Esther

Esther (originally Hadassah) is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. The story the book tells is as follows: Ahasuerus, the king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, falls in love with the beautiful Jewish woman Esther and makes her his Queen. His grand vizier, Haman, is offended by Esther's cousin and guardian, Mordecai, who refuses to prostrate himself before Haman. Haman plots to have all the Jews in Persia killed, and convinces Ahasuerus to permit him to do so. However, Esther foils the plan by revealing Haman's eradication plans to Ahasuerus, who then has Haman executed and grants permission to the Jews to kill their enemies.

The Book of Esther provides the traditional explanation for the Jewish holiday of Purim, celebrated on the date given in the story for when Haman's order was to go into effect, which is the day that the Jews killed their enemies after the plan was reversed. Since the 1890s, several academics have “agreed in seeing [The Book of] Esther as a historicized myth or ritual” and generally concluded that Purim has its origin in a Babylonian or Persian myth or festival (though which one is a subject of discussion).

The book exists in two related forms: a shorter Biblical Hebrew-sourced version found in Jewish and Protestant Bibles, and a longer Koine Greek-sourced version found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.