the barbarian Other” (Cartledge 2002, p. 77). Hence, we must bear in mind that although the Greek historian accepted the existence of a “shared humanity” between Greeks and Persians, there were different political and cultural conceptions that profoundly differentiated them leading to a discourse about otherness.54 54 Cartledge 2002, p. 54.
55 55 Said 1993, p. 16.
56 56 Hdt. Hist., 1.196.
57 57 The Mesopotamian goddess that equates her is Inanna/Ishtar.
58 58 Hdt. Hist., 1.199.
59 59 Idem, 1.199.2.
60 60 Kuhrt 1995a, p. 58.
61 61 Xenophon says that “Babylon was accustomed to drink and revel all night long” (Xen. Cyr., 7. 15). The statement shows the bohemian spirit of Babylonian society.
62 62 Berossus’s three-volume work is only known through secondary sources such as Flavius Josephus or Eusebius of Caesarea.
63 63 Berossus was an Hellenistic Babylonian priest of the third century BC. He wrote a work on Babylon, dedicated to Antiochus I, having consulted sources available at the Esagil (the temple of Marduk), as well as at other temples and royal archives in the city of the Euphrates.
64 64 Beaulieu 2006, p. 133.
65 65 idem, 137.
66 66 Stephanie Dalley advances the hypothesis that the hanging gardens correspond to the description presented in the prism of Sennacherib, now on display at The British Museum, and therefore were located in the former Assyrian capital of Nineveh (Dalley 2013b, pp. 61 and ff.).
67 67 The Old Testament also mentions a character that we can identify with a ruler from ancient Mesopotamia, perhaps Ashurbanipal, in the excerpt which recalls the peoples with “whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at such a time” (Ezra 4, 10).
68 68 In the character Sardanapalus it is possible to find traces of different monarchs: Ashurbanipal, one of the most powerful monarchs of Assyria, Shamash-shumu-ukin, who died in a fire, and Sîn-shar-ishkun, one of the last monarchs of the neo-Assyrian empire, who was on the throne when Nineveh fell (Lenfant 2001, p. 45, n. 3, Schmiesing 2015, p. 1).
69 69 Although the name Semiramis seems to evidence a misrepresentation of the anthroponym Sammu-ramat (Novotny 2002, pp. 1083–1084), the wife of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad V, it is possible that traces of other well-known women make up this legendary character. Sammu-ramat’s role was preeminent after the death of her husband and during the minority of her son, Adad-nirari III. In this period, she assumed the regency of the empire (from c. 810 to 805 a.C.). Her importance is evident in issues such as the officialization of territorial agreements, the recognition by her peers, the political campaigns in which she participated, the dedications made to her (Siddall 2014). On the other hand, Dalley considers that it is possible to observe in the actions carried out by Ninus, sovereign with whom, according to the classics, she married, references to the governments of Sargon II and Sennacherib. Therefore, Semiramis may also be associated with their wives, Atalya and Naq’ia respectively (Dalley, 2005).
70 70 Pomarè 2014, p. 261. Byron said, in a letter dated to 13 January 1821: “Sketched the outline and Drams. Pers. of an intended tragedy of Sardanapalus, which I have for some time meditated. Took the names from Diodorus Siculus (I know the history of Sardanapalus, and have known it since I was twelve years old,) and read over a passage in the ninth vol. octavo of Mitford’s Greece, where he rather vindicates the memory of this last of the Assyrians” (Chew 1915, pp. 104–105).
71 71 Piffaut 2015, p. 53.
72 72 According to Polyene, Semiramis stated that “la nature m’a fait naître femme, mais j’ai égalé par mês actions les hommes les plus courageux” (Polyaenus 1994, Strat., VIII 26).
73 73 Juv. Sta, X 361–362.
74 74 Pol., 1312a.
75 75 Arbaces/Arbace is a character who is later transposed to the opera librettos and who also appears in the cinema, played by Giancarlo Sbragia in Le sette folgori di Assur (1962).
76 76 Belesys was also transposed to the European stages where popular tragedies were staged under the name of Beleso or Beleses. However, he did not reach the cinema.
77 77 At the time when Ctesias wrote his account, the vision that Persian rulers did nothing more than abandon themselves to the pleasures of the senses was in vogue among the Athenians. It was a way of emphasizing the decay of the East (Lenfant 2001, p. 49).
78 78 Although his work Persica is lost, it is reproduced by Diodorus Siculus (1933).
79 79 The future representations of the queen wearing male clothes were born from this reference.
80 80 It is possible that the name Ninus is related to the toponym Nineveh (Dalley 2013a, p. 121).
81 81 Diod. Sic., 2.13.
82 82 Just. Epit., 1.2.
83 83 According to authors like Plutarch, Cleopatra also represented everything that Western women (in this case, Roman women) should not be (Arciniega 2000, p. 149). Over time, Cleopatra has become the prototype of the femme fatale (Pucci 2003, pp. 621–622).
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