The Obituary
Dumuzi, called Tammuz in Akkadian, was the Mesopotamian shepherd-god and consort of Inanna, a dying-and-rising vegetation deity whose fate tracked the seasons. When Inanna escaped the underworld she gave Dumuzi as her substitute; he was dragged below, spending half each year among the dead while his sister served the other half. His yearly death drew ritual lamentation across the Near East for three thousand years, a mourning even condemned in the biblical Ezekiel. Those wailing rites persisted into the early centuries CE, then ceased, and the shepherd-god was forgotten.
Worth remembering
- When Inanna returned from the dead she needed a substitute, and chose her own husband Dumuzi, who was dragged off by demons to the underworld.
- His annual death was wept over in ritual lamentation, a mourning so famous it is even denounced in the biblical book of Ezekiel as 'women weeping for Tammuz'.
Sources
- Dumuzid (Akkadian Tammuz) was the Mesopotamian god of shepherds, the consort of Inanna, associated with vegetation and the dying-and-rising cycle. Wikipedia
- Inanna hands Dumuzi to the underworld as her substitute; he spends half the year below, his sister taking the other half, mirroring the seasons. World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.