A Day in the Life of A: Concubine
By Elizabeth Prata
When we think of a harem, artistic rendering like this may come to mind, beautifully adorned young women lounging languidly. And that may indeed been part of the harem girl’s day. But that’s not all it was.
12Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women—for the days of their beauty treatment were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with balsam oil and the cosmetics for women— 13the young woman would go in to the king in this way: anything that she desired was given her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14In the evening she would enter and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. (Esther 2:12-14).
Xerxes
Xerxes was not a talented king. We read from the book From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire by Pierre Briant:
The Year 479 and Xerxes’ Reputation: Traditionally, modern historiography has presented a terrible image of Xerxes’ personality and reign. This image was already fully fashioned in Rawlinson’s Five Great Monarchies, a work published in 1867: with Xerxes began the disorders of the harem, assassinations, and conspiracies; around him were unleashed the passions of the court princesses and the growing influence of the eunuchs, with the result that “the character of Xerxes sank below that of any of his predecessors.” The king was weak, easily influenced, immature in his appetites, egotistical, cruel, superstitious, licentious.
What is a Concubine?
Concubines are a term used to describe a King’s woman used for sexual intimacy, without being a lawful wife. Lexham Bible Dictionary defines concubine as “A woman who is conjugally related to man but holds a secondary or inferior status to his primary wife.” For many women throughout history, the position served as one of the highest she could achieve in terms of power and safety. Hagar and Keturah were concubines of Abraham. Romans also had concubines.
The Old Testament contains 37 occurrences of the word “concubine” (pilegesh).
Belshazzar had concubines, see Daniel 5:1-3. They were present at the great feast when the Hand appeared and wrote on the wall.
Saul had a concubine named Rizpah. (2 Samuel 21:11).
King Solomon had 300 concubines.
So did David. (2 Samuel 5:13)
Pharaoh took Abram’s wife Sarai into his palace as an intended concubine. (Genesis 12:15).
Judges chapter 19 describes a concubine degraded. In Patriarchal times a concubine had no authority in the family, and they could not share in the household government. Since they were not a legal wife, they could be sent away (example: Abraham and Hagar.)
Many kings in the Bible had concubines but Xerxes’ harem was the only one described with any detail, so we will focus on his harem for this essay. And Xerxes’ harem apartments have been excavated!
Harem excavation photos: Harem of Xerxes from the University of Chicago, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Caption is already contained in the photo. The ruins were excavated when the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago sponsored an archaeological expedition to Persepolis and its environs under the supervision of Professor Ernst Herzfeld from 1931 to 1934, and Erich F. Schmidt from 1934 to 1939.
What was it like in a harem?
Harem might be a familiar word to us but since harems existed in ancient times in China, Japan, India, Assyria, Persian, and Egypt, their practices and characteristics differed from one culture to another.
A harem is a place where women are sequestered in order to separate them from the world. Once in the harem they had very little interaction with the outside world, unless they were dismissed or in some lucky cases, retired. The women in a harem could not see the outside world and the outside world, including family (if they lived nearby) could not interact with them.
Where did all these women come from? They got there in different ways. Mostly coerced. Normally in a harem there were different classes of women, different groups, living in separate quarters and heavily guarded for their safety and privacy. In Xerxes’ case they were separated by virgin vs. concubine.
The third group of harem women were concubines, beautiful girls (Plutarch, Artoxerxes, 27; Diodorus, 17.77.6; Esther 2.3) bought in slave markets (Herodotus 8.105; Plutarch, Themistocles, 26.4), or received as a gift (Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 4.6, 11; 5.1, 1; 5, 2, 9, 39) and tribute (Herodotus 3. 97), or collected from different parts of the empire (Esther 2.2-3;), and even captured from rebellious subjects (Herodotus 4.19, 32; Cf. Grayson, 1975, p. 114). (Source Iranicaonline.)
