Semiramis is depicted as an armed Amazon in this eighteenth century Italian illustration.

Semiramis was a legendary Assyrian queen, also known as Semiramide, Semiramida, or Shamiram in Aramaic. Many legends have accumulated around her personality. The legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, Justin and others from Ctesias of Cnidus make a picture of her and her relationship to king Ninus. Various efforts have been made to identify her with real persons. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (640x777, 20 KB) Semiramis, the semi-legendary Mesopotamian queen. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (640x777, 20 KB) Semiramis, the semi-legendary Mesopotamian queen. ... The Amazons (in Greek, ) were a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors. ... An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu. ... Diodorus Siculus (c. ... Justin or Marcus Junianus Justinus or Justinus Frontinus, 3rd century Roman historian. ... Ctesias of Cnidus (in Caria) (Greek ), was a Greek physician and historian, who flourished in the 5th century BC. In early life he was physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger. ... Ninus, was accepted in texts arising in Hellenistic period and later as the eponymous founder of Nineveh, and thus the city itself personified. ...

She is sometimes identified with Shammuramat, the Babylonian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 811 BC–808 BC). Although it is likely the latter queen was named for the original queen. Shammuramat or Sammur-amat was Queen of Assyria 811 BC–808 BC. The widow of King Shamshi-Adad V reigned for three years on the throne of Assyria. ... Shamshi-Adad V was the King of Assyria from 823 to 811 BC. He was the son and successor of Shalmaneser III, the husband of Sammuramat, and the father of Adad-nirari III, who succeeded him as king. ...

Biography according to Diodorus Siculus

The Shepherd finds the Babe Semiramis, from the Painting by E. Wallcousins.

According to legend, Semiramis was the daughter of the fish-goddess Derketo of Ascalon in Syria and a mortal. Derketo abandoned her at birth and drowned herself. The child was fed by doves until she was found and brought up by Simmas, the royal shepherd. Afterwards she married Onnes or Menones, one of the generals of Ninus. Ninus was so struck by her bravery at the capture of Bactra that he married her, forcing Onnes to commit suicide. After Ninus's death she reigned as Queen in her own right, and conquered much of Asia. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 356 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (400 × 673 pixel, file size: 74 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 356 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (400 × 673 pixel, file size: 74 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Atargatis, in Aramaic ‘Atar‘atah, was a Syrian deity, more commonly known to the Greeks by a shortened form of the name, Derceto or Derketo (Strabo 16. ... The name Ascalon can refer to a number of possible topics: a middle-eastern city, more usually called Ashkelon the lance (or in some versions of the story, sword) that St George used to slay the dragon, named after the city Ashkelon the British WW2 aeroplane used by Winston Churchill... Onnes was one of the generals of Ninus (Nimrod). ... Ninus, was accepted in texts arising in Hellenistic period and later as the eponymous founder of Nineveh, and thus the city itself personified. ... Bactria (Bactriana) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush (Caucasus Indicus) and the Amu Darya (Oxus), with the capital Bactra (now Balkh). ...

The Jewish historian Josephus relates Ninus to the Biblical hunter-king Nimrod. It is said that even though Nimrod was her son she married him when he grew to be a strong hunter.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... A fanciful representation of Flavius Josephus, in an engraving in William Whistons translation of his works Josephus (37 – sometime after 100 AD/CE)[1], who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Flavius Josephus[2], was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and... This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library. ... In the Bible and in legend, Nimrod (Standard Hebrew נִמְרוֹד Nimrod, Tiberian Hebrew נִמְרֹד Nimrōḏ), son of Cush, grandson of Ham, great-grandson of Noah, was a Mesopotamian monarch and a mighty hunter before Yahweh. He is mentioned in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10), in the First Book of Chronicles, and...

The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia, the origin of which was forgotten or unknown (see Strabo xvi. I. 2). Ultimately every stupendous work of antiquity by the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have been ascribed to her even the Behistun Inscription of Darius (Diod. Sic. ii. 3). Of this we already have evidence in Herodotus, who ascribes to her the banks that confined the Euphrates (i. 184) and knows her name as borne by a gate of Babylon (iii. 155). Various places in Media bore the name of Semiramis, but slightly changed, even in the middle ages, and the old name of Van Province was Shamiramagerd The Greek geographer Strabo in a 16th century engraving. ... Surfer Rosa The Euphrates (IPA: /juːˈfreɪtiːz/; Greek: Euphrátēs; Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu; Hebrew: פְּרָת Pĕrāth; Syriac: Prâth; Arabic: الفرات Al-Furāt; Turkish: Fırat; Kurdish: فرهات, Firhat, Ferhat, Azeri: Fərat) is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (the other... The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. ... Darius the Great (c. ... Shows the Location of the Province Van Van is a province in eastern Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. ...

