Christian Köhler, Semiramis, 1852, Oil on canvas © SMB, Nationalgalerie, Photo: Andres Kilger
Semiramis
The story of the legendary founder of Babylon, Semiramis, whose name is probably derived from the Assyrian Queen Šammuramat, comes from the writings of the ancient Greek historians.
Herodotus (about 484-420 B.C.) describes her as a queen who ruled the whole of Asia. Diodorus (first century A.D.) says she was the daughter of the Syrian goddess Derketo of Askalon and describes her celebrated construction of the splendid city of Babylon with its hanging gardens, which since modern times have been counted as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He also portrays her as a man-eating queen and powerful warrior, who defeated the powerful army of the Medes. Athenagoras of Athens (second century A.D.), one of the Apologists, calls Semiramis, in his work Legatio pro Christianis, "an immoral and murderous woman." From these supposedly historical sources sprang the myth of a disreputable and lecherous "femme fatale", who became the mysterious protagonist of numerous literary works, operas and dramas. In the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) she is exiled to the Second Circle of the Inferno, as a sinner of enormous lust and weakness of will. The Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), notorious as a portrayer of sexual deviations and perversions, dedicated his novel Africa's Semiramis to the myth-encrusted queen of Babylon, presenting her as an exotic sensualist. The director Carlo Luduvico Bragaglia (1894-1998), in his monumental and visually splendid film Semiramis. The Courtesan of Babylon (1954), finally shifts the story of this legendary women into the demi monde.
