Marla Vendret

Part two: The Cosmic Cycle of Death & Rebirth

The Myth of Inanna and Dumuzi 

(Revised)

The earliest recorded mythos of a deity who held the power of death and resurrection was the Sumerian earth mother goddess Inanna (translated “Lady of Heaven.”) She held the position of a prestigious Mesopotamian goddess until the end of the Babylonian age. She was associated with celestial light in the form of  stars and planets, but known most prominently as daughter of the Moon, born of Nanna and Ningal (the male and female moon).

She was paired with a subordinate male deity known as Dumuzi. These were the archetype for what would become a familiar theme in religious cult that spread across the Middle East, the ritual and cult of the dying and resurrecting god/dess. Inanna and Dumuzi reoresented the cosmic fertilizing powers of Earth. Mesopotamia had other resurrecting deities, but theirs eventually assimilated into the more popular cult of Uruk when the ruling powers settled there. Over time the Sumerians created a well – developed ritual of prayers, liturgy, song, dance, and public drama enacting the myth of the dying and resurrecting god; including lamentation, self-mutilation, and ecstatic behavior. Other cultures share many similar elements of this cult, which will be evident as this series continues.

Sumer lies in the alluvial valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient Iraq. Due to its harsh desert environment Sumer is dependent upon the rivers for their water supply. As a result, the area is crisscrossed with irrigation canals built over hundreds of years in which to support the growing population with its agriculture and livestock. In the Sumerian City State of Uruk (biblical Erech) the temple of Inanna was discovered and excavated in 1955-1962. Her temple Eanna, "the House of Heaven" is of mud-brick construction and measures very large at 30x30 meters. Its central shrine or holy of holies would have housed a statue of the goddess. The cultic duties were carried out by sacred priestesses and eunuchs who devoted their lives to her service.

During its early period Sumer consisted of several city states each independent and sustained by the local economy. Their patron deities reflected the geography of each city; grasslands that supported livestock, marshland and rivers that supported waterfowl, fish, reeds, and trade routes, or deserts, forests, highlands, lowlands, farmlands that depended on agriculture, orchards, etc. Due to vast differences in the Mesopotamian landscape the great goddess Inanna and her son/lover/brother Dumuzi took on a variety of roles in Sumerian/Babylonian myth; they were worshipped throughout the region. She may have been shepherdess and he shepherd, she sea dragon and he irrigation canals, she celestial cow and he the bull, she storehouse and he the date palm, or he the cereals and grains, the beer, the cedar tree, the sap of trees and vines, and so on. The litergy of the annual lamentation ritual for Inanna or Dumuzi appears conflicting, many reasons being that the cult was spread throughout the region.  There is the expanse of time in history, the individual city in question, the ruling powers, and because they were known by other names make it all the more confusing for us. Ritual became centralized during the Akkadian and Babylonian period when these city states were more populated and unified under a central power.

 Inanna was Sumer's Great Mother Goddess for most of its history. She encompassed the divine feminine as Earth Womb who gives birth to all life, and the destroyer who brings death; the duality that brings nature into balance. She sacrificed her life and that of her son/lover in order to bring forth new life in a seasonal journey of death and regeneration. Her contradictory behavior reflects nature itself, raw, uncompromising, unforgiving, and even cruel.

Inanna also known as Ishtar, was not an archetypical goddess; she crossed all boundaries of civilized society. She was a goddess of contradictions. She embodied the complexity of the human psyche, all the secrets that lie hidden just out view. Inanna was the Great Earth Mother Goddess who gives birth to all life yet, she was not a mother in the typical sense, nor did she manage a home; she did not weave cloth, tend a garden, or perform any other tasks related a proper woman in Sumerian society. She was the original perpetual virgin, although tablets and plaques describe her many escapades of unbridled sexuality. She was terrifying in her warrior aspect as one who "smashes heads,"  depicted as wielding weapons of war. She blurred the very foundation of societies' gender roles. Yet, she presided over marriage and the home.

