Dumuzi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inanna and Dumuzi

Dumuzi (Dumuzid, Sumerian d DUMU.ZI, Akkadian d ma-ru-us-ur) is a Sumerian shepherd god . His name means "rightful son".

family

Dumuzi is the son of Enki and Sirtur or Durdur ( d Bu-du in Emeku, d Zé-er-tur in Emesal), brother of Geštinanna . He is Inanna's lover and husband . According to the epic “Dumuzi's dream”, he was a mortal who acquired divine status by marrying Inanna - Dumuzi says to Belili: “I am not an ordinary man, I am the spouse of a goddess” (Dumuzi's dream, lines 206-208 ). According to the text UM 29 16 37, Dumuzi feels that Ištar is a match. After Ištar boasted of her relatives - her mother Ningal , the goddess of the sacred pipe, her father Sin and her brother, the sun god Utu , he insists that his relatives are equal to them. "My father is as good as your father ... my mother is as good as your mother." Enki is as good as Sin and Sirtur as good as Ningal, while he himself is equal to Utu.

The marriage between Inanna and Dumuzi remained childless, in "Dumuzi's dream" Geštinanna calls him "youth without a family".

Attributes

Dumuzi is often associated with lapis lazuli , so according to a text from the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, he has a beard made of lapis lazuli. He donates milk of different colors, but given the sexual background of many of the songs, it is unclear whether it is not a figurative meaning, as is the case with the references to his butter churn.

His house is E-namtila.

Nickname

Among other things, the surnames are:

  • Shepherd of Enlil
  • Coolie Anna
  • Usumgalanna
  • Pen-Enlil
  • Damu, for the rising sap in trees
  • Amaʾušumgalʾanna. Jacobsen associates Amaʾušumgalʾanna with the date palm and the dates themselves.
  • Dumuzid-ušumgal-ana, Dumuzi, friend of Anu (Enki and the divine world order 1, 3, 3)
  • d Amaga.

function

Dumuzi calls himself a shepherd, he is also known as the Shepherd of Enlil. As befits a shepherd, he brings Inanna fat, milk and beer as gifts.After his death in the underworld, his cibbles and lambs, his bitches and fawns, his little donkey cows are stolen, his holy butter jug ​​is smashed, his lambs and fawns lament pathetic and his dog howls in the desert steppe. His wife Inanna weeps bitterly and his sister Geštinanna tears off her hair and ribbons at the gate of Lugalbanda .

Because of his stay in the underworld, Dumuzi is also considered an underworld deity (as in the Gilgameš epic). Together with Gišzida , Dumuzi was also the gatekeeper of An . Its nature has been compared to that of a falcon , among other things .

cult

In a cult act, the holy wedding , which probably developed in Uruk , the rulers (as Dumuzi) perhaps appeared as partners of Inanna.

Lore

In Sumerian literature , Dumuzi is mostly mentioned in lamentations . It was here that Dumuzi's death or Dumuzi's journey into the underworld, where he had to replace his sister Geštinanna for half a year, was mourned. Dumuzi is mentioned in the following epics:

  • Inanna's walk into the underworld , several versions (sd)
  • Dumuzi's dream, a kalkal song
  • Dumuzi and the galla .
  • Dumuzi and his sisters.
  • The Bilulu myth, handed down on a cuneiform tablet from Nippur , today in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum (Ist 4486). In the text itself it is referred to as ù-lí-lá d Inanna-kam , a ù-lí-lá from the Inanna cult and, according to Jacobsen and Kramer, occupies an intermediate position between a dirge and a hymn of praise. The authors attribute it to the tradition of Badtibira.

The myth describes how Bilulu and her son Girgire from Edin-líl-lá slay the shepherd Dumuzi, Inanna's husband, and rob his sheep. When Inanna hears about it, she praises the dead Dumuzi, who guarded his sheep from sunrise to sunset. Then she travels to Edin-líl-lá to curse Bilulu and Girgire, she and her servant SÌR-RU are supposed to become water sacs and desert spirits, which happens as soon as possible. The epic ends with Inanna and Geštinanna's lament for Dumuzi and the price of Inanna's prompt revenge.

