Semiramis was a legendary
Assyrian queen, also known as
Semiramide,
Semiramida, or
Shamiram in Aramaic.
Many legends have accumulated around her personality. Various efforts have been made to identify her with real persons. She is sometimes identified with Shammuramat, the Babylonian wife of Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 811 BC–808 BC).
The legends narrated by Diodorus Siculus, Justin and others from Ctesias of Cnidus make a picture of her and her relationship to King Ninus.
The name of Semiramis came to be applied to various monuments in Western Asia, the origin of which was forgotten or unknown.[1] 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.[2] Herodotus ascribes to her the banks that confined the Euphrates [3] and knows her name as borne by a gate of Babylon.[4]
