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The cycle of Dumuzi and Innana is the cycle of many Mesopotamian worshippers. Everything is related to the cycle. It's a Great Cycle in that it deals with birth, life, death, and rebirth/resurrection. In June and July we come face to face with the death aspect as Dumuzi dies and descends to the Underworld. It is not until September that he returns to us.
Interestingly when one looks at the Jewish calendar over this same period there is a common thread - because they inherited many of the Babylonian myths? It was sometime in the sixth century BCE that the Jews adopted the Babylonian calendar. At this point they had already been using some of the customs and myths (ie the legend of the Flood) and it seems likely to me that the similarities here are more than coincidence. I find it interesting, alothough very sorrowful, that the significance of this period in Jewish terms is heightened through ongoing tragedies such as the fall of Betar, the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and the start of WWI (the precursor to the Holocaust). It seems to indicate to me that this is truly a time of loss and trial....Even Jewish bloggers comment on this.
Tammuz
Tammuz is mentioned once in the Bible in reference to the Babylonian god (Ezek. 8:14); in the Talmud it appears frequently as the name of the month. Notable holidays are the Fast of Tammuz (17).
Av
Av first appears in Jewish sources in Megillat Ta'anit of the talmudic period, but appears earlier in Assyrian inscriptions, apparently referring to spring and meaning "fresh growth". As many national calamities occured in Av, it is also called Menahem (consoler), expressing the hope it will be a month of consolation. "When Av arrives, gladness is diminished," say the talmudic sages (Ta'an. 4:6). Hence, celebration is severely curtailed until after the ninth of Av. During these nine days, amusements, bathing for pleasure, business dealings, new construction, planting and nonvital repairs are avoided; meat is not eaten and wine not drunk except on Sabbath and at a se'udat mitzah repast. Notable holidays are Tish b'Av (9). Notable historic events: Aaron died on the 1st; on the 9th: the First Temple was destroyed (586 BCE); the Second Temple was destroyed (70 CE); Jerusalem was razed by Hadrian (132 CE); Bethar fell as the Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed (135 CE); England expelled the Jews (1290 CE); Spain expelled the Jews (1492 CE); and the Jews of Rome were enclosed in a ghetto (1555 CE); on the 10th, France expelled the Jews (1306 CE).
Elul
As Elul immediately precedes the Days of Awe, it is a month of repentence in which special prayers are said and the shofar is sounded at the weekday morning service. In the Sephardi rites, selihot are recited daily throughout the month, whereas Ashkenazim recite them only during the week before Rosh ha-Shanah.
Soc.Culture.Jewish Newsgroups
In the various calendars of the Mesopotamian lands the fourth month was known as Tammuz (or a variant thereof). The name originated in the Sumerian shepherd-king who became a god, Damu-zid. Dumuzi and Tammuz are simply different Akkadian versions. This Damu-zid appears in the Sumerian king list and it's possible he was a real king later deified and added into the pantheon. In the Courtship of Innana and Dumuzi Dumuzi is described as a shepherd, a king, and the son of Enki and Sirtur (making him a god) as well as the husband of Innana. In Inana's Descent to the Nether World and the Descent Of Inanna it becomes clear that the relationship between Innana and Dumuzi has soured since their courtship. Innana went below to pay her respects at her brother-in-law's funeral:
Neti (the Gatekeeper to the Underworld) said:
'If you are truly Innana, Queen of Heaven,
On your way to the East,
Why has your heart led you on the road
From which no traveller returns?'
Innana answered:
'Because... of my older sister Erishkigal,
Her husband, Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, has died.
I have come to witness the funeral rites.
Let the beer of his funeral rites be poured into the cup.
Let it be done.'
Descent Of Inanna
For some reason her sister, Erishkigal, Queen of the Underworld and the grieving widow, determines to humble Innana and ultimately