18.79, with the sense of “brawler, braggart”) is not clear. Proud and ambitious, A. hated the Jew Mordecai because the latter refused, for religious reasons, the honor decreed by the king of prostration according to Persian custom. But Esther thwarted A.’s plans, which aimed at crucifying Mordecai and killing all the Jews; indeed, A. was forced to render public honors to Mordecai and, on the very day he had chosen for the Jews’ massacre (the 13th of Adar), was hanged by Ahasuerus as a traitor in the twelfth year of his reign (474 BC). The Jews’ vengeance then extended to all his family and to all who persecuted them (Esth 3:1, 9, 16). V. PURIM.