Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

You know, I mean, she's the principal lady in the land, you know.

So, yes, absolutely.

She really sort of swells in appearance.

And also, of course, the other woman important in his life is his one known...

one named consort he must have had many more and that is a woman called a mistress which is um based on the persian word meaning strength which says something about her as well so here we have you know this ideal couple both you know ruling over heroes and a woman of strength that's the way they want to project their image you know and she is the daughter of a very very high ranking khan

sort of a tribal leader indeed.

And so it's a great match between these two kind of tribal houses.

And she gives him a whole brood of sons and daughters as well.

And they're already born by the time Xerxes becomes king.

And so he comes with a ready-made family

The throne is set to continue.

And he must have had many other consorts and concubines as well, of course.

So again, another packed harem.

And of course, we should remember that Xerxes appears in the Hebrew Bible, just in a guise, that's all.

So in the book of Esther,

which was probably written in the 4th century, so about 100 years after Xerxes' death.

It's set during the reign of Xerxes.

So according to the Hebrew scribes, Esther is a wife of Xerxes as well.

It's just that in the Bible he's called Ahasuerus, which is the Hebraised version of Xerxes, essentially.

Yes, I think that the best way to see it, as in any kind of high-level court society, it must have had a real strict hierarchy to it, where clearly you have the mother of the king holding the prime position.