Belshazzar's Feast by Washington Allston, 1817. The queen in this story, depicted here between Daniel and Belshazzar, has been identified with Nitocris.
Nitocris of Babylon (c. 550 BC) is an otherwise unknown queen regnant[1] of Babylon described by Herodotus in his Histories. According to Histories of Herodotus, among sovereigns of Babylon two were women, Semiramis and Nitocris.[2] Nitocris is credited by Herodotus with various building projects in Babylon. She is also said to have tricked Darius I by placing her tomb above a gate so that no Persian could pass below and enter through. According to the account, Darius was lured in by a mysterious inscription that served as a trap for greedy kings.[3][4] According to Herodotus she was the wife of Nabonidus (Gr. Labynetus) against whose son an expedition was launched by Cyrus the Great.[5][6] Dougherty and Beaulieu identify the son as Belshazzar.[7]
If this is the case, she is most likely the queen in the story of Belshazzar's feast, and she is identified as such in Handel's oratorio Belshazzar.
^Smith, Philip (1871). The Ancient History of the East: From the Earliest Times to the Conquest by Alexander the Great : Including Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Asia Minor, and Phoenicia. Harper. p. 344. Herodotus (i. 185) ascribes these works to Nitocris, whom he clearly regards as a queen regnant, and whom he makes the mother of "Labynetus" (i. e., Nabonadius) the last king of Babylon (i. 188).
^Herodotus. "History". Classics dept. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
^Notes and DiscussionsDarius and the Tomb of Nitocris Jstor.org of
^Herodotus, Histories I.185
^Dougherty, Raymond Philip (2008). Nabonidus and Belshazzar: A Study of the Closing Events of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 38, 40–42, 65. ISBN 978-1-55635-956-9. Citing Herodotus, The Histories, 1.188
^Cf. Wiseman, D.J. (2004). Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon: The Schweich Lectures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-19-726100-0. According to Wiseman, "Nabonidus is known to have been in his self-imposed exile for ten . . . years. Belshazzar was co-regent during his absence".
^Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (1989). The Reign of Nabonidus King of Babylon 556-559 B.C. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 80, 81. ISBN 0-300-04314-7.
and 21 Related for: Nitocris of Babylon information
sovereigns ofBabylon two were women, Semiramis and Nitocris. Nitocris is credited by Herodotus with various building projects in Babylon. She is also...
The king ofBabylon (Akkadian: šakkanakki Bābili, later also šar Bābili) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian city ofBabylon and its kingdom, Babylonia...
Amytis of Media (c. 630-565 BCE; Median: *ᴴumati; Ancient Greek: Ancient Greek: Αμυτις, romanized: Amutis; Latin: Amytis) was a Queen of Ancient Babylon. She...
Levant, for his construction projects in his capital, Babylon, including the Hanging Gardens ofBabylon, and for the role he plays in Jewish history. Ruling...
Semiramis, the legendary queen of king Ninus, succeeding him to the throne of Assyria NitocrisofBabylon, the ruling queen ofBabylon described by Herodotus...
in contemporary Babylonian sources. Herodotus's description ofNitocris contains a wealth of legendary material that makes it difficult to determine whether...
Reign of Netjerkare Siptah, last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who will later give rise to the legendary figure ofNitocris. c. 2181 BC: End of the...
or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall ofBabylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the...
ofBabylon, was the ruling dynasty of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling as kings ofBabylon from the ascent of Nabopolassar in 626 BC to the fall of Babylon...
King Netjerkarê. This woman who reigned in Egypt was called Nitocris, like the queen ofBabylon. They told me that the Egyptians, after having killed her...
historian's characterization. The existence ofNitocris is not archaeologically attested. The only historical account of Dynasty VII was found in Aegyptiaca by...
married Stateira II, the daughter of the deposed Persian king Darius III. After Alexander's sudden death at Babylon in 323 BC, Roxana is believed to have...
of Thebes which compelled the existing God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet II, daughter of the former Kushite Pharaoh Piye, to adopt his daughter Nitocris...
Nigel Kennedy Nightcrawlers Nightmares on Wax Nike Ardilla Nine Inch Nails Nitocris Nitzer Ebb Nirvana N-Joi No Doubt Noël Akchoté Noir Désir Nokko No Mercy...
The epitome made by Photius of Ctesias' book is the only source that mentions Damaspia by name. Documents from Babylon dating in Artaxerxes' reign, refer...
regnal list, with the various names of rulers being re-used for "Ethiopian" monarchs. Examples include Nitocris (162), Proteus (67), Sabakon (122), Apries...
incorporated into novels by Griffith towards the end of his life: the former into The Mummy and Miss Nitocris (1906) and the latter into A Mayfair Magician (1905);...
Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Vol. 136. Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies, Leuven. ISBN 978-9-042-91449-0...
foreign kings such as Tushratta of Mitanni and Kadashman-Enlil I ofBabylon. The royal lineage was carried by the women of Ancient Egypt and marriage to...
Nicholas II of Russia Deborah Drattell: Nicholas and Alexandra Nitocris, Queen of Egypt, maybe legendary Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini: Nitocri Pat Nixon...
concrete evidence that they did. The legendary Queen Nitocris was supposedly a Pharaoh at the end of the Sixth Dynasty, but no archeological evidence supports...
Global Information