by Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:48 am
Salvete
Tammuz/ Dumuzi
Tammuz or Tamuz, Tammūz; Sumerian Dumuzid or Dumuzi 'legal son' who was the dying and rising shepherd god in Sumerian religion) – (See also Tammuz (month).)
Dumuzi first appears in economic texts from Shuruppak (Old Sumerian period). In the god-lists and in personal names from the same time, however, he is known as "ama.usum.gal (na.na), 'the mother is a heavenly dragon'. The Sumerian King List mentions two Dumuzis, one as the "shepherd", who eventually became king of antediluvial Babtibira, the other as a fisher, who eventually ruled over Uruk. Unfortunately, there are no other historical references to these kings. Dumuzi as a divine figure was associated with Babtibira, as well as Kullaba (within the district of Uruk) This is documented by the Temple Hymns and other cultic texts from Uruk. During the Neo-Sumerian period the god was frequently mentioned in votive inscriptions, hymns and other literary and religious texts. The kings of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur showed a predilection for the religious and literary traditions of Uruk and seem to have identified themselves with Dumuzi in his role of Inanna´s consort. After the Old Babylonian period, Dumuzi appears only rarely in Mesopotamian. Because of the importance of agriculture in South Mesopotamia especially in the 4th Millennium BCE, it is quite understandable the worship of powers of fertility, of which Dumuzi is a prominent deity. Thorkild Jacobsen, in “The Treasures of Darkness” says that "the cult of Dumuzi the Shepherd (Uruk, fourth millennium BC) "comprises both happy celebration of the marriage of the god with Inanna (who, originally, it seems, was the goddess of the communal storehouse) and bitter laments when he dies as the dry heat of summer yellows the pastures and lambing, calving, and milking come to an end. Thus, as the farmer, he helps to make the fields fertile, as the shepherd, he helps to make the sheepfolds multiply, under his reign there is vegetation, under his reign, there is rich grain.
Ritual Mourning
In Babylonian, the month was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, which originated from the Akkadian shepherd-god Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Ishtar and the parallel of Adonis in the Greek pantheon. The name Tammuz seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid. The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. Beginning with the summer solstice, it was a time of mourning in ancient times: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours with a six-day "funeral" for the god (see Ezekiel 8:14).
The Myth
In the Sumerian King List Dumuzi the Fisherman appears as the third king of the first dynasty of Uruk, reigning between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh the son of Lugalbanda, a situation not explained in extant texts. Nor is it explained why in other texts Dumuzid is always a shepherd, not a fisherman. The king list does list a Dumuzid the shepherd the fifth of the kings who reigned in Eridu before the flood. But Eridu, surrounded by freshwater marshes, is exactly where one would expect a fisherman and not a shepherd.
The pattern of the Dumuzi´s cycle and cult in Mesopotamia, in brief, is the following: courtship and wedding to Inanna, the Great Goddess of Love and War, when both consorts are young and represent the power of nature to produce new fruits. The ritual marriage of Inanna to the shepherd king Dumuzi as a Sacred Rite or Hieros Gamos is one of the highlights of the Sumerian sacred calendar. Dumuzi ( the Shepherd King ) is actually mentioned as the fifth king on the king lists of Sumer. He is also referred to as Dumuzzi-Absu of the abyss, god of freshest and running waters, and the heavenly shepherd of the stars.
Dumuzi has to overcome some problems to woo the young Goddess, because Inanna does not accept him first, having to be persuaded by Utu, the Sun god and Inanna´s brother, who supports Dumuzi, and encouraged by her mother Ningal, the Moon Goddess of Ur. But when the Maiden Goddess encounters the young Royal Shepherd, they fall in love with each other, with the echoing fullness of pastoral fecundity. Indeed, we can say that the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi is the very love song of creation, which fills the earth with the burgeoning splendour of life.
In any case, a number of poems and songs relate the love affair of Inana and Dumuzid the shepherd. Apparently they marry. Then Inana (called Ishtar in the Akkadian texts) for reasons not really explained, set off for the netherworld, for Kur, which was ruled by her sister Ereshkigal, perhaps to take it as her own. Inana/Ishtar passed through seven gates and at each one was required to leave a garment or an ornament so that when Inana/Ishtar had passed through the seventh gate she was entirely naked. Despite warnings about her presumption, Inana/Ishtar did not turn back but dared to sit herself down on Ereshkigal's throne. Immediately the Anunaki of the underworld judged her, gazed at her with the eyes of death, and Inana/Ishtar became a corpse.
Inana's faithful servant attempted to get help from the other gods but only wise Enki/Ea responded. The details of Enki/Ea's plan differ slightly in the two accounts but the end is that Inana/Ishtar lived again. But a "conservation of souls" law required her to find a replacement for herself in Kur. She went from one god to another, but each one pleaded with her and she had not the heart to go through with it until she found Dumuzid/Tammuz on her throne, apparently quite pleased that she was gone. Inana/Ishtar immediately set the demons on Dumuzid/Tammuz. At this point the Akkadian text fails as Tammuz sister Belili, introduced for the first time, strips herself of her jewelry in mourning but claims that Tammuz and the dead will come back.
An Older Interpretion
Based on the texts first found, it was almost universally assumed that Ishtar/Inana's descent into Kur occurred after the death of Tammuz/Dumuzid rather than before and that her purpose was to rescue Tammuz/Dumuzid. Though new texts uncovered in 1963 filled in the story in quite another fashion the old interpretation still lingers on.
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Quintus
Quintus Aurelius Orcus
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