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.
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