Semiramis

Lore & Background

The historical Shammuramat certainly existed. After her husband's death, she might have served as regent for her son, Adad-nirari III. Thus, during that time Shammuramat could have been in control of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), which stretched from the Caucasus Mountains in the north to the Arabian Peninsula in the south, and from western Iran in the east to Cyprus in the west. In the city of Aššur on the Tigris, she had an obelisk built and inscribed that read, "Stele of Shammuramat, queen of Shamshi-Adad, King of the Universe, King of Assyria, Mother of Adad Nirari, King of the Universe, King of Assyria, Daughter-in-Law of Shalmaneser, King of the Four Regions of the World."

According to Diodorus, a first century BC Greek historian, Semiramis was of noble parents, the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo of Ascalon and of a mortal. He related that Derketo abandoned her at birth and drowned herself. Doves fed the child until she was one year old. Then the doves, who had started pecking off bits from the cheeses to feed her, caught the attention of some keepers. These found the baby, and brought her to Simmas, the royal shepherd, who adopted her as his own, and gave her the name Semiramis, which according to Diodorus is a slight alteration of the Syrian word for dove. Semiramis married Onnes or Menones, a general under King Ninus, and she became an advisor to the king. Her advice led him to great successes. At the Siege of Bactra, she personally led a party of soldiers to seize a key defensive point, leading to the capture of the city. Ninus was so struck that he fell in love with her. He tried to compel Onnes to give her to him as a wife, first offering his own daughter Sonanê in return and eventually threatening to put out his eyes as punishment. Out of fear of the king, and out of doomed passion for his wife, Onnes "fell into a kind of frenzy and madness" and hanged himself. Ninus then married Semiramis. Diodorus relates that after their marriage, Semiramis and Ninus had a son named Ninyas. After King Ninus conquered Asia, including the Bactrians, Ninus was fatally wounded by an arrow. Semiramis disguised herself as her son so the army would follow her instructions, thinking they came from their new ruler. Diodorus writes that her reign lasted for 42 years and that she conquered much of Asia and achieved many feats. She restored ancient Babylon and protected it with a high brick wall that completely surrounded the city. She built several palaces in Persia, including Ecbatana. She ruled Asia effectively and added Libya and Aethiopia to the empire. When she heard that India was the largest country in the world, she went to war with King Stabrobates (Supratika) of India, having her artisans build an army of military dummies in the form of false elephants by putting manipulated skins of dark-skinned buffaloes over her camels to deceive the Indians into thinking she had acquired real elephants. This ploy succeeded initially, but she was wounded in the counterattack and her army mainly annihilated, which forced the surviving remnants to re-ford the Indus and retreat to the west. Diodorus mistakenly attributed the Behistun Inscription to her; it is now known to have been produced by Darius the Great.

In Their Own Story

The 2nd century strategist and rhetoritician Polyaenus writes of Semiramis, saying that when she heard that the Siraces were revolting against her, while she was in the bath; she immediately got out of the bath and took the field without waiting to have her sandals put on or her hair dressed. According to Polyaenus, there were pillars recounting her in these words: "Nature made me a woman, but I have raised myself to rivalry with the greatest of men. I swayed the sceptre of Ninus; and extended my dominions to the river Hinamames on the east; on the south, to the country which is fragrant with the production of frankincense and myrrh; and northward to the Saccae and Sogdians. No Assyrian before me ever saw the sea; but distant as the seas are from here, I have seen four. And to their proud waves who can set bounds? I have directed the course of rivers at my will; and my will has directed them where they might prove useful. I have made a barren land produce plenty, and fertilised it with my rivers. I have built walls which are impregnable; and with iron forced a way through inaccessible rocks. At great expense I have formed roads in places, which before not even the wild beasts could traverse. And great and various as my exploits have been, I have always found leisure hours, in which to indulge myself and my friends." Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 400) credits her as the first person to castrate a male youth into eunuch-hood: "Semiramis, that ancient queen who was the first person to castrate male youths of tender age". Armenian tradition portrays Semiramis negatively, possibly because of a victorious military campaign she waged against them. One of the most popular legends in Armenian tradition involves Semiramis and an Armenian king, Ara the Handsome. According to that legend, Semiramis had fallen in love with the handsome Armenian King Ara and asked him to marry her. When he refused, in her passion she gathered the armies of Assyria and marched against Armenia. During the battle Semiramis was victorious, but Ara was slain despite her orders to capture him alive. This legend continues that to avoid continuous warfare with the Armenians, Semiramis, who they alleged was a sorceress, took his body and prayed to deities to raise Ara from the dead. When the Armenians advanced to avenge their leader, she disguised one of her lovers as Ara and spread the rumor that the deities had brought Ara back to life, reportedly convincing the Armenians not to continue the war. According to John of Antioch (Historian), Ctesias wrote that Semiramis buried some of her lovers alive.

Reader's Guide

The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia and Anatolia whose origins had been forgotten or unknown, even the Behistun Inscription of Darius. Herodotus ascribes to her the artificial banks that confined the Euphrates. He knew her name because it was inscribed on a gate of Babylon. Various places in Mesopotamia, Media, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Caucasus received names recalling Semiramis. Armenians and the Assyrians of Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, and northwest Iran still use Shamiram and its derivative Samira as a given name for girls. She is credited with founding the city of Van in Turkey in order to have a summer residence and that city may be found referred to as Shamiramagerd (city of Semiramis). Strabo, a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during 64 or 63 BC to 24 AD, credits her with building earthworks and other structures "throughout almost the whole continent". Nearly every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have been ascribed to Semiramis, even the Behistun Inscription of Darius. Legends describing Semiramis have been recorded by approximately 80 ancient writers including Plutarch, Eusebius, Polyaenus, Valerius Maximus, Orosius, and Justinus. She was associated with Ishtar and Astarte since the time before Diodorus. The association of the fish and dove is found at Hierapolis Bambyce (Mabbog, now Manbij), the great temple that according to one legend, was founded by Semiramis, where her statue was shown with a golden dove on her head.

Did You Know?

• The real historical figure behind Semiramis is Shammuramat, the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824–811 BC), who ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire as regent for five years.
• According to Diodorus Siculus, Semiramis was the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo of Ascalon and a mortal, and was fed by doves for a year after being abandoned at birth.
• At the Siege of Bactra, Semiramis personally led a party of soldiers to seize a key defensive point, leading to the capture of the city.
• When going to war with India, Semiramis had her artisans build false elephants by putting manipulated skins of dark-skinned buffaloes over her camels to deceive the Indians.
• Armenian tradition tells that Semiramis fell in love with the Armenian king Ara the Handsome, and when he refused her, she marched against Armenia and had him slain in battle.