Long live the queen.
Unsure to be honest, but since I do see a possibility of Haman being reproposed, thought to give this one a shake and see where the character lands.
What is the work?[]
First and Second Kings which is a recording of the division of Northern Israel and Southern Judah and the gradual decline culminating in the destruction of the two kingdoms and their exile into foreign nations.
Who is she? What has she done?[]
Queen Jezebel is first introduced in 1 Kings 16 and was an arc villain up until 2 Kings 9. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, a Phoenician princess (Sidonian was a term that was used to refer to Phoenicians) who is married to King Ahab of Samaria as part of a political alliance. Ahab was considered one of the most wicked of the kings of the northern kingdom, but he is really more of an anti-villain with the real power behind the throne being Jezebel. She would manipulate her husband into going along with several of her schemes such as establishing the worship of Baal and Asherah in the kingdom.
This creates a power surge against Baalism and Yahwism so she instigates the mass murder of the prophets of Yahweh leaving few survivors such as her future archenemy Elijah the Tishbite and those that were taken to be hidden in two caves. As a result of that, Yahweh punishes Ahab and Jezebel with a drought that lasts for 3 1/2 years. Elijah challenges 450 of the prophets of Baal to prove which god would receive an offering. After Baal fails to show, Elijah kills them all earning the ire of Jezebel. She sends him a letter vowing that she would kill him for his crimes against her leading him to flee.
Any time that Ahab would appear to be returning to the right side, he would be reeled back in by Jezebel with her most evil act occurring when Ahab tries to buy a vineyard off a man named Naboth who declined since it was a family heirloom. Seeing her husband sulk around, she issues a day of fasting and sets up two scoundrels to bring charges up against Naboth under the claim that he spoke against God and the king. This is carried through and Naboth is stoned to death. For an added measure, Jezebel also sees to it that his sons were also put on the chopping block. Ahab gets the vineyard, but Elijah confronts him informing him that God would curse his entire bloodline would be blotted out. For his part, he does rip his clothes in despair and regret.
About three years after the death of Ahab, Jehu is anointed as the new king by Elisha who slaughters the prophets of Baal and Ahab's relatives. Knowing that her time was short, Jezebel pretties herself up and mocks Jehu's rebellion. Jehu orders her to be tossed out of the window, and... she gets run over by a horse and chariots. And then when Jehu says to bury her after the carnage... all that was left of her was her head, feet, and the palms of her hands. Dogs ate her body as was foretold by Elijah.
However, Jehu's purge would not be ignored: Athaliah, Jezebel's daughter, hears of her mother's death and the massacre of the bloodline so has nearly all her own grandchildren killed which nearly puts the Davidic line in jeopardy. Jezebel would be referenced a few more times in the biblical canon such as in the Book of Revelation. She had also become the archetype of the wicked woman who were use her feminine wiles to manipulate men and pull the strings politically. Even though there was never much in the actual text that states she was promiscuous or used her sexuality as a weapon.
Freudian Excuse? Mitigating factors?[]
Not really. With Ahab, I never found much there in terms of their relationship. She uses him as a means of fulfilling her wants and when she sees that he is being childish with the vineyard thing, her response amounts to "why are you whining like a baby when you are the king?" She is a corrupter whose influence also affected her sons.
Heinous standard[]
So, a few years back, I did a discussion on Haman the Agagite, the main antagonist from the Book of Esther who you may know for trying to convince the King of Persia to make a decree to exterminate the Persian Jewry when Mordecai the Judean refused to bow to him. Since he was someone who worked outside the will of God, I did kind of think he could be re-discussed. Also goes without saying that he is the original Anti-Semite in Jewish tradition.
Beyond that, the Bible does have a high heinous standard with some characters being considered "heroic" for acts we would consider barbaric nowadays, but, y'know, values dissonance is a thing. Going back to tyrannical rulers, we had a few: there's the Pharaoh from the Book of Exodus who ordered all the Israelite boys slaughtered to curb any plans of rebellion (which some believe was later carried over to King Herod who ordered all the boys 2 and under in Bethlehem massacred). The Book of Judges has King Abimelech, son of the judge Gideon, who slaughtered 69 of his own siblings to secure the throne for himself and later had thousands of civilians trapped in their homes which he set aflame.
Or others like Manessah who was the king of Judah who went as far as to sacrifice his own child which served as the final nail in the coffin for Judah and the country gets taken over by Babylon. For the most part, the Kings of Judah engaged in idolatry and other acts, but they were otherwise spared due to the covenant God made with David on his dynasty living forever. The same can't be said for the northern kingdom of Israel where the rulers either started off with good intentions or were just bad. With Jezebel, I would think she would be the worst out of the northern rulers of Israel.
Everything that Ahab does leads back to Jezebel being the one who was really working behind the scene. She has him set up places of worship for Baal and Asherah, with its immoral practices of human sacrifice also coming into play. As a means of trying to rid Israel of Yahwism by committing mass purges of Israel's prophets leading to one of the survivors having to hide 100 prophets in two caves. When Elijah proves his god's power over Baal's and kills 450 of her prophets, Jezebel then vows to kill him, But by far her worst act is forging her husband's signature to have Naboth the Jezreelite taken to be stoned to death under false claims so that her husband would get his vineyard. She even has his sons killed as well for further nastiness.
Even after her death, her influence continues to live on with her daughter Athaliah going as far as to nearly kill all her grandchildren save Joash which comes dangerously close to ending the Davidic line. And of course, she is more or less the archetype for a tyrannical queen and a Lady Macbeth before Lady Macbeth.