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DUMUZID

DUMUZID

Later known by the alternate for Tammuz, Dumuzid is an ancient Mesopotamian god of shepherds. In Sumerian mythology, Dumuzid's sister was Geshtinanna, the goddess of vegetation. In the Sumerian King List, Dumuzid is listed as an antediluvian king of the city of Bad-tibira and also an early king of the city of Uruk. In the Sumerian poem Inanna Prefers the Farmer, Dumuzid competes against the farmer Enkimdu for Inanna's hand in marriage. In Inanna's Descent into the Underworld, Dumuzid fails to mourn Inanna's death and, when she returns from the Underworld, she allows the galla demons to drag him down to the Underworld as her replacement.

Inanna later regrets this decision and decrees that Dumuzid will spend half the year in the Underworld, but the other half the year with her, while his sister Geshtinanna stays in the Underworld in his place, thus resulting in the cycle of the seasons.

Gilgamesh references Tammuz in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh as one of Ishtar's past lovers, who was turned into an allalu bird with a broken wing. Dumuzid was associated with fertility and vegetation and the hot, dry summers of Mesopotamia were believed to be caused by Dumuzid's yearly death. During the month in midsummer being his name, people all across Mesopotamia would engage in public, ritual mourning for him.

During the late twentieth century, scholars widely thought that, during the Sumerian Akitu festival, kings may have established their legitimacy by taking on the role of Dumuzid and engaging in ritualized sexual intercourse with the high priestess of Inanna as part of a sacred marriage ceremony. This notion is now generally rejected by scholars as a misinterpretation of Sumerian literally texts. The cult of Dumuzid was later spread to the Levant and to Greece, where he became known under the West Semitic, name Adonis.

The cult of Ishtar and Tammuz continued to thrive until the eleventh century AD and survived the parts of Mesopotamia as late as the eighteenth century. Tammuz is mentioned by name in the Book of Ezekiel and possibly alluded to in other passages from the Hebrew Bible. Additionally, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem may have been built over one of his shrines. Tammuz appears as one of Satan's demon in John Milton's Paradise Lost.

In late nineteenth and early twentieth century scholarship of religion, Tammuz was widely seen as a prime example of the archetypal dying-andrising god, but the discovery of the full Sumerian text of Inanna's Descent in the mid-twentieth century disproved the previous scholarly assumption that the narrative ended with Dumuzid's resurrection and instead revealed that it ended with Dumuzid's death. The existence of the "dying-and-rising god" archetype has been largely rejected by modern scholars.

— WORSHIP
Dumuzid's cult was described as "complex and bewildering". Believed to be the provider of milk, which was a rare, seasonal commodity in ancient Sumer due to the fact that it could not easily be stored with spoiling. In addition to being the god of shepherds, Dumuzid was also an agricultural deity associated with the growth of plants. Ancient Near Eastern peoples associated Dumuzid with the springtime, when the land was fertile and abundant, but, during the summer months, when the land was dry and barren, it was thought that Dumuzid had "died." During the month of Dumuzid, which fell in the middle of summer, people all across Sumer would mourn over his death. This seems to have been the primary aspect of his cult. In Lagash, the month of Dumuzid was the sixth month of the year. This month and the holiday associated with it was later transmitted from the Sumerians to Babylonians and the other East Semitic people. A ritual associated with Ekur temple in Nippur equates Dumuzid with the snake-god Istaran, who in that ritual, is described as having died.

Dumuzid was also identified with the god Ama-ušumgal-ana, who was originally a local god worshiped in the city of Lagash. In some texts, Ama-ušumgal-ana is described as a heroic warrior. As Ama-ušumgal-ana, Dumuzid is associated with the date palm and its fruits. This aspect of Dumuzid's cult was always joyful in character and had no associations with the darker stories involving his death. To ancient Mesopotamian peoples, the date palm represented stability, because it was one of the few crops that could be harvested all year, even during the dry season. In some Sumerian poems, Dumuzid is referred to as "my Damu", which means "my son". The name is usually applied to him in his role as the personification of the power that causes the sap to rise in trees and plants. Damu is the name most closely associated with Dumuzid's return in autumn after the dry season has ended. This aspect of his cult emphasized the fear and exhaustion of the community after surviving the devastating summer.

Dumuzid had virtually no power outside of his distinct realm of responsibilities. Very few prayers addressed to him an extant and, of those that are, almost all of them are simply requests for him to provide more milk, more grain, more cattle, etc. The sole exception to this rule is a single Assyrian inscription in which a man request that, when he descends to the Underworld, he should take with him a troublesome ghost who has been to the Underworld, he should take with him a troublesome ghost who has been haunting him. The cult of Dumuzid was particularly associated with women, who were the ones responsible for mourning his death. The custom of planting miniature gardens with fast-growing plants such as lettuce and fennel, which would then be placed out in the hot sun to sprout before withering in the heat. The same women that mourned his death also prepraed cakes for Inanna. These cakes would be baked in ashes and several clay cake molds discovered at Mari, Syria revealing that they were also sometimes shaped like naked women.

— MARRIAGE TO INANNA
In the poem Inanna Prefers the Farmer it begins with a playful conversation between Inanna and her brother Utu, who reveals to her it is time for her to marry. Dumuzid comes to court her, along with a farmer named Enkimdu. At first, Inanna prefers the farmer, but Utu and Dumuzid gradually persuade her that Dumuzid is the better choice for a husband, arguing that, for every gift the farmer can give her, the shepherd can give her something even better. In the end, Inanna marries Dumuzid. The shepherd and the the farmer reconcile their differences, offering each other gifts. There are a vast number of erotic love poems celebrating the consummation of Inanna and Dumuzid.