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| Heinrich Petri (printer) Queen Semiramis on a Rearing Horse ca. 1544-52 woodcut (book illustration) British Museum |
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| Gilles Rousselet (figure) and Abraham Bosse (background) Sémiramis ca. 1639-40 etching and engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Stefano della Bella Semiramis before 1664 etching Harvard Art Museums |
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| Guercino Semiramis receiving news of the Babylonian Revolt 1645 oil on canvas private collection |
SEMIRAMIS (ca. 800 BC) – a famous Assyrian princess, round whose personality a mass of legend has accumulated. . . . The legends ran as follows: Semiramis was the daughter of the fish-goddess Atargatis, of Ascalon in Syria, and was miraculously preserved by doves, who fed her until she was found and brought up by Simmas, the royal shepherd. Afterwards she married Onnes, one of the generals of Ninus, who was so struck by her bravery at the capture of Bactra that he married her, after Onnes had committed suicide. Ninus died, and Semiramis, succeeding to his power, traversed all parts of the empire, erecting great cities (especially Babylon) and stupendous monuments, or opening roads through savage mountains. She was unsuccessful only in an attack on India. At length, after a reign of forty-two years, she delivered up the kingdom to her son Ninyas, and disappeared, or, according to what seems to be the original form of the story, was turned into a dove and was thenceforth worshipped as a deity.
– from the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
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| Guercino Semiramis receiving news of the Babylonian Revolt ca. 1645 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Guercino Semiramis receiving news of the Babylonian Revolt 1624 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Guercino Semiramis receiving news of the Babylonian Revolt 1624 drawing Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Giacinto Gimignani Semiramis taking up her spear to quell the Babylonian Revolt 1647 etching British Museum |
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| Elias van Nijmegen Semiramis donning Arms before 1755 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Pietro da Cortona Oath of Semiramis before 1669 oil on copper Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Giuseppe Passeri Triumph of Semiramis before 1714 drawing British Museum |
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| Edgar Degas Semiramis building Babylon 1861 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Sonnet
Be still. The Hanging Gardens were a dream
That over Persian roses flew to kiss
The curlèd lashes of Semiramis.
Troy never was, nor green Skamander stream.
Provence and Troubadour are merest lies,
The glorious hair of Venice was a beam
Made within Titian's eye. The sunsets seem,
The world is very old and nothing is.
Be still. Thou foolish thing, thou canst not wake,
Nor thy tears wedge thy soldered lids apart,
But patter in the darkness of thy heart.
Thy brain is plagued. Thou art a frighted owl
Blind with the light of life thou 'ldst not forsake,
And Error loves and nourishes thy soul.
– Trumbull Stickney (1902)
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| Anonymous Painter Semiramis oil on panel undated Hampshire County Council Fine Art Collection, Winchester |
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| Richard Bullingham Lady Alice Maud de Trafford as Semiramis, Queen of Assyria at the Devonshire House Fancy Dress Ball, 2 July 1897 photogravure 1897 British Museum |