  • In the Gilgameš epic , Dumuzi is mentioned briefly on the 6th panel (lines 46-47) as the mighty ruler of the underworld
  • The epic " Enki and the divine world order " reports that Dumuzi built sheepfolds and cleaned them and built cattle sheds. He made the best cream and fat (butter?) And brought abundance to the table of the gods. He created the plain, made it green and achieved prosperity. Enki attributed all of this to him.
  • The epic “ Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird” mentions the sacred butter churn of Dumuzi, whose butter is the butter of the entire world, whose milk is the milk of the entire world.

There are also prayers to Inanna and Dumuzi, such as Attī Ištar ša ḫarmaša Dumuzi , which were used in healing ceremonies, among other things.

interpretation

Possibly Dumuzi is a deified Sumerian ruler. The antediluvian rulers Dumuzi the shepherd from the city of Bad-tibira , who ruled for 36,000 years, or Dumuzi the fisherman from Kuara , who ruled for 100 or 110 years ( Sumerian list of kings from Uruk ) come into question. Kramer considers Dumuzi to be a ruler of Uruk.

Jacobsen and Kramer see Dumuzi as the deified being of milk, he dies when the sheep and goats stop giving milk.

The interpretation as the god of vegetation is based on the equation with Adonis , in Sumerian literature Dumuzi, the shepherd, is exclusively associated with milk production and the abundance that goes with it. A rebirth of Dumuzi is only reported in the myth "Inanna's walk into the underworld", in all other myths he is killed, either by Bilulu and Girgire, by the galla demons or by the men of Adab , Akšak , Unug , Urim and Nibru and he remains dead, despite the complaints of sister and wife.

Aftermath

From Sumerian mythology Dumuzi went over to the Akkadian , Babylonian and Assyrian religions . In Akkadian language, Tammuz corresponded to him . The Jewish month name Tammus comes from the time of the Babylonian exile and goes back to the corresponding Babylonian month name.

According to Kramer , the Dumuzi myth has "considerable similarities" to the Adonis myth in Greek mythology .

In an alternative work, the author Alexander Hislop believes in his book The Two Babylons (1858) to identify Tammuz as Nimrod, the founder of the city of Babylon , who in his opinion lived about 180 years after the flood of Noah's day. However, because of many errors that contradicted the state of research at the time, this interpretation was never seriously considered.