 Inanna was the lover, wife, and mother of the shepherd god Dumuzi, but was not subject to him; she belonged to no one. In the poem "Inanna's Descent into the Underworld" she condemned him to the underworld when she found him sitting on her throne in Uruk dressed in royal garb during her imprisonment in the underworld; she obviously owned the power, not he. The kings of Sumer/Babylon were symbolically wedded to her; she being the queen of the current reigning king. Inanna did as she pleased and the descriptions of her "wanderings" were related to that of the demons; she waited in the taverns and went about at night. She could be considered as the undomesticated woman/wife; a femme fatale. She described herself as a prostitute in various poems, the protectress of prostitutes, and transcended the gender line, as she was said to turn men into women and women into men. Most recognized as goddess of love, war, and sexuality, she was worshipped by men as well as women. She was the antithesis of the good wife and mother; that was the point, she was the representation of human paradox and the contradictions found in nature.

Dumuzi was the son, lover, and brother of the Great Earth Mother Goddess. He was the embodiment of her creative energy. She gave him life, took him a lover, killed him, and then mourned his death. In the Dumuzi myths he was recognized by several  names, all reflective of his purpose and power. Together the deities of Inanna and Dumuzi brought to the Sumerians the promise of fertility and harvest in a series of annual rituals commemorated on the clay tablets that tell their stories.

The story of Inanna's journey into the underworld was discovered from a poem consisting of some 410 lines, written on clay tablets dating approx. 4600 years ago; 2600 BCE. By the time these stories were imprinted on clay they had evolved and changed over many years. Therefore, the stories themselves are much older than the date when they were written. Sumer is given the historical significance of being the origin of the written language. In the long poem of Inanna's descent the Great Goddess of Heaven and Earth surrendered her celestial and earthly creative powers when she made the decision to descend into the world below. Myth points out that the  rules of the upper realm do not apply in the underworld. The story begins when Inanna intentionally descends into the underworld passing through a series of seven gates in which she is ritually stripped naked before entering each successive one, until arriving in the throne room of the Queen of the Underworld, her sister Ereshkigal, and vulnerable she stands before her as a criminal. She is judged by a jury and pronounced guilty of an unnamed crime, killed, and hung from a peg for three days and nights while the cities above lament her death. Through divine intervention her corpse is revived by the sprinkling of the bread and water of life, and flanked by demons Inanna ascends most terrifying from the Underworld. Here is a link to the story:

 Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld: Translation 

Inanna claims that her reason for entering the land of the dead was to witness the funeral rites of her brother-in-law, Gulgalanna, the “Great Bull of Heaven.”  This may have once been a representation of the spring zodiacal sign of Taurus moving/dying and entering into Gemini, or it losing its place to the 'era-changing' spring sign of Taurus into Aries. Symbolically, the new era becomes the conqueror of the previous era and its "god;" (El, the bull god, fell before the Ram which, in turn, fell before the fish of Pisces). Once Inanna enters the throne room of Ereshkigal, no more is mentioned about the matter. One version of the myth is that Inanna had secretly planned to usurp the throne from her sister, thereby becoming the new Queen of the Underworld. None of these came to pass as Inanna did not witness Gulgalanna’s funeral, nor did she take the throne from her sister, instead she was struck dead and hung from a peg. Jacobsen makes the comment that as Inanna was crouched naked before Ereshkigal she had become like the dead ancients who were physically buried naked in a crouched position. Inanna is dead, but what happened to the world above during her absence?

As the myth evolved over time, her lover “the shepherd” Dumuzi was added to the story as her substitute in the Underworld. The poem ends as Inanna decrees that Dumuzi will divide half the year with his sister Geshtinanna in the Underworld.

As the story continues; Inanna did not emerge from the Underworld alone (translated by N. K. Sandars) 

Devils are fastened to her thighs, devils walk beside her, meager like reeds, thin as pikestaves.

Once in the Underworld or “Land- of –No- Return” no one can leave, so Inanna had to find a substitute to take her place

 ‘Who has ever returned out of hell unharmed? To escape the pit alive she must leave another who shall wait in her place.’

