We are at Esther chapter one, verse 9. Xerxes is giving a sumptuous banquet for a bunch of important men. The wine is flowing freely. They are possibly discussing an attack on Greece. Queen Vashti (Amestris?) now enters our story. She is giving a banquet for the women in the royal palace. Unlike the description of the men, we are not told who these women are. They could be wives and concubines of the important men, or they could just be Xerxes wives and concubines, his harem, we are not told. Herodotus's Histories I:135 tells us that the Persians "marry each one several wives, and they get also a much larger number of concubines." Some well documented information about the concept of harem in ancient Iran (Persia) can be found here (link). Secular history tells us that even though Xerxes may have had many wives and concubines, he only had one head wife and queen, Amestris. She live almost as long as her husband Xerxes. Remember that.
It is interesting that the word banquet occurs twenty times in the book of Esther, equal to all the other times it occurs in the rest of the entire bible. This banquet of Xerxes' lasted seven days. On the seventh day, a drunk Xerxes commanded his seven eunuchs to bring in Queen Vashti, "wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger."
Why did Vashti/Amestris refuse to do what the king asked? We are not actually told. It's easy to guess. Perhaps she was embarrassed to be shown off in public. Perhaps she did not want to appear in front of a bunch of drunk men and be subjected to their remarks or rude handling. Perhaps she did not want to leave her guests. Perhaps she was just stubbornly independent, as much as a woman of that time could be, and not afraid of the king. Perhaps she was also drunk. Perhaps she objected to the plans to go to war with Greece. Just because she was a woman in ancient times doesn't mean she was ignorant or without influence. I've heard much speculation that she was probably asked to appear nude, that's why she refused. The text doesn't give any reason at all. I think it would be a mistake to assume any modern western interpretation of Vashti's refusal to appear before the king.
That said, there is a story in Herodotus' Histories V:18 that takes place at the home of a Macedonian man who is providing hospitality to seven (!) high ranking men in the Persian army, who were envoys of King Darius, Xerxes father. The Persians notice there are no women present at the meal, as is the custom in that place. They pressure the host to bring in the women of the household and insist that the women must sit beside them. As would be expected, the drunk Persian men feel free to molest the women. You should read the story, it also contains cross dressing, deception, and revenge.
Did you notice the multiple occurrances of the number seven? Seven is one of the ancient magic numbers. It will appear more times in the story of Esther. Seven and its multiples, 70, 700, 7000, appears many times in Herodotus's Histories. Events cover seven days and seven nights. There are even multiple instances of numbers that non multiples of seven, but they end in seven, like 17 and 127. Amazing, isn't it, how superstition crosses time and cultures.
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