VASHTI. - Wife, among those of second rank, and for a short time a favorite, of the Persian king Ahasuerus (v.) or Xerxes I (486-65), who repudiated her for resisting one of his whims; in her place Esther was admitted ([v.] Esth. 1-2).

The name is Iranian: Vahisti "the excellent one." There is no connection between V. and a supposed Elamite deity of the same name, as Jensen thought only in order to link the story of Esther to Babylonian mythology. Herodotus (IX, 108-13) mentions as the wife of Xerxes and queen of Persia only Amestris. The Persians could have several legitimate wives (Herodotus, I, 135; and for Darius I, ibid., II, 88); only one, however, who had to be of royal stock, occupied the first place; such was Amestris, in whom Herodotus and the official historians naturally take an interest. The book of Esther, on the other hand, does not speak of Amestris, because it has no connection with the episode narrated.

Bibliography

BIBL.: L. Soubigou, Esther (La Ste Bible di L. Pirot e A. Clamer, 4), Paris 1949, pp. 615-20.

Francesco Spadafora

@incollection{ec12_vasthi, author = {Spadafora, Francesco}, title = {Vasthi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1038}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vasthi} }

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Vashti

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