Bigthan and Teresh

In the biblical narrative of Esther (Esther 2:21–23), Bigthan (Hebrew בִּגְתָן / בִּגְתָנָא) and Teresh (Hebrew תֶרֶשׁ) are introduced as two eunuchs or chamberlains serving King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). While they served in the royal court, Mordecai overheard them plotting to assassinate the king; Mordecai relayed the information through Esther to the king, the plot was thwarted, and the two conspirators were arrested and executed by hanging. Their discovered treason is recorded as the cause for Mordecai’s service being entered into the royal chronicles, a record which later plays a key role in Mordecai's vindication. Later legendary commentary (e.g., Legends of the Jews) treats the conspiracy as influencing royal security practice—reporting that the king thereafter ceased to have two chamberlains guard him and instead entrusted the role to a single individual, whom the legend names as Haman.

Primary sources provide no detailed physical description of Bigthan and Teresh beyond their social role. The tradition consistently identifies them as eunuchs or chamberlains—court attendants with intimate access to the king—and thus figures of insider status within the Achaemenid palace. Greek Septuagint tradition renders their names differently (Gabatha and Tharra), but neither Hebrew nor Greek textual witnesses provide corporeal details such as age, stature, or dress in the surviving summaries and commentaries.

Bigthan and Teresh possess no supernatural powers in the recorded tradition; their defining actions are political and criminal. According to Esther 2:21–23 they conspired to murder King Ahasuerus, a plot which Mordecai discovered and reported. The conspirators were apprehended and executed by hanging. Subsequent exegetical tradition attributes consequential institutional outcomes to their conspiracy—most notably a reported change in royal security arrangements—yet no texts in the provided sources ascribe magical, divine, or otherworldly abilities to them.