She made her choice; she sacrificed her lover. Twice they captured and viciously tortured Dumuzi, but he escaped the demons with the help of the gods. They were unrelenting in their quest; he was eventually captured when they found him sleeping in the sacred sheep-fold.

For on him Inanna has fastened the eyes of death, she has spoken the sentence of the accused, she has uttered the cry of the accursed ‘As for that one, carry him off!’...By the sacred shippon devils seize Dumuzi, they surround him now they have got him; they seize and stare him down. They go at him with axes, slashing his thighs with knives, they press in close around him.

Ironically, at this point Inanna becomes the weeping lover searching for her beloved.[ii]

I will call the hills and valleys, I will call the hill of the bison, ‘Where is the young man my husband? …He is dead and has left me, my husband…..My heart is piping grief for him in the wilderness.

His sister seeks him:

The sister, for the sake of her brother, tore around the city like a circling bird. “Let me go to my brother so ill used! I will enter any household!”

And his mother weeps for him.

Oh the agony she bears, shuddering in the wilderness, she is the mother suffering so much… The agony, the agony she bears…

There can be no answer to her desolate calling…

The text ends: (Jacobsen, 1987)

So now, by Inanna’s determining conditions, thus it verily is. Dumuzi broke into tears thereat: “My sister has come, she has been given into their hands together with me! Alas now! Her life is lost! (To which Inanna seems to answer:) You half a year only. When you demand it she will spend the days in question. When your sister demands it you will spend the days in question. Holy Inanna was giving Dumuzi as substitute for herself.

Oh holy Ereshkigala! Praise of you is sweet!

It is interesting to note that at the end of the poem it is not Inanna who was praised, but the Queen of the Underworld, possibly because Ereshkigal allowed Inanna to ascend from her realm of death, albeit on condition of a substitute.  At an earlier date in Sumer's past Erishkigal ruled above as the Grain Goddess, but was exiled to the world below along with her husband Gulgalanna, the Great Bull; a result of the spring sign of Taurus moving into Aries elevating the Ram to life's energy, i.e. god. It is very likely that her cult survived and she continued to be worshipped as did other underworld goddesses such as Hecate and Persephone. Considering Inanna is connected with the moon, it is also possible that Ereshkigal and Inanna are one and the same; the unified "faces" of the great  Mother (Baring,) two aspects of the same deity, one being light, the other darkness. Remember that the Babylonians were known as great astronomers. 

In the context of the Inanna literature she is at once 'mother,' 'sister,' and 'lover' of Dumuzi.  "My sister, thou art my mother........The queen of Eanna who cries, 'Alas! my husband, alas my son! " It is difficult for the modern mind to comprehend one individual encompassing all these conflicting characteristics even if it be a deity. Throughout the literature Inanna is described as a virgin, yet she gives birth to Dumuzi, and her son is described as her lover or spouse, as well as her brother. In her virgin aspect she needs no husband to "impregnate" her; she gives birth out of herself in perpetuity; the son only symbolically serves as a lover or spouse. I purpose that when the most primitive belief of a culture allows for only two "principals" of creation, that being the first principal "An" of the sky, and "Inanna" the second principal of the earth, that the earth principal contained in Inanna would naturally encompass all aspects of earthly life and creative energy; all those things we associate with the female life-force. In practical terms, within some cultures we find that the son of a king would marry his sister, and if necessary his mother, to carry on the royal line and retain the throne. These same contradictions are found within the mythology of other cultures as well. They will be discussed individually as this series continues.

Langdon also suggests that the evolution of several traditions, that of the mother - son cult, the sister - brother cult, the primeval sea goddess (serpent/dragon) "Thou Ishtar art the fearful dragon of the gods,"  and astral lore became syncretized over time, thus making any individual distinction difficult at the least.  The dumuzi or male aspect of fertility does not change; he appears to consistently retain his foundational attribute of spring fertility. It is the role of the feminine that differs between traditions.

