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Vashti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vashti (ושתי) is mentioned in the Book of Esther, a book included in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
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In Esther, Vashti is the wife of king Ahasuerus who is replaced by Esther. She is thus part of the story behind the Jewish holiday of Purim, one of Judaism's festivals.
According to the account she was deposed because she refused to obey the King's request that she "show off her beauty" (which is interpreted to "appear naked" or, "dance") in the banquet hall of the palace of "Shushan" (Susa). Her refusal to obey her husband has helped to secure her stature as a folk hero of the modern feminist movement as well as a villain because of her disrespect for her husband.
According to the Midrash, Vashti was the great-granddaughter of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, the granddaughter of King Amel-Marduk and the daughter of King Belshazzar.
Ahasuerus is often identified with Xerxes I of Persia. Herodotus relates a similar account regarding Xerxes and a wife named "Amestris." Identification of Vashti with Amestris is problematic, however as Amestris remained in power well into the reign of her son Artaxerxes I.
Jacob Hoschander (The Book of Esther in the Light of History, Oxford University Press, 1923) identifies Ahasuerus instead with Artaxerxes II and Vashti with a wife named Stateira.
The meaning of the name Vashti is uncertain.
Hitchcock' Bible Names Dictionary of the 19th century, attempting to interpret the name as Hebrew, suggested the meanings "that drinks" or "thread". Critics of the historicity of the book of Esther proposed that the name may have originated from a conjectured Elamite goddess whom they called "Mashti", a theoretical reconstructed name which remains unattested in any source.
The name is indeed a genuine Persian name and is understood to mean "beautiful" or "good" in Persian, related to the word "vashishta" found in the Avesta. Hoschander proposed that it originated as a shortening of vashtateira which he also proposed as the origin of the name "Stateira".
Vashti is one of a very few proper names in the Tanakh that begins with the letter waw.
- The Oxford Bible Commentary (edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001, pages 326-327, written by Carol Meyers)
- Asimov's Guide to the Bible, Random House, 1969