Literary and Dramatic Aspects of LXX Esther

Recent studies on the Greek book of Esther have taken up the challenge of defining and analyzing the literary composition of the various forms of the text, including the so called additions, which characterize the Greek versions as compared to the Hebrew. As Cavalier (2012) remarks, these efforts have strongly enhanced our understanding of the complex textual history of the book and can shed light on the question of the original language of the additions. This paper focuses on the dramatization of the text, which appears in the LXX form as compared to the MT and L, through the frequent use of direct speeches. This feature improves the literary quality of the text and highlights the main theological contents. The paper aims to analyse the feature of direct speeches in the LXX version and to determine their possible context of performance: the dramatic insights that can be traced in this version could in fact be perceived as aids and indications to the reading in public representations.