In the Sumerian and Babylonian literature emerge other female deities who just appear as "wives" to the male principals who, seem to just appear as well. Some translators suggest that originally syllables were added or replaced in a deity's name to indentify the purpose for which the which the deity was portrayed. In other words, one deity could play any number of roles just by making small changes in their name. These eventually splintered off and became individual deities. Some translators suggest that originally syllables were added or replaced in a deity's name to identify the purpose for which the deity was portrayed. In other words, one deity could play any number of roles just by making small changes in their name.

The second myth; Inanna chose Dumuzi, the shepherd, to take her place in the underworld. Dumuzi was the power of the food that filled the storehouse. According to Jacobsen, in Sumer's earliest period, he was associated with the date palm and dates, which was a staple food item in the storehouse. In his aspect as Amasumagalanna Dumuzi wedded Innana in the sacred marriage which does not include his death. But in his aspect as Great Shepherd, it was meat that filled the storehouse and he was the one sacrificed to fill it. Once she set the eye of death upon him, he was pursued by the underworld demons until they captured him “sleeping in the sheepfold.” His gruesome death was like the butchering of sheep that filled the storehouse for the winter, thus Inanna's resurrection meant that his death was eminent. But then he shared the sentence with his sister.

The shepherd, the lord Dumuzi, lives no more. The lord of the shepherds hill lives no more.

The galla seized Dumuzi. They surrounded him. They bound his hands. They bound his neck. The churn was silent. No milk was poured. The cup was shattered. Dumuzi was no more. The sheepfold was given to the winds.

When he slumbers, the sheep and lambs slumber also. When he slumbers, the she-goats and the kids slumber also.

The third myth: In this poem Geshtinanna, the sister of Dumuzi, was not an aspect of the storehouse epic.  She was the power of the grapevine; her name meaning “the leafy grapevine,” and the wine from which it is made. In the myth here, Dumuzi was in the power of the grain and the beer brewed from it, not the shepherd. His death represented the harvested barley brewed into beer and stored underground; i.e. the Underworld. Beer was stored in the spring or early summer, while grapes were harvested and made into wine in the fall. Because these are complementary powers of intoxication, the beer and wine, they appeared related, thus mythically evolving as brother and sister. In the spring Geshtinanna, the wine goddess, sought her brother Dumuzi after he was stored underground (in the underworld) until she too joined him in the underworld in the fall. This explains the time difference between their lives above in the land of the living, and below in the realm of the dead. Then to pull the myths together, Inanna decrees their fate by alternating their time spent in the Underworld as her substitutes.

Him of the plains why have they slain? The shepherd, the wise one. The man of sorrows why have they slain? The Lady of the Vinestalk with the lambs and calves languishes. The Lord shepherd of the folds lives no more, the husband of the heavenly queen lives no more, the Lord of the cattle stalls lives no more.

 

 

Geshtianna, according to Langdon, was the predecessor of Inanna. When the proto Sumerians migrated from Asia they brought with them their cult of the great goddess 'Geshtinanna of the vinestalk ' and her brother; Ab-u meaning "father of plants and vegetation."  She was found all throughout the Dumuzi texts as the compassionate sister. Here in this epic the ancient sister continued to survive as the sister of Dumuzi, but overshadowed by her new aspect as Inanna.

The Dumuzi cults were representative of the economy in their geographic areas; orchardmen looked to the god of the sap, shepherds looked to the “great shepherd” and the milk -churn, farmers to the grain god, and the god of the waters who fill Sumer's extensive canal system, etc. Dumuzi encompasses many aspects, more cults, such as that of Damu "the child," or the "sap" in the trees and vegetation who was praised when the rivers rose in the spring and died in the heat of summer before he grew into a man. Amaushumgalanna the “date palm,” wed the goddess Inanna in the sacred marriage ceremony, there is death and lamentation in this aspect. Damu in another aspect was a young boy captured for army recruitment. Also as a young shepherd boy who was killed by a wild animal and his corpse left to rot in the wilderness.These aspects of Dumuzi are found in other Mesopotamian compositions, these are hymns of praise to the dead god as he returns to the land of the living, the sacred marriage ceremony to Inanna, and laments of his death as the pastures dry up, the fruit of the trees and vines, and the grains have been harvested, along with the end of the lambing and milking season.  