literature

  • Bendt Alster: Sumerian Love Songs. In: Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie orientale. 79 1985, pp. 127-159.
  • Bendt Alster: Inanna repenting, the Conclusion of Inanna's Descent. In: Acta Sumerologica. 18 1996, pp. 1-18.
  • Jeremy Black: The Imagery of birds in Sumerian poetry. In: Marianne Vogelzang (Ed.), Mesopotamian poetic language: Sumerian and Akkadian . Styx Publications, Groningen 1996, ISBN 90-72371-84-4 , pp. 23-46.
  • Helmut Freydank u. a .: Lexicon of the Old Orient. Egypt * India * China * Western Asia. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-928127-40-3 .
  • Brigitte Groneberg : The gods of the Mesopotamia. Cults, myths, epics . Artemis & Winkler, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-7608-2306-8 .
  • Oliver R. Gurney : Tammuz Reconsidered; Some recent developments. In: Journal of Semitic Studies. 7, 1962, pp. 147-160.
  • Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer: The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3 1953, pp. 160–188.
  • Samuel Noah Kramer : The Death of Dumuzi: A New Sumerian Version. In: Anatolian Studies 30 (Special Number in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor OR Gurney) 1980, pp. 5-13.
  • Samuel Noah Kramer: The Jolly Brother: A Sumerian Dumuzi Tale. In: Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies. 5 1973, pp. 243-253.
  • Yitzhak Sefati : Love Songs in Sumerian Literature, critical Edition of the Dumuzi-Ananna Songs. (Bar-Ilan studies in Near Eastern languages ​​and culture). Winona Lake 1989, Eisenbrauns.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, note 14
  2. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer: The Death of Dumuzi: A New Sumerian Version. In: Anatolian Studies 30 (Special Number in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor OR Gurney) 1980, note 8, p. 5.
  3. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, 493-495
  4. ↑ UM 29 16 37, lines 11-13
  5. ↑ UM 29 16 37, line 45; Samuel Noah Kramer, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, 493-495
  6. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen 1962. Toward the Image of Tammuz. History of Religions 1/2, 191
  7. ^ Inez Bernhardt and Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian literary texts from Nippur, Berlin 1961, No. 25, lines 15, 17, 20
  8. ^ Henri de Genouillac, Textes religieux sumériens du Louvre . Paris 1930, No. 70, line 29; Samuel Noah Kramer, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, p. 496.
  9. ^ Inez Bernhardt and Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian literary texts from Nippur, Berlin 1961, No. 25, line 6
  10. ^ Inez Bernhardt and Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian Literary Texts from Nippur, Berlin, 1961, No. 25, line 8
  11. ^ Inez Bernhardt and Samuel Noah Kramer, Sumerian literary texts from Nippur, Berlin 1961, No. 25, line 10
  12. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen 1962. Toward the Image of Tammuz. History of Religions 1/2, 190
  13. ^ Thorkild Jacobsen 1962. Toward the Image of Tammuz. History of Religions 1/2, 190
  14. ↑ http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.1.1.3&display=Crit&charenc=gcirc&lineid=c113.358#c113.358
  15. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, note 18
  16. ↑ BM 100046, line 22, Samuel Noah Kramer: The Death of Dumuzi: A new Sumerian version. In: Anatolian Studies. 30 (Special Number in Honor of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor OR Gurney) 1980, pp. 5-13.
  17. ↑ TRS No. 70, line 29, Samuel Noah Kramer: Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, p. 496.
  18. ↑ SLTN No. 35, lines 22-25, Samuel Noah Kramer, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, pp. 497-498.
  19. ↑ BM 100046, lines 23-38
  20. ↑ "Dumuzi escaped safely in the manner of a flying hawk, which is closely following a bird in its dive."; Jeremy Black: The Imagery of birds in Sumerian poetry. P. 31.
  21. ↑ SN Kramer, Dumuzi's Annual Resurrection: An Important Correction to “Inanna's Descent”. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 183, 1966, p. 31.
  22. ^ William R. Sladek , Inanna's descent to the Netherworld. Ann Arbor, UMI Dissertation Information Service 1974
  23. ^ Bendt Alster , Dumuzi's Dream, Aspects of oral poetry in a Sumerian myth . Akademisk Forlag, DBK 1972
  24. ↑ http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr143.htm
  25. ^ Bendt Alster: A new source for Dumuzi's Dream. In: Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie orientale. 69 1975, pp. 97-108.
  26. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer , The sacred marriage rite: aspects of faith, myth, and ritual in ancient Sumer . Bloomington, Indiana University Press 1969, pp. 127-130; Thorkild Jacobsen , Treasures of Darkness, a history of Mesopotamian religion. New Haven, Yale University Press 1976, pp. 49-52.
  27. ↑ Jeremy A. Black, 2004. Dumuzid and his sisters. Orientalia NS 73, pp. 228-234.
  28. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, p. 160.
  29. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, p. 161.
  30. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, p. 162.
  31. ↑ Enki and the divine world order, c.1.1.3
  32. ↑ Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird, c.1.8.2.2
  33. ↑ Walter Farber: Atti Ishtar ša ḫarmaša Dumuzi. Steiner Franz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, p. 102 ff.
  34. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: The Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107/6, Cuneiform Studies and the History of Civilization 1963, p. 489.
  35. ↑ Thorkild Jacobsen, Samuel N. Kramer 1953, The Myth of Inanna and Bilulu. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 12/3, p. 165 and note 16
  36. ^ S. Noah. Kramer: Dumuzi's Annual Resurrection: An important correction to "Inanna's Descent". In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research . 183, 1966, p. 31.