The banquet given by Queen Vashti to the women differed but slightly
from Ahasuerus's. She sought to emulate her husband's example even in
the point of exhibiting treasures. Six store-chambers she displayed
daily to the women she had bidden as guests; aye, she did not even
shrink from arraying herself in the high-priestly garments. The meats
and dishes, as at Ahasuerus's table, were Palestinian, only instead of
wine, liqueurs were served, and sweets.
As the weak sex is subject to sudden attacks of indisposition, the
banquet was given in the halls of the palace, so that the guests might
at need withdraw to the adjoining chambers. The gorgeously ornamented
apartments of the palace, besides, were more attractive to the feminine
taste than the natural beauties of the royal gardens, "for a woman
would rather reside in beautiful chambers and possess beautiful clothes
than eat fatted calves." (28) Nothing interested the women more than to
become acquainted with the arrangement of the interior of the palace,
"for women are curious to know all things." Vashti gratified their
desire. She showed them all there was to be seen, describing every
place as she came to it: This is the dining-hall, this the wine-room,
this the bed-chamber. (29)
Vashti, too, was actuated by a political motive when she determined to
give her banquet. By inviting the wives of hostages in case the men
rose in insurrection against the king. (30) For Vashti knew the ways of
statecraft. She not only was the wife of a king, but also the daughter
of a king, of Belshazzar. The night of Belshazzar's murder in his own
palace, Vashti, alarmed by the confusion that ensued, and not knowing
of the death of her father, fled to the apartments in which he was in
the habit of sitting. The Median Darius had already ascended the throne
of Belshazzar, and so it happened that Vashti, instead of finding the
hoped-for refuge with her father, ran straight into the hands of his
successor. But he had compassion with her, and gave her to his son
Ahasuerus for wife.