uence over
the impressionable King Ninus, that she persuaded him to proclaim her
Queen of Assyria for five days. She then ascended the throne decked in
royal robes. On the first day she gave a great banquet, and on the
second thrust Ninus into prison, or had him put to death. In this
manner she secured the empire for herself. She reigned for over forty
years.

Professor Frazer inclines to the view that the legend is a
reminiscence of the custom of appointing a mock king and queen to whom
the kingdom was yielded up for five days. Semiramis played the part of
the mother goddess, and the priestly king died a violent death in the
character of her divine lover. "The mounds of Semiramis which were
pointed out all over Western Asia were said to have been the graves of
her lovers whom she buried alive.... This tradition is one of the
surest indications of the identity of the mythical Semiramis with the
Babylonian goddess Ishtar or Astarte."[469] As we have seen, Ishtar
and other mother goddesses had many lovers whom they deserted like La
Belle Dame sans Merci (pp. 174-175).

As Queen of Assyria, Semiramis was said to have cut roads through
mountainous districts and erected many buildings. According to one
version of the legend she founded the city of Babylon. Herodotus,
however, says in this connection: "Semiramis held the throne for five
generations before the later princess (Nitocris).... She raised
certain embankments, well worthy of inspection, in the plain near
Babylon, to control the river (Euphrates), which, till then, used to
overflow and flood the whole country round about."[470] Lucian, who
associates the famous queen with "mighty works in Asia", states that
she was reputed by some to be the builder of the ancient temple of
Aphrodite in the Libanus, although others credited it to Cinyras, or
Deukalion.[471] Several Median places bear her name, and according to
ancient Armenian tradition she was the founder of Van, which was
formerly called "Shamiramagerd". Strabo tells that unidentified
mountains in Western Asia were named after Semiramis.[472] Indeed,
many of the great works in the Tigro-Euphrates valley, not excepting
the famous inscription of Darius, were credited to the legendary queen
of Babylonia and Assyria.[473] She was the rival in tradition of the
famous Sesostris of Egypt as a ruler, builder, and conqueror.

All the military expeditions of Semiramis were attended with success,
except her invasion of Ind