"How long shall men weep for thy brother? How long shall men bewail Dumuzi?"

The festival of Dumuzi can be placed on one of two dates; the summer solstice in June or a week later in July. The bible dates the weeping of Tammuz in late June, the fourth lunar month (the Hebrew month of Tammuz) This would connect Dumuzi in his other aspect, as a solar god. It was not unusual for a vegetation deity to also be the solar deity. The summer solstice occurs on the 21 of June, the longest day of the year. The traditional Babylonian days of mourning begin June 25 (10th of Tammuz); at this the time the days begin to shorten as the sun begins to lose its strength and the young god begins to die. In the Mesopotamian desert; the growing season begins and ends early due to its intense heat in mid summer. The barley, cereals, and other grains have been harvested by this time. The weeping of Dumuzi begins after the harvests.

In the old Aramaic (Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon) lunar calendar the month of Tammuz begins in July. In Syria the festival of Weeping of Women began on the first of the month, the new moon. This would place the memorial of Dumuzi’s death at the time of year shortly after the summer solstice when the hot desert sun and scorching heat begins to dry up the vegetation. This too is a reflection of Dumuzi in his vegetative aspect.

Al-Nadim in his 10th century work Kitab al-Fehrest drawing from a work on Syriac calendar feast days, describes a Tâ'ûz festival that took place in the middle of the month of Tammuz. Women bewailed the death of Tammuz at the hands of his master who was said to have "ground his bones in a mill and scattered them to the wind." Consequently, women would forgo the eating of ground foods during the festival time. The same festival is mentioned in the 11th century by Ibn Athir as still taking place at the appointed time on the banks of the Tigris river. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammuz_(deity)

The hieros gamos or "sacred marriage" must be mentioned in regard to the Dumuzi cult.

 The Sumerians’ understanding of time was linear and not cyclical as ours, they divided time into two seasons, winter and summer. Spring would have marked the time of the New Year. It brought about the renewal of time, the regeneration of life and fertility. This was where the hieros- gamos became the most important event of the year, it promised cosmic and earthly renewal. In relationship to a kingdom, it meant prosperity for the king and his people. The very idea of sacred sex is abhorrent to the modern mind because western society has been influenced by two thousand years of church dogma. In this pre Christian era, if by observation of nature the sex act produced offspring, then that’s what they did; in an act of sympathetic magic sexual union with Sumer’s Great Earth Mother brought forth fruitfulness on a cosmic level. The timing was pivotal; the Spring Equinox marking the period when light and darkness were in union and the moon hidden before its first crescent; all these reflecting a new beginning. The origin of the ritual is believed to have begun early in the early third millennium BCE with a ruler of Uruk whose name was Dumuzi. Because Inanna was the goddess of Uruk associated with sexuality and fertility, Dumuzi became the first to wed and bed the goddess. Their mystical sexual union became the precedent for a more elaborate ceremony involving Sumer’s future kings.

In order to care for the life of all the lands, the exact day of the month is closely examined, And on the day of the disappearance of the moon, On the day of the sleeping of the moon, The me are perfectly carried out so that the New Year's day, the day of rites, may be properly determined, and a sleeping place be set up for Inanna.

In an official letter to King Esarhaddon it states that the ceremony begins on the 3rd day of the second month. The wedding night would be consummated by the king playing the role of Dumuzi, and a lukur priestess as the goddess Inanna. These two individuals were sometimes replaced by representative wooden statues lain side by side. The king was identified with the harvest, as god of the grain, the fruit, and/ or Shepherd King. The priestess was the fertile earth womb whom the king offered his seed. The union of king and priestess was for the community a promise of happiness and long life of the king and prosperity for the people. Following the  consumation of marriage there was a large celebratory feast that lasted for days. In some cults the king may have been ritually sacrificed for the fertility of the land mimicing nature; reference: plants die after they spend out their seed.Then as spring approached, the birth of vegetation and all those aspects of Dumuzi were "born" as the fruit of Inanna's womb. 

