AMAN (Heb. Hāman, probably of Persian origin: "illustrious," "esteemed"; perhaps connected with the Elamite god Himman). - Omnipotent minister at the court of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, 486-65) in Susa. Son of Hammedatha (a Persian name; Vulgate Amadathi), he is described (Esth. 3:1, 10) in the Hebrew text as Agagite, in the Greek text as Βουγάλος. The first epithet is now generally interpreted as geographical (from Agag, a region of Media discovered by recent excavations); others, following the ancients, see in it a patronymic term: "descendant of Agag," the Amalekite king (1 Sam. 15:8). Nor is the Greek epithet (already in Homer, Iliad, XIII, 824; Odyssey, XVIII, 79, in the sense of "braggart, swaggerer") any clearer. Proud and ambitious, A. hated the Jew Mordecai, because for religious reasons he refused him the honor, decreed by the king, of genuflection, according to Persian custom. But Esther thwarted the plans of A., who wanted to crucify Mordecai and kill all the Jews; indeed, A. was forced to render public honors to Mordecai and, on the day he had appointed for the massacre of the Jews (13th of Adar), he was hanged by Ahasuerus as a traitor, in his 12th year of reign (474 B.C.). The vengeance of the Jews then extended to all his family and to all who persecuted them (Esth. 3:1-9:16). V. PURIM.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: For the spiritual sense (A. as a figure of the enemies of the Church), cf. Rabanus Maurus, In L. Esther: PL. 109, 652-60; R. of Deutz, De victoria verbi divini, VIII, 13; PL. 169, 1381; P. Renard, s. v. in DB, I, coll. 433-37.

Angelo Penna

@incollection{ec1_aman_ebr_haman_probabilmente_d, author = {Penna, Angelo}, title = {Aman (Ebr. HĀMan, probabilmente di origine persiana: «illustre», «stimato»; forse connesso al dio elamitico himman)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {969}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aman-ebr-haman-probabilmente-di-origine-persiana-illustre-stimato-forse-connesso-al-dio-elamitic} }

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