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Search results for sigma,220 in Adler number:
Headword:
*semi/ramis
Adler number: sigma,220
Translated headword: Semiramis
Vetting Status: high
Translation: She was the first to rule over the Assyrians; and having held power and killed many people, she discovered the first mines and handed the working of them over to captives. She first put walls around Nineveh and renamed it Babylon.[1] And she placed canals[2] around the rivers and raised the pyramids. And having sailed through [the canals?] towards the ocean, she inquired about those who live near it. They are the Ethiopians. And
Homer says, "For Zeus went yesterday to the ocean, among the noble Ethiopians".[3] And they say that some of them are hairless because they have been scorched by the heat of the sun, and they follow an irrational way of life; others, dwelling by the sea, are even ignorant of the foods that grow upon the earth and are satisfied with the eating of fish. And the Garden [sc. of Eden] is there: for all fragrant and costly[4] things are found in those places. They also call Semiramis Rhea. Semiramis told Derketaios: "Go away and in the third year make ready an expedition, beginning from the Hellespont and Libya, as far as Bactria, of three hundred thousand foot soldiers, one hundred thousand cavalry, ten thousand scythed chariots, and the same number of fighting men on camels: twenty thousand other camels for whatever I may need, thirty thousand raw-tanned hides of cows, three long, bronze-beaked ships in Bactria, and a full measure likewise in
Syria and Phoenicia and Egypt and
Cyprus and
Cilicia and the places by the sea as far as the Hellespont." Thereupon she herself, having set out against the Indians, constructed twenty thousand ivory and wooden statues, which the camels would carry, being filled inside with sticks and woodchips, so that they would be easy to bear. The outside of them was covered with leather: and she stationed two riders on each camel to shoot and hurl javelins at the Ethiopians. And she crossed the Indus river, which is one hundred stades wide, and yoked it with a bridge where it seemed to be the narrowest. The length was sixty stades, and the width was three hundred. There were twenty thousand statues. And the same woman turned the river aside ... [5] and within the bed of this river she built palaces on the elevations which had been prepared and smeared with pitch, and then released [the river] again into its bed.[6]
*semi/ramis: au(/th basileu/sasa tw=n *)assuri/wn prw/th kai\ katadunasteu/sasa kai\ pollou\s a)nqrw/pous a)nelou=sa prw=ta me\n e)ceu=re ta\ me/talla, toi=s de\ ai)xmalw/tois th\n tou/twn e)rgasi/an e)pe/treye. perie/qhke de\ kai\ tei/xh prw/th th=| *nineui/, metonoma/sasa tau/thn *babulw=na. kai\ toi=s potamoi=s perieba/leto sto/mia kai\ ta\s purami/das a)nh/geire kai\ pro\s to\n w)keano\n diapleu/sasa tou\s pro\s au)to\n oi)kou=ntas i(sto/rhsen: ei)si\ de\ oi( *ai)qi/opes. kai\ *(/omhros de\ fhsi/: *zeu\s ga\r e)s w)keano\n met' a)mu/monas *ai)qioph=as xqizo\s e)/bh. kai\ tou\s me\n ei)=pen a)/trixas ei)=nai u(po\ th=s tou= h(li/ou qe/rmhs kekaume/nous, a)logw/dh boskome/nous di/aitan: tou\s de\ th\n parali/an oi)kou=ntas a)gnoei=n kai\ ta\s e)n gh=| fuome/nas bota/nas, th=| de\ tw=n i)xqu/wn a)rkei=sqai brw/sei. e)kei= de\ ei)=nai kai\ to\n para/deison: pa/nta ga\r o(/sa eu)w/dh kai\ a)nagkai=a e)n toi=s to/pois e)kei/nois eu(ri/sketai. th\n de\ *semi/ramin kai\ *(re/an e)ka/loun. *semi/ramis le/gei *derketai/w|: a)/piqi kai\ dieutre/pize tri/ton e)/tos stratei/an, a)rca/menos e)/k te *(ellhspo/ntou kai\ *libu/hs, a)/xri *ba/ktrwn, pezou= me\n muria/das t#, i(ppikou= de\ r#, drepanhfo/rwn de\ a(rma/twn muria/das i#, a)ndrw=n e)pi\ kamh/lwn maxome/nwn to\ i)/son plh=qos: a)/llwn de\ kamh/lwn, e)s o(/ ti a)\n e)gw\ de/wmai, muria/das k#, bu/rsas de\ bow=n w)modeyhtw=n ei)s l# muria/das: nau=s de\ e)n *ba/ktrois nauphgei=sqai g# makra\s xalkembo/lous, plhrw/mata de\ au)tai=s o(moi/ws e)/k te *suri/as kai\ *foini/khs kai\ *ai)gu/ptou kai\ *ku/prou kai\ *kiliki/as tw=n te parali/wn merw=n a)/xri *(ellhspo/ntou. o(/ti h( au)th\ o(rmw=sa e)p' *)indou\s ei)/dwla e)lefa/ntina cu/lina sumph/gnutai ei)s muria/das k#, a(\ e)/mellon oi)/sein ai( ka/mhloi, ta\ e)nto\s e)mpeplhsme/na fruga/nou kai\ forutou=, w(s eu)ba/stakta ei)/h: ta\ de\ e)/cwqen au)tw=n periebu/rswsen: e)piba/tas de\ e)f' e(ka/sthn ka/mhlon du/o e)/tacen *ai)qi/opas toceu/ein kai\ a)konti/zein. kai\ e)pe/rase to\n *)indo\n to\n potamo/n, o(/stis e)sti\n u(pe\r r# stadi/ous to\ pla/tos, kai\ zeu/gnusi ge/furan, h(=| steno/tatos ei)=nai e)do/kei. h)=n de\ mh=kos me\n c# stadi/wn: pla/tos de\ e)pi\ t#. ta\ de\ ei)/dwla h)=san k# muria/des. h( au)th\ e)kneu/sasa to\n potamo\n to\n ... kai\ e)nto\s th=s koi/ths tou/tou kti/sasa pala/tia e)pi\ u(ywma/twn e)gxorh/gwn h)sfaltwme/nwn au)=qis a)pe/lusen ei)s th\n koi/thn
Notes:
Attributed by Kuster to John of
Antioch. More probably, it seems, from
Ctesias, via
Nicolaus of Damascus: see Favuzzi [cited under
alpha 2798] 44-48.
For Semiramis cf. already
sigma 219 and see generally OCD4 s.v.
[1] cf. generally
nu 415,
nu 417.
[2] "Canals" here translates
sto/mia, "little mouths." This account seems to conflate
Herodotus' descriptions of Semiramis and Nitocris; according to
Herodotus (1.184ff), it was Nitocris who built the system of canals around Babylon.
[3]
Homer,
Iliad 1.423-424.
[4] Or perhaps "necessary," the more common meaning of
a)nagkai=a. However, LSJ cites the Suda for the meaning "costly."
[5] There is a lacuna after the word "river."
[6] The meaning of this last sentence is rather obscure, due in part to the lacuna.
Translated by: Jennifer Benedict on 13 April 2000@01:12:30.
Vetted by:
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