SEMIRAMIS (c. 800 B.C.), a famous Assyrian princess, round whose personality a mass of legend has accumulated. It was not until 1910 that the researches of Professor Lehmann-Haupt of Berlin restored her to her rightful place in Babylonian-Assyrian history. The legends derived by Diodorus Siculus, Justin and others from Ctesias of 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 fish-goddess Atargatis (q.v.) of Ascalon in Syria, and was miracu lously 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 Ninus, who was so struck by her bravery at the capture of Bactra that he married her, after Onnes had committed suicide. Ninus died, and Semiramis, succeeding to his power, traversed all parts of the empire, erect ing great cities (especially Babylon) and stupendous monuments, or opening roads through savage mountains. She was unsuccessful only in an attack on India. At length, after a reign of forty-two years, she delivered up the kingdom to her son Ninyas, and dis appeared, or, according to what seems to be the original form of the story, was turned into a dove and was thenceforth worshipped as a deity.
The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monu ments 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 inscriptions of Darius (Diod. Sic. ii. 3). Semiramis appears as a goddess, the daughter of the fish-goddess Atargatis, and herself connected with the doves of Ishtar or Astarte. The same association of the fish and
dove is found at Hierapolis (Bambyce, Mabbog), the great temple which, according to one legend, was founded by Semiramis (Lu cian, De dea Syria, 14), and where her statue was shown with a golden dove on her head (33, 39). The irresistible charms of Semiramis, her sexual excesses (which, however, belong only to the legends : there is no historical groundwork), and other features of the legend, all bear out the view that she is primarily a form of Astarte, and so fittingly conceived as the great queen of Assyria.
Professor Lehmann-Haupt, by putting together the results of archaeological discoveries, has arrived at the following conclu sions. Semiramis is the Greek form of Sammuramat. She was probably a Babylonian (for it was she who imposed the Baby lonian cult of Nebo or Nabu upon the Assyrian religion). A col umn discovered in 1909 describes her as "a woman of the palace of Samsi-Adad, King of the World, King of Assyria, . . . King of the Four Quarters of the World." Ninus was her son. The dedication of this column shows that Semiramis occupied a posi tion of unique influence, lasting probably for more than one reign. She waged war against the Indo-Germanic Medes and the Chal daeans. The legends probably have a Median origin. A popular etymology, which connected the name with the Assyrian summat, "dove," seems to have first started the identification of the historical Semiramis with the goddess Ishtar and her doves.
See F. Lenormant, La Legende de Semiramis (1873) ; A. H. Sayce, "The Legend of Semiramis," in Hist. Rev. (January, 1888).