On the third day, Esther put on royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, facing the king's palace, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room facing the entrance of the palace. As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor. The king extended to Esther the golden scepter which he had in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. "What troubles you, Queen Esther?" the king asked her. "And what is your request? Even to half the kingdom, it shall be granted you." "If it please Your Majesty," Esther replied, "let Your Majesty and Haman come today to the feast that I have prepared for Him." The king commanded, "Tell Haman to hurry and do Esther's bidding." Esther 5:1-5. The Writings--Kethubim: A new translation of The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic text, Third Section, The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1982. Crayon on cardstock; edited on IrfanView.Her "royal apparel" must have been grand. Was she pale after three days of fasting and preparing for royal guests? Painter John Everett Millais painted this moment when Esther took the risk of approaching King Ahasuerus.It's the fifth image on that page and accompanied by a nice description. A slightly larger image of the same painting can be found on Wikipedia.
Some say that Ahasuerus was Xerxes I. Check out these photos of the remains of Xerxes Palace, Persepolis, and a satellite map of the location. Of course, the location is not Shushan, so who knows what this all means, if anything. It does give one an idea of the size of the palace. Here's the map and photos of the palace harem. Scroll down to the bullets; the third one shows the king's palace in the 
background. That same photo shows the "service quarters" -- perhaps where the food for a feast was prepared. Together, these two links make it clear that the harem is not part of the palace proper, as I had assumed. However Esther traveled to the palace -- by foot, palanquin, or otherwise, she could not move about without everyone knowing it -- unless she was dressed as a commoner and had some major assistance from her attendants.
background. That same photo shows the "service quarters" -- perhaps where the food for a feast was prepared. Together, these two links make it clear that the harem is not part of the palace proper, as I had assumed. However Esther traveled to the palace -- by foot, palanquin, or otherwise, she could not move about without everyone knowing it -- unless she was dressed as a commoner and had some major assistance from her attendants.This invitation was for the first feast Esther prepared for Ahasuerus and Haman . . . an invitation like the gentle jingling of bells. Haman should have been listening closer; luckily, he was not.
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