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SEMIRAMIS (c. 800 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 617 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SEMIRAMIS (c. 800 B.C.) , a famous See also:Assyrian princess, See also:round whose See also:personality a See also:mass of See also:legend has accumulated. It was not until 1910 that the researches of See also:Professor See also:Lehmann-See also:Haupt of See also:Berlin restored her to her rightful See also:place in Babylonian-Assyrian See also:history. The legends derived by Diodorus Siculus, See also:Justin and others from See also:Ctesias of See also:Cnidus were completely disproved, and Semiramis had come to be treated as a purely legendary figure. The legends ran as follows: Semiramis was the daughter of the See also:fish-goddess See also:Atargatis (q.v.) of See also:Ascalon in See also:Syria, and was miraculously preserved by doves, who fed her until she was found and brought up by Simmas, the royal shepherd. Afterwards she married Onnes, one of the generals of See also:Ninus, who was so struck by her bravery at the See also:capture of Bactra that he married her, after Onnes had committed See also:suicide. Ninus died, and Semiramis, succeeding to his See also:power, traversed all parts of the See also:empire, erecting See also:great cities (especially See also:Babylon) and stupendous monuments, or opening roads through See also:savage mountains. She was unsuccessful only in an attack on See also:India. At length, after a reign of See also:forty-two years, she delivered up the See also:kingdom to her son Ninyas, and disappeared, or, according to what seems to be the See also:original See also:form of the See also:story, was turned into a See also:dove and was thenceforth worshipped as a deity. The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western See also:Asia, the origin of which was forgotten or unknown (see See also:Strabo xvi. I. 2).

Ultimately every stupendous See also:

work of antiquity by the See also:Euphrates or in See also:Iran seems to have been ascribed to her —even the See also:Behistun See also:inscriptions of See also:Darius (Diod. Sic. ii. 3). Of this we already have See also:evidence in See also:Herodotus, who ascribes to her the See also:banks that confined the Euphrates (i. 184) and knows her name as See also:borne by a See also:gate of Babylon (iii. 155). Various places in See also:Media See also:bore the name of Semiramis, but slightly changed, even in the See also:middle ages, and the old name of See also:Van was Shamiramagerd, Armenian tradition regarding her as its founder. These facts are partly to be explained by observing that, according to the legends, in her See also:birth as well as in her disappearance from See also:earth, Semiramis appears as a goddess, the daughter of the fish-goddess Atargatis, and herself connected with the doves of See also:Ishtar or See also:Astarte. The same association of the fish and dove is found at See also:Hierapolis (Bambyce, Mabbog), the great See also:temple at which, according to one legend, was founded by Semiramis (See also:Lucian, De dea Syria, 14), where her statue was shown with a See also:golden dove on her See also:head (33, 39)• The irresistible charms of Semiramis, her sexual excesses (which, however, belong only to the legends: there is no See also:historical groundwork), and other features of the legend, all See also:bear out the view that she is primarily a form of Astarte, and so fittingly conceived as the great See also:queen of See also:Assyria. Professor Lehmann-Haupt, by putting together the results of archaeological discoveries, has arrived at the following conclusions. Semiramis is the See also:Greek form of Sammuramat. She was probably a Babylonian (for it was she who imposed the Babylonian cult of See also:Nebo or Nabu upon the Assyrian See also:religion).

A See also:

column discovered in 1909 describes her as " a woman of the See also:palace of Samsi-See also:Adad, See also:King of the See also:World, King of Assyria, .. . King of the Four Quarters of the World." Ninus was her son. The See also:dedication of this column shows that Semiramis occupied a position of unique See also:influence, lasting probably for more than one reign. She waged See also:war against the Indo-Germanic Medes and the Chaldaeans. The legends probably have a Median origin. A popular See also:etymology, which connected the name with the Assyrian summat, " dove," seems to have first started the See also:identification of the historical Semiramis with the goddess Ishtar and her doves. See F. See also:Lenormant, La Legende de Semiramis (1873) ; A. H. See also:Sayce, " The Legend of Semiramis," in Hist. Rev. (See also:January, 1888).

End of Article: SEMIRAMIS (c. 800 B.C.)

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