Armenian tradition portrays her as a homewrecker and a harlot, as her reputation proceeds her. These facts are partly to be explained by observing that, according to the legends, in her birth as well as in her disappearance from earth, Semiramis appears as a goddess, the daughter of the fish-goddess Atargatis, and herself connected with the doves of Ishtar or Astartë. The same association of the fish and dove is found at Hierapolis (Bambyce, Mabbog), the great temple at which, according to one legend, was founded by Semiramis (Lucian, De dea Syria, 14), where her statue was shown with a golden dove on her head (33, 39). Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ... The theatre Hierapolis (Arabic Manbij or Mumbij) is an ancient Syrian town occupying one of the finest sites in Northern Syria, in a fertile district about 16 miles southwest of the confluence of the Sajur and Euphrates. ... The theatre Hierapolis Bambyce or Mabug (Arabic Manbij or Mumbij) is not to be confused with the better known Hierapolis on top of the Pamukkale hot springs in western Turkey near Denizli, listed as a World Heritage Site. ... The theatre Hierapolis Bambyce or Mabug (Arabic Manbij or Mumbij) is not to be confused with the better known Hierapolis on top of the Pamukkale hot springs in western Turkey near Denizli, listed as a World Heritage Site. ... Lucian. ...

Semiramis in Armenian legend

Semiramis staring at the corpse of Ara the Beautiful

One of the most popular legends in Armenian tradition involves Semiramis and an Armenian king, Ara the Beautiful. In the 20th century, the poet Nairi Zarian retold the story of Ara the Beautiful and Shamiram, considered a masterpiece of Armenian literary drama. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (367x793, 54 KB) Semiramis staring at the corpse of Ara the Beautiful (1899), Vardkes Sureniants (1860 - 1921) oil on canvas (214. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (367x793, 54 KB) Semiramis staring at the corpse of Ara the Beautiful (1899), Vardkes Sureniants (1860 - 1921) oil on canvas (214. ... Semiramis staring at the corpse of Ara the Beautiful. ...

According to the legend, Semiramis had heard about the fame of the handsome Armenian king Ara, and lusted after his image. She asked Ara to marry her, but he refused; upon hearing this, she gathered the armies of Assyria and marched against Armenia. The battle was supposed to have taken place in the Ararat valley, during which Ara was slain. In order to avoid continuous warfare with the Armenians, Semiramis prayed to the gods to revive Ara from the dead. Semiramis, reputed to be sorceress, took his body and tried in vain to enliven him. When Armenians advanced to avenge their leader, she disguised one of her lovers and spread the rumor that Gods brought Ara back to life. As a result, the war was ceased.^[1] It should be noted that there are many versions to the ending of the legend but it is usually accepted that Ara never came back to life. An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu. ...

Historicity

While Semiramis is clearly a legendary figure, she is sometimes considered a dim reflection of the historical queen Shammuramat (ruled 811-808 BC), the Babylonian wife of Shamshi-Adad V. After her husband's death, she appears to have served as regent for several years for her son, Adad-nirari III. This identification is disputed as being merely based on the similar sound of the two names. Shammuramat or Sammur-amat was Queen of Assyria 811 BC–808 BC. The widow of King Shamshi-Adad V reigned for three years on the throne of Assyria. ... Shamshi-Adad V was the King of Assyria from 823 to 811 BC. He was the son and successor of Shalmaneser III, the husband of Sammuramat, and the father of Adad-nirari III, who succeeded him as king. ... Adad-nirari III was King of Assyria from 810 to 783 BC. For the first five years of his reign his mother Sammuramat acted as regent, which gave rise to the legend of Semiramis. ...

In later traditions

In the Divine Comedy Dante sees Semiramis among the souls of the lustful in the second circle of Hell. The Divine Comedy (Italian: , later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature ever. ...

And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays, Making in air a long line of themselves, So saw I coming, uttering lamentations, Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress. Whereupon said I: "Master, who are those People, whom the black air so castigates?" The first of those, of whom intelligence Thou fain wouldst have," then said he unto me, The empress was of many languages. To sensual vices she was so abandoned, That lustful she made licit in her law, To remove the blame to which she had been led. She is Semiramis, of whom we read That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse; She held the land which now the Sultan rules.

