Page:Herodotus and the Empires of the East.djvu/57

monarchs of that epoch: Nebuchadrezar (presumably under the name Nabû-na'id) and the real Nabû-na'id. In this way we can most easily explain the fact that Herodotus causes a Labynetos to follow that Labynetos in whose reign the great buildings were constructed. It is harder to understand how Herodotus could have given to the wife of Nebuchadrezar, who was called Amytis and was a Mede, the name Nitocris, and have ascribed to her such great buildings. Is Nitocris a corruption of Nabû-kudurri-uṣur (Nebuchadrezar)? In that case the two names Labynetos and Nitocris have a common origin. Nikel regards the situation as follows: Nebuchadrezar's wife exercised a great influence during the reign of her husband. The marriage with the daughter of the Median king was a political event of great importance. It was to please Amytis that Nebuchadrezar, as Berossus relates, built the "hanging gardens." The memory of that influential queen must have lived among the people as did the name of Nebuchadrezar, whose reign lasted forty-three years. While the name of the great king recalled important political events, the name of the queen was associated with those great buildings in whose construction she had taken so prominent a part. Hence we may suppose that the voucher of Herodotus, relying on popular tradition, associated a queen with the erection of the great works of Babylon. The name Nitocris, which does not seem to be of Semitic origin, may be the result of a corruption. Although the etymology of the first part of the word (Nito=Nabû?) is doubtful, yet the third syllable cris may be the mutilation of the second and third members of the compound Nabukudurri-uṣur (Nebuchadrezar), since in making foreign