On the 3rd of Iyyar in the city of Calah the bed of Nabu will be prepared; Nabu will enter the bedchamber.

Another letter states:

Tomorrow, (that is) on the 4th (of Iyyar) toward evening, Nabu and Tashmetum will enter the bedchamber. On the 5th, they shall be given of the king's food to eat.

There are a variety of poems honoring the missing Dumuzi.

In the oldest prayer, Inanna wanders the earth looking for her brother and lover who, in his water aspect is in the "sleep of death" and must be awakened; " The sacred consort of the heavenly queen slumbers, the lord slumbers, in woe they sigh much." "For the brother who slumbers, the city wails."

Another as the sleeping shepherd (Dumuzi was sleeping in the sheepfold when the demons found and captured him): "When he slumbers, the sheep and lambs slumber also."

One describes the mother goddess who went in search of her son beneath the waters into Hades, "The divine mother of the sheepfolds who in a crescent shaped boat rode....the great gallu-demon on the river transported her." 

The weeping and wailing as animal and plant life ceased their productivity; "The wailing is for the plants, they grow not..... For the habitations and the flocks it is they produce not." "Because the lord has gone forth, in his sheepfolds there is no creating."

The people throw grain and plants into the waves of the sea and send out a representation of the god in a boat into the waters; "the flood has taken Tammuz........the flood transported, the flood seized thee into Hades."  "The raging flood has brought him low, him that has taken his way to the lower world... In the flood of the shore of the Euphrates, why hast thou taken him?"

People may have fasted during this time; ""Food I eat not,"..................I cry. "Water I drink not,".............I cry."

There is a hymn of Inanna leaving her chambers in search for her son and lover; "The pure maiden from the dark chamber hastened."  

Another when Inanna is interceding with Ereshkigal for the release of Dumuzi from Hades; "But the maiden went, to the darkness went."

Inanna rescues Dumuzi from the land of the dead; "But the maiden went, to the darkness went. "A Queen am I" (she said); the maiden went, to the darkness went. To him she seized away, her beloved not should she go, unto darkness go. In the place of desolation among the hungry ones she should not sit." 

"The holy husband of the heavenly queen in a boat descended, from Hades hastened. Where grass was not, there grass is eaten. Where water was not, water is drunk."

When Dumuzi returns to the land of the living there is rejoicing.

"His sister, she that knows to appease with song, to bring him back to life, the house of the sheepfolds, filled with abundance."

"He from the flood is risen, I would embrace. Return, O Lord ,create the rising waters."

 "Ininni to her sacred women cried; "in heaven there is light, on earth there is light". Magnified is he, magnified, magnified is the lord. Magnified is he, magnified; my peace may he bring."

 The holy husband of the heavenly queen in a boat descended, from Hades hastened.

 Conclusion:

The Inanna and Dumuzi cults were popular throughout the land of Sumer. The temple in Uruk became the center of Inanna's worship although she was known throughout the region. Each ritual and celebration varying from city to city was a reflection of their specific economic and mythological needs. Dumuzi was born each spring with the inundation of the irrigation canals and earliest vegetation and grasses. At the New Year the "sacred marriage" ritual of Inanna and Dumuzi promised fertility, then Dumuzi would die. This in turn, produced offspring as Dumuzi in the form of the sprouting plants, the flooding of the irrigation canals, the new lambs, the milk, the sap in the trees and vines, etc. It was also interpreted as the time of the dead god Dumuzi's awakening. Near the summer solstice he died as the vegetation dried up, the water receded, lambing season ended, the milk dried up, the beer was stored underground, and the cereals, grains, and fruit were harvested. In one interpretation Inanna then descended into the land of the dead in search of him, returning in late summer with the star Sirius. In another, it was Inanna's return as the star Sirius in the scorching heat of summer when she sacrifices him. The wailings for Dumuzi were the result of his death nonetheless at this time. Inanna and Dumuzi represented the powers of fertility and yield. There is no uniform theology in this ancient world, just contradictions according to the perspective of modern man's expectation that the ancient writings should be literal and actual accounts of historical events. The ancient mind did not think in these terms.

