(Νιτῶκρις).

1. A queen of Babylon, mentioned by Herodotus, who ascribes to her many important works at Babylon and its vicinity. According to his account she changed the course of the river above Babylon, built up with bricks the sides of the river at the city, and also threw a bridge across the river. He also relates that she was buried above one of the city gates, and that her tomb was opened by Dareius. (Hdt. 1.185_189.) Who this Nitocris was has occasioned great dispute among modern writers, and is as uncertain as almost all other points connected with the early history of the East. Since Herodotus (1.185) speaks of her as queen, shortly after the capture of Ninus or Nineveh by the Medes, which is placed in B. C. 606, it is supposed by most modern writers that she was the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, who began to reign in B. C. 604, and the mother or grandmother of Labynetus or Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. See Clinton, F. H. vol. i. p. 278, note f, who brings forward some other arguments in support of this opinion.