her reign, subduing Ethiopia. After this achievement, her attention turns to the Indus Valley. Although she undertakes a military expedition against this distant land, her expectations of victory are dashed. Sometime later, Ninyas conspires against his mother and her reign ends. According to some authors, as Diodorus, Semiramis was transformed into a dove after living sixty-two years, forty-two of them ruling over the first great empire in the East.
Despite the virtues that Diodorus ascribes to her, her thirst for power and extreme ambition are already evident in his account. In later narratives, these behaviors are expressly depreciated. For instance, Diodorus claims that “the most handsome of the soldiers she consorted with them and then made away with all who had lain with her.”81 This conduct is extrapolated in Justin, who, in addition to the soldiers, states that the queen conceived “a criminal passion for her son.”82 Ambition, masculinity, and sexuality become interconnected characteristics that made up the deviant figure and not conformed to the norm that was Semiramis. Like so many other oriental female figures who have become timeless, like Cleopatra83 or Zenobia,84 she often used her beauty and her sexuality in favor of power and the imposition of her authority.85 In the cinematographic perspective this idea also prevailed, and heroines such as Cleopatra or Semiramis often appear immersed in the same undifferentiated Orientalizing universe.86
In sum, if Semiramis personified the exotic and lustful oriental woman, able to lie down even with her own son, Sardanapalus “practised sexual indulgence of both kinds without restraint,”87 an aspect that emphasizes his androgyny88 and evokes the orientalist idea of the effeminate and indulgent satrap. Semiramis opposes herself to the ideal woman in ancient Greece, the woman who took care of the house, just as Penelope would have done so faithfully and diligently awaiting the return of Ulysses.89 For his part, Sardanapalus contrasts his androgyny with the audacity and militarism presented by his female counterpart. His name would go down in history as a synonym for idleness and debauchery. A simple epithet underscored the deviant conduct of the sovereigns of ancient Assyria and all those who followed their example: “Leading the life of a Sardanapalus,” thus become a metaphor for those who dedicated themselves to physical pleasure.90 Similarly, Semiramis became a name ascribed, throughout history, to several queens to evoke either their positive behaviors and achievements,91 or their derogatory ways.92
At the time of the rediscovery of Mesopotamia, the orientalist and ethnocentric vision propagated since the Greco-Roman authors was so ingrained in the Western mentality that even the testimonies found in situ were unable to overthrow the ancient dogmas based on the dichotomy we/the other. Thus, British explorer Henry Layard even claimed that the adornments and clothing of the Mesopotamian monarchs he saw in the bas-reliefs and statues exhumed in Assyria were “more befitting a woman than a man.”93 The stereotype prevailed.
And considering this legacy, we are not surprised that cinema has perpetuated it. Of the cinematographic narratives based on these two legendary figures, the ones that collect more ingredients from the Greek and Roman accounts were the Italian production Sardanapalo, re dell’Assiria (1910) by Giuseppe de Liguoro, and the French short film Sémiramis (1911) by Camille de Morlhon. The first depicts the conspiracy of Sardanapalus’s former allies, the king’s way of living, feasting with the women, and his death in the palace fire.94 The second presents the victorious battles of the queen, celebrated in the hanging gardens, her fight against Arabia, and her death and transformation into a dove.95 As we can easily infer from the screenplay of these silent films from the early days of cinema, the vision of Assyria and Babylon propagated by Diodorus Siculus resonated in posterity.
Notes
1 1 i.e., Cyrus.
2 2 Isa. 48, 14.
3 3 Montero Fenollós 2012, p. 250.
4 4 Rev. 17, 5.
5 5 According to Van de Mierrop, Babylon was a true global city: “It was a city with people from all over the Babylonian empire and beyond: Medes from western Iran, Judeans from the Levant, Egyptians, and others, rubbed shoulders with Babylonians and other long-term residents of the region. Many still spoke their native languages – ‘a confusion of tongues’– and probably wore their distinctive dress. City quarters with people of diverse origins existed, each with their own atmosphere, smells, and sounds. This is a Babylon we can only imagine” (Van de Mierrop 2003, p. 273).
6 6 i.e., the Book of Revelation.
7 7 Seymour 2014, Chapter 3: “Tyrants and wonders: The biblical and classical sources”.
8 8 The episode of the fall of Jerusalem is the theme of the German film Jeremias (1922). About its plot, vide Horak 2005, pp. 29–30.
9 9 Reinhartz refers to the common use in biblical films of familiar illustrations from the Bible such as those by Gustave Doré or by James Tissot (Reinhartz 2013a, p. 25).
10 10 Born William Schloss, from a Jewish family.
11 11 We should also bear in mind that the Star of David is a symbol present in the flag of the State of Israel, founded only five years before the shooting of the film in question. We will discuss this in Chapter 7.
12 12 2 Chron. 36, 20.
13 13 2 Kings 25, 29. Vide also Jer. 52, 32.
14 14 Although he may be a composite figure and although he was also a captive, prophet Daniel himself circulated freely within the king’s court. As his Book attests, he won the trust of the monarch. He and his colleagues “they entered the royal service” (Dan. 1, 19). As a dream interpreter, he was certainly in close proximity to the king. So, it is likely that Daniel had the right to enter the palace to give information to the him on matters regarding divination and the welfare of Jews (Wiseman 1991, 98).
15 15 Geographical name that must correspond to the area of ancient Sumer.
16 16 Gen. 11, 4.
17 17 Montero 2010b and 2011.
18 18 From the Sumerian “Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”.
19 19
