Ninos
Ninos is the mythical eponymous founder of the city of Nineveh in Assyria and personifies this city. His name is not mentioned in the documents of the ancient Orient ; accordingly, the legends around him seem to be a later invention to explain the name Nineveh, i.e. an etiology . Ninos is attested exclusively in works of Greek and Latin literature of antiquity, where his reign often marked the beginning of world history. He is often identified with the biblical hero Nimrod .
overview
Diodor named Ninos as the founder of the city of Nineveh (Ninos). He is said to have been the son of Belos or Bels ( Ba'al ), the mythical founder of Babylon . With the help of King Ariaios of Arabia, Ninos conquered all of Western Asia within 17 years and thus founded the first great empire in world history. During the siege of Baktra , Ninos Semiramis , the wife of Onnes, met one of his officers, from whom he took it and married her himself. Both children were ninyas . After Ninos' death, Semiramis built a mausoleum for him near Babylon, nine stadiums high and ten stadiums wide. Another son is Trebeta , who is only mentioned in the post-ancient tradition. After Ninos' death, Semiramis ruled first, then Ninyas.
Diodorus used the no longer extant work of Ktesias of Knidos as a source , who apparently went into relatively extensive detail on the mythical ruler Ninos. Herodotus mentioned a ninos as the grandson of Belos in his histories , but did not report on the founding of the city and nothing of the legendary stories that are told by Ktesias. Ktesias appears to have served as the primary source for subsequent historians.
According to Castor of Rhodes (handed down by the Byzantine chronicler Georgios Synkellos ), Ninos ruled for 52 years, according to Ktesias from 2189 BC. BC Strabo (Geographika 16, 2) also knows Ninos as the husband of Semiramis. He founded the city of Ninos in Aturia (Ninive). His successors were Semiramis, Sardanapal and Arbakes. In the Historia adversus paganos by the late antique Christian author Orosius , Ninos is also portrayed as the one who was the first person to instigate wars and pursue expansion policies and thus usher in the decline of human development.
According to biblical tradition, Nimrod was the founder of Nineveh ( Genesis 10, 8-10), Semiramis is considered his wife according to rabbinical tradition.
The modern state theorist Jean Bodin saw Nimrod, "whom many call Ninos" , as the first despotic king in world history and the originator of the monarchical state (Six Books on the Republic, Book 2.2).
One in the 1st or 2nd century BC The novel to be dated BC, which deals with the love of Ninos and Semiramis, has been preserved in the form of two papyrus fragments (Pap. Berol. 6926 and PSI 1305). The campaign of Ninos against Armenia is also described in detail. This text, known as the Ninos novel, is the oldest surviving example of its genre.
More name bearers
Another Ninos, successor to Sardanapal , is named as the last king of Nineveh.
literature
- Ernst Friedrich Weidner : Ninos 2. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVII, 1, Stuttgart 1936, Col. 634 f.
- Friedrich Wilhelm König (ed.): The Persika of Ktesias of Knidos . Graz 1972, p. 34 ff. (Studies on Ninos; the fragments are also collected in ibid., P. 126 ff.)
- AR Millard: Ninos . In: Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Aräologie . Volume 9. Berlin 2001, p. 479 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ernst Friedrich Weidner: Ninos 2. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen antiquity science (RE). Volume XVII, 1, Stuttgart 1936, Sp. 634-635, here Sp. 634.
- ↑ Orosius, Historia adversus paganos 1,4.