Nitokris (1)Nitocris

One of the two women mentioned by Herodotus as a queen of the city Babylon.

Nitokris was noted for the extensive alterations to the Euphrates River; she dramatically changed the course of the river and created swamps and a large lake as protection against invasion from the west; she bridged the Euphrates so the citizens of Babylon no longer had to use ferryboats to go from one portion of the city to the other.

Nitokris also revealed her sense of humor by placing her tomb over one of the gates to the city; she put an inscription on the tomb saying that any future king of Babylon who lacked money should open the tomb and take whatever they desired BUT if anyone opened the tomb needlessly, they would be cursed; the tomb laid undisturbed until the time of the Persian king, Darius; he had refused to use the gate which was roofed by the tomb because he thought it would be bad luck to do so; for reasons of pure greed, he opened the tomb and found only the dead body of Nitokris and an inscription saying that only a person who was “insatiate of wealth and basely desirous of gain” would disturb the dead.

The other woman that Herodotus mentioned as a queen of Babylon was named Semiramis and she ruled five generations before Nitokris.

• Histories, book 1, chapters 184-188