Tammuz

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Northwest Semitic Tammuz (Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz), Arabic تمّوز Tammūz; Akkadian Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian Dumuzid (DUMU.ZID 𒌉𒍣 "the true son") was the name of an Ancient Near Eastern deity.

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Ritual mourning

In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and, in his Akkadian form, the parallel of Ishtar's consort. The Syrian Adonis ("lord"), who was drawn into the Greek pantheon, is another counterpart of Tammuz[1] son and consort. The Aramaic 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 came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day "funeral" for the god. Readers in four-season temperate cultures may doubt the god as a vegetation god, through misconstruing this seasonal timing.[2]

A Sumerian tablet (Ni 4486 from Nippur read [1]

She can make the lament for you, my Dumuzid, the lament for you, the lament, the lamentation, reach the desert — she can make it reach the house Arali; she can make it reach Bad-tibira; she can make it reach Dul-šuba; she can make it reach the shepherding country, the sheepfold of Dumuzid
"O Dumuzid of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully, "O you of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully. "Lad, husband, lord, sweet as the date, [...] O Dumuzid!" she sobs, she sobs tearfully.[3]

These ceremonies were observed even at the very door of the Temple in Jerusalem, to the horror of the Jewish prophet Ezekiel:

"Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these." — Ezekiel 8.14-15

Dumuzid in the Sumerian King List

In the Sumerian King List two kings named Dumuzi appear:

  • Dumuzid of Bad-Tibira, the shepherd (reigning 36000 years), the 5th King before the Flood
  • Dumuzid of Kua, the fisherman (reigning 100 years), the 3rd King of the first dynasty or Uruk, reigning between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh the son of Lugalbanda

Dumuzid and Inanna

A number of pastoral poems and songs relate the love affair of Inanna and Dumuzid the shepherd. A text recovered in 1963 recounts "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" in terms that are tender and frankly erotic.

According to the myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, Inanna (Ishtar in the Akkadian texts) set off for the netherworld, or Kur, which was ruled by her sister Ereshkigal, perhaps to take it as her own. She passed through seven gates and at each one was required to leave a garment or an ornament so that when she had passed through the seventh gate she was entirely naked. Despite warnings about her presumption, she did not turn back but dared to sit herself down on Ereshkigal's throne. Immediately the Anunnaki of the underworld judged her, gazed at her with the eyes of death, and she became a corpse, hung up on a stake.

Inanna'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 surviving accounts, but in the end, Inanna/Ishtar was resurrected. However, 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. Inanna/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.

There is some confusion here. The name Belili occurs in one of the Sumerian texts also, but it is not the name of Dumuzid's sister who is there named Geshtinana, but is the name of an old woman whom another text calls Bilulu.

In any case, the Sumerian texts relate how Dumuzid fled to his sister Geshtinana who attempted to hide him but who could not in the end stand up to the demons. Dumuzid has one close call after another until the demons finally catch up with him under the supposed protection of this old woman called Bilulu or Belili and then they take him. However Inanna repents.

Inanna seeks vengeance on Bilulu, on Bilulu's murderous son G̃irg̃ire and on G̃irg̃ire's consort Shirru "of the haunted desert, no-one's child and no-one's friend". Inanna changes Bilulu into a waterskin and G̃irg̃ire into a protective god of the desert while Shirru is assigned to watch always that the proper rites are performed for protection against the hazards of the desert.

Finally, Inanna relents and changes her decree thereby restoring her husband Dumuzi to life; an arrangement is made by which Geshtinana will take Dumuzid's place in Kur for 6 months of the year.

Dumuzid/Tammuz being the god of the vegetation cycle, this corresponds to the changing of the seasons as the abundance of the earth diminishes in his absence. He is a life-death-rebirth deity.

An older interpretation

Based on the texts first found, it was assumed that Ishtar/Inanna's descent into Kur occurred after the death of Tammuz/Dumuzid rather than before and that her purpose was to rescue Tammuz/Dumuzid. This is the familiar form of the myth as it appeared in M. Jastrow's "Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World", 1915, widely available on the Internet. Though new texts uncovered in 1963 filled in the story in quite another fashion, the old interpretation still lingers on. Aside from the extended epic "The Descent of Inanna," a previously unknown "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi," was first translated into English and annotated by Sumerian scholar Noah Kramer and folklorist Diane Wolkstein working in tandem, and published in 1983 (Kramer and Wolkstein 1983). Inanna's lover, the shepherd-king Dumuzi, brought a wedding gift of milk in pails, yoked across his shoulders.

The myth of Inanna and Dumuzi formed the subject of a Lindisfarne Symposium, published as The Story of Inanna and Dumuzi: From Folk-Tale to Civilized Literature: A Lindisfarne Symposium, (William Irwin Thompson, editor, 1995).


Tammuz in Tamil culture

The name of Dumuzi/Tammuz was carried by Tammuzh, a Tamil Pandyan king in the Dravidian cultural realm of ancient South India, who held his capital at Kuadam. The language and cultural term Tamil is an anglicised form of the native name Tamizhi தமிழ் (IPA /t̪ɐmɨɻ/).See also Legendary early Chola kings which shows similarity between early Chola kings and Ur kingslist.The Pandyans had trading contacts with Ptolemaic Egypt and, through Egypt, with Rome by the first century CE. The 1st century Greek historian Nicolaus of Damascus met at Damascus the embassy sent by an Indian king "named Pandion or, according to others, Porus" to Caesar Augustus around 13 AD. The names of king and his kingdom have likely been conflated in Nicolaus' account.

External links

Further reading

  • Campbell, Joseph, 1962, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
  • Campbell, Joseph, 1964. Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
  • Kramer, Samuel Noah and Diane Wolkstein, 1983. Inanna : Queen of Heaven and Earth (New York : Harper & Row) ISBN 0-06-090854-8
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