 Inanna was the Great Earth Mother Goddess whose power alone gave life to all of nature in the form of her son Dumuzi. He in turn was the offspring of the great mother in all aspects of new life, whatever the society deemed as life-sustaining. He was the rebirth of vegetation, the beer, the cereals, grains, and corn, the new sap in the trees and vines, the fruit of the trees, the water that flooded the irrigation canals, the new lambs, the milk that filled the churns, the new sun in winter, and so on. He was represented as son, brother, and husband to Inanna. In his adult aspect he copulated with his mother then died, only to be reborn/arise again in the spring. In this sense "father and son are truly one." Dumuzi represented all new life resurrecting from death on a seasonal cycle.

Inanna's descent into the underworld was just one of many stories associated with the cult of death and resurrection. Several of these outside passages were used throughout this study. The majority of the known literature of this type is the lamentation for Dumuzi most probably used within the context of yearly cult ritual. It appears the myths of Inanna and Dumuzi contain the vague memory of Inanna as the Great Earth Mother Goddess who sacrifices her own life as she searches for her lost son, the great dragon of the sea who descends into the depths searching for her lost son, the memory of the sleeping shepherd who was found by the gallu demons. It keeps alive the faintest memory of an ancient sister who protects and laments for her lost brother and descends into the underworld in search of him. The details may have changed, but the underlying symbolism remains the same; a belief in the cosmic lifecycle of death and rebirth.

 In the myth of Inanna and Dumuzi there encompass these points:

• Great Earth Mother Goddess and son

• She being mother, sister, and lover to the "lost one"

• A supernatural being who rules the world of the dead

• Judgment and gruesome death in the underworld

• Ceremonial lamentation and self-mutilation

• A search for the lost

• All reproduction stops

• All vegetation withers and dies

• Outside help/intervention from a god

• Miraculous resurrection

• Sacrificial substitute; Dumuzi

a.       god of vegetation, grains, fruit, waters, sheep, cattle

b.       Violent death

c.       Great goddess

d.       Mourning and lamentation

e.      Search for the lost

f.       Another sacrifice

             i.      Shared seasons

 After the reign of the Akkadian king Hammurabi, around the year 1750 BCE , the land of Sumer began to be identified as Babylon. It was during this transition that the Sumerian Inanna was incorporated into the Akkadian, and later, Assyrian pantheon as the Babylonian Ishtar, and Dumuzi as Tammuz.[iii] Ishtar's powerful mythology as an earth goddess of love and war sets the precedent for those we are most familiar with as well as others that can be found throughout the ancient world.

The worship of a young god representing seasonal abundance of one kind or another, who dies when the season and its bounties are over, seems to have been one of the oldest and most widespread cults in ancient Mesopotamia. The god has different names and to some extent different character, depending upon which seasonal feature he is connected with. (Jacobsen,  1987)

 Part three: The Cosmic Cycle of Death & Rebirth
Ishtar and Tammuz

<Previous: Part one The Cosmic Cycle of Death and Rebirth

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[i] Notes on this image from Jacobsen state: The ancients were laid in the grave naked and in crouched position. Without realizing it Inanna has become like the dead, submitting to, not conquering, the realm of death.

[ii] Ninshuber weeps for Inanna, Inanna weeps for Dumuzi, Ishtar weeps for Tammuz, Isis weeps for Osiris, Anat weeps for Baal, Aphrodite weeps for Adonis, Demeter weeps for Persephone, and Cybele weeps for Attis. 

[iii] Tammuz is most familiar because he is mentioned in the bible when the women were condemned for the practice of “weeping for Tammuz.” See Ezekiel 8:14,16

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