Harems were highly regulated
System and Restrictions: Harems typically operated as a system of segregated living quarters for women, often within a palace or residence. They were usually guarded by eunuchs or trusted servants to maintain the privacy and security of the women inside. Women in harems often had limited freedom and were subject to strict rules and protocols. (Source).
What did they do all day? Greek Philosopher Aelian in his Varia Historia, 12.1 wrote- “While still virgins, they were kept and groomed in the harem’s “first house of women” (Esther 2.9), and trained as musicians, dancers and singers in order that they might entertain their king or the magnate lord at banquets or throughout the night.”
Their education was much better than women usually receive outside the harem. They were instructed in all the arts but also reading and math. They were also taught manners and traditions. It was the ultimate charm school. If the concubine did not excel at her education she would likely have been assigned tasks such as cooking or laundry in the harem. Of course also we see in the Esther verses there was a strict beauty regimen. All this would have taken up her time during the day.
As we see in the Esther verses above, once the woman has ‘gone into the King’ she was moved to a different harem than the one she occupied with the other virgins. In the second house she probably would have been helping to raise any children running around from the union of the concubine and the king. And as in any large system of operations, the women would have been accomplishing tasks such as continuing their education, practicing their musical instruments, or serving others. We know that Esther was given 7 maidservants. (Esther 2:9).
Josephus said in his Antiquities, 6.200 that Xerxes had 400 concubines.
What happened to Concubines?
Aging and Weakness: The fate of women in a harem as they aged or became weaker depended on the specific circumstances and the attitudes of those in power. In some cases, older or weaker women in a harem may have been assigned roles as caretakers or advisors to the younger members. Others might have been granted some level of freedom or retirement within the palace. However, there are also instances where elderly or weak women were marginalized or had diminished status within the harem. (Source).
Some were executed. The wife/queen of the king or sultan often wielded much power, and any concubine caught in an intrigue that displeased the queen or the king could be executed. In the 1640s Ibrahim the Mad, an Ottoman king, was told by one of his favored concubines that one of the others had slept with an outsider. Ibrahim was furious. He had his eunuchs investigate, then torture his 200+ concubines in the harem but either the tale was false and it didn’t happen, or they refused to give up one of their own. So Ibrahim had all 280 women sewn into weighted sacks and drowned in the Bosporus Strait. That was definitely a case where an intrigue blew back into unfortunate heights.
In a harem full of women, whether the virgin harem or the concubine harem, rumors and jockeying for position was rife. We see from the verses below that virgins could be favored, and since that is true, there must have been intrigue to catch the attention of the eunuch in charge of them to gain even more favor. But Esther didn’t do that. She trusted God and in HIS favor, Esther rose to the top without her having to curry attention or otherwise plan intrigues.
Esther Finds Favor: So it came about, when the command and decree of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choice female attendants from the king’s palace, and transferred her and her attendants to the best place in the harem.
Conclusion
A harem was a busy place. The women were physically prepared, intellectually prepared, and prepared in the arts, charms, and traditions of their culture. They worked raising the children, teaching others, or serving others. Of course if they were chosen, they worked at night, too. Though they had access to better food, education, clothing and even oils, perfumes, and jewels they might not have had access to ‘on the outside’, life in a harem was not always easy. They existed at the whims of the king, and walked a tightrope of luxury vs. execution or abandonment. We know that Esther took her life in her hands by approaching the unstable king Xerxes without his calling for her. It was only by the providence of God she was not executed, as was the rule.
Though the story of Esther is mainly taught to show us the providence of God, it also shows me personally how a life of jockeying and intrigue, gilded cages and sinful jealousies can ruin a life, where even in that environment trusting God for His provision and His life plan for us is always best. Doing so doesn’t always give rise to queenly proportions as it did for Esther, but her demeanor was queenly even before Xerxes took her into his heart, because she is the daughter of THE KING of KINGS. Her reliance on God, peaceful attitude, and kindness shone out among the hundreds of other women in those harem apartments in ancient Persia.
Further Resources
