Semiramis

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

Semiramis (सम्मीराम) was a legendary Assyrian queen.[1] She was wife of Onnes and Ninus, who succeeded the latter to the throne of Assyria,[[2] according to Movses Khorenatsi.[3] Legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, who drew primarily from the works of Ctesias of Cnidus,[4][5] describe her and her relationships to Onnes and King Ninus.

Variants


Mention by Pliny

Pliny[7] mentions Nations situated around the Hyrcanian Sea... Beyond it are the Sogdiani,24 the town of Panda, and, at the very extremity of their territory, Alexandria,25 founded by Alexander the Great. At this spot are the altars which were raised by Hercules and Father Liber, as also by Cyrus, Semiramis, and Alexander; for the expeditions of all these conquerors stopped short at this region, bounded as it is by the river Jaxartes, by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and his officers supposed to have been the Tanais. This river was crossed by Demodamas, a general of kings Seleucus and Antiochus, and whose account more particularly we have here followed. He also consecrated certain altars here to Apollo Didymæus.26


24 D'Anville says that there is still the valley of Al Sogd, in Tartary, beyond the Oxus. The district called Sogdiana was probably composed of parts of modern Turkistan and Bokhara. The site of Panda does not appear to be known.

25 It was built on the Jaxartes, to mark the furthest point reached by Alexander in his Scythian expedition. It has been suggested that the modern Kokend may possibly occupy its site.

26 The "twin," of the same birth with Diana.

History

Armenians and the Assyrians of Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, and northwest Iran still use Shamiram as a given name for girls.[8]

The real and historical Shammuramat (the original Akkadian form of the name) was the Assyrian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824 BC–811 BC). She was the ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as its regent for five years before her son Adad-nirari III came of age and took the reins of power.[9] She ruled at a time of political uncertainty, which is one of the possible explanations for why Assyrians may have accepted the rule of a woman when it was not allowed by the cultural tradition. She conquered much of the Middle East and the Levant and stabilized and strengthened the empire after a destructive civil war. It has been speculated that being a woman who ruled successfully may have made the Assyrians regard her with particular reverence and that her achievements may have been retold over the generations until she was turned into that legendary figure.[10]

The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia and Anatolia whose origins had been forgotten or unknown.[11]Various places in Upper Mesopotamia and throughout Mesopotamia as a whole, Media, Persia, the Levant, Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Caucasus bore the name of Semiramis, or as slightly changed. It appears during the Middle Ages and Shamiramagerd (meaning created by Semiramis in Armenian) is the old name of the Armenian city of Van. Ultimately, nearly every stupendous work of antiquity near the Euphrates or in Iran seems to have been ascribed to her, even the Behistun Inscription of Darius.[12][13] Herodotus ascribes to her the artificial banks that confined the Euphrates[14] and he knew her name because it was inscribed on a gate of Babylon.[15]

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[16] mentions The Ariani and the adjoining Nations.... Arachosia3 has a river and a city of the same name; the city was built by Semiramis; by some writers it is called Cophen. The river Erymanthus4 flows past Parabeste5 which belongs to the Arachosii. Writers make the Dexendrusi come next, forming the boundary of the Arachotæ on the southern side, and of the Paropanisadæ on the north.


3 See the Notes in p. 50.

4 The principal river of Drangiana, which rises in the lower range of the Paropanisus or Hindoo Koosh, and enters Lake Zarah. Its present name is Ilmend or Helmend. Burnouf has supposed it to be the same as the Arachotus; but Professor Wilson is of opinion that the Arachotus was one of the tributaries of the Erymanthus or Erymandrus, and probably the modern Arkand-Ab.

5 Parisot takes the meaning of this word to be "valley," and is of opinion that it is the modern Chabul; not to be confounded, however, with the country of Cabul, to the east of which it is situate.

Cities founded by Semiramis

External links

References

  1. Texier, Charles (1862). Asie mineure. Paris: Didot Freres. OCLC: 6646889.
  2. Bernbeck 2008, p. 353.
  3. Moses (of Khoren) (2006). History of the Armenians. Caravan Books. ISBN 978-0-88206-111-5. OCLC 1011412893.
  4. Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History, Book II, Chapters 1-22
  5. Muntz, Charles Edward (2017). Diodorus Siculus and the world of the late Roman republic. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 23. ISBN 9780190498726.
  6. Wells, John C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman, ISBN 9781405881180
  7. Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 18
  8. "Assyrian Names and Meanings for Boys and Girls". www.atour.com.
  9. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sammu-ramat
  10. "Sammu-Ramat and Semiramis: The Inspiration and the Myth". World History Encyclopedia.
  11. See Strabo xvi. I. 2
  12. Diodorus Siculus ii. 3
  13. Reade, Julian (2000). "Alexander the Great and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon". Iraq. 62: 195–217.
  14. i. 184
  15. iii. 155
  16. Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 25
  17. Texier, Charles (1862). Asie mineure. Paris: Didot Freres. OCLC: 6646889.