Protestant minister Alexander Hislop elevated Semiramis to a cosmic feature; in his book The Two Babylons, Hislop attempted to demonstrate that Semiramis and Nimrod, are identical to Isis and Osiris, or Astarte and Tammuz. Semiramis goes on to become the Blessed Virgin Mary according to Hislop's version of the tale; most of the world's mythical figures are retellings of the tale of Semiramis and Nimrod. This mythography is supposed to demonstrate that Roman Catholicism is in fact paganism. Some fundamentalist Christians accept Hislop's research today, and related information of the story continues to be recirculated in Jack Chick's tracts and comic books. John Hagee also preached a sermon in May 2006 about "Counterfeit Christianity: Symbolism over Substance" in which he seemed to accept this account.^[2] Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Protestantism encompasses the forms... Alexander Hislop (Born at Duns, Berwickshire, 1807; died Arbroath, 13 March 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister famous for his outspoken criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. ... In the Bible and in legend, Nimrod (Standard Hebrew נִמְרוֹד Nimrod, Tiberian Hebrew נִמְרֹד Nimrōḏ), son of Cush, grandson of Ham, great-grandson of Noah, was a Mesopotamian monarch and a mighty hunter before Yahweh. He is mentioned in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10), in the First Book of Chronicles, and... Isis is a goddess in Egyptian mythology. ... OSIRIS is the name of three entirely separate astronomical instruments. ... Astarte on a car with four branches protruding from roof. ... Tammuz or Tamuz Arabic تمّوز TammÅ«z; Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz; Akkadian Duʾzu, DÅ«zu; Sumerian Dumuzi was the name of a Babylonian deity. ... Our Lady redirects here. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic... Look up pagan, heathen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jimmy Akins rendition of Jack Chick. ... Tract may be a reference to: tract (anatomy), a bundle of nerve fibers following a path through the brain, or a collection of related anatomic structures (e. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Pastor Hagee with his wife, Diana. ...

Semiramis appears in a number of plays and operas, most notably Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, Domenico Cimarosa's opera Semiramide and Gioacchino Rossini's opera, also called Semiramide. She has also appeared in several sword and sandal films. There is also an Italian progressive rock group named Semiramis that released one LP in 1973. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... For the sport horse, see Voltaire (horse). ... Domenico Cimarosa (December 17, 1749-January 11, 1801), Italian opera composer, was born at Aversa, in the kingdom of Naples. ... Portrait Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 – November 13, 1868)[1] was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. ... Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioacchino Rossini. ... D. W. Griffith set out to depict the splendor of ancient Babylon in Intolerance. ...

Hislop's goddess hypothesis

In his 1853 "The Two Babylons"^[3], Protestant minister Alexander Hislop concludes that Semiramis is a significant figure in the history of mother goddess centered religions. He connects Semiramis to the Biblical character of Nimrod, the founder of Babel. Hislop quotes legends to the effect that Semiramis was raised by doves, and of Ante Nicene Fathers implying the child of Nimrod Semiramis was an attempted fulfillment of the "promised Seed" of Genesis 3:15, or an early virgin birth myth. This child is identified with Tammuz by Hislop. He claims Isis/Osiris, Aphrodite/cupid, Asherah/Orion and many others are retellings of this story of a mother marrying the reincarnation of her husband after a claimed virgin birth. The names Orion and Osiris literally translate "Seed of the woman" further lending creedence to his claims that many pagan religions are based off of the Pre-Judaism verses of Genesis. It is his hypothesis that during her reign she created Polytheism (particularly ones centered around herself) as a method of controlling her subjects and leading them away from the earliest forms of monotheism which threatened her power. Alexander Hislop (Born at Duns, Berwickshire, 1807; died Arbroath, 13 March 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister famous for his outspoken criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. ... It has been suggested that Mother (neopaganism) be merged into this article or section. ... Look up Nimrod in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Babel (Hebrew: ; Bavel) (Arabic|بابل: Babel) is the name used in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran for the city of Babylon (Akkadian Babilu), notable in Genesis as the location of the Tower of Babel. ... The Ante-Nicene Fathers, subtitled , is a selected set of books containing English translations of the major Early Christian writings. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Tammuz or Tamuz Arabic تمّوز Tammūz; Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz; Akkadian Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian Dumuzi was the name of a Babylonian deity. ...

Hislope further claimed that the legends of Ninus the first being her son were distorted from her claiming her son born after Ninus's death was the reincarnation of Ninus and married him so she could rule as his Regent. This is parrelleled by many mother-son relationships in Babylonian, egyptian an greek religions. Although it should be noted if this is true her son (sometimes called ninus the second) is of no relation to Ninus the first being concieved after his death and being a different race. (The bible describes Nimrod as a Cushite, however Tammuz is Shemite)

Semiramis according to legend was instrumental in building the original “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” which Nebuchadnezzar restored and expanded.^{[citation needed]} Gardens of Semiramis, 20th century interpretation Hanging Garden, Assyrian interpretation The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (also known as Hanging Gardens of Semiramis) and the walls of Babylon (near present-day Al Hillah in Iraq) are considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. ...

Notes

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

• Ara the beautiful and Shamiram
• Semiramis, Queen of Babylon