Born: Unknown (600s BCE), Turkey
Died: Unknown (600s BCE)
Country most active: Turkey
Also known as: Serua-etirat, Šeru’a-eṭirat
This biography was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Another powerful woman in the same family was Serua-eterat, the eldest daughter of Esarhaddon and older sister to Ashurbanipal. She is the only one of Esarhaddon’s daughters known by name as she appears in lists concerning festivals along with her brothers. Despite being a woman, and therefore regarded as of less worth than a male, she is listed third after Ashurbanipal (heir apparent) and his younger brother who was to rule Babylon but above her other brothers, suggesting she held high rank at court. Like her grandmother, she seems to have wielded considerable power and is best known for a letter chastising her sister-in-law (wife of Ashurbanipal) for laziness in study and risking bringing shame on the family by being uneducated.