ATHALIA. - Wicked queen of Judah, daughter of Ahab, king of Samaria, and of Jezebel (v.) of Tyre. She was the wife of Jehoram, king of Judah. She brought with her the idolatrous Phoenician upbringing she had received from her ambitious and perverse mother. She had a most harmful influence on her husband, and then on her son Ahaziah. Indeed, Jehoram and Ahaziah "walked in the ways of Ahab, doing evil in the sight of the Lord" (II Kings 8:18, 27).
When Ahaziah died after only one year of reign, to secure the throne for herself A. had all the males of the family of Jehoram put to death, who could claim the succession. She ruled alone for 6 years (842-836 B.C.), spreading the worship of Baal, for whom she erected a temple in Jerusalem, with altars and idols, served by the priest Mattan (Heb. Mattān).
But a spark had been preserved. Joash, the youngest son of Ahaziah, aged one, had been snatched from the massacre and kept hidden in the temple by Jehosheba, half-sister of the deceased king, wife of the high priest Jehoiada (v.). When Joash reached the age of 7, Jehoiada, with the help of the partisans of order and of soldiers, solemnly proclaimed him king. Hearing the acclamations, A. rushed up and called for help; but she was captured, led outside the precinct and killed near the palace. She was the last of the house of Ahab, whose members all perished by violent death. The immediate sign of the religious reaction was the destruction of the temple of Baal and the killing of Mattan (II Kings 11; II Chron. 22:10-23:21).
On this episode J. Racine composed his tragedy Athalie (1691).
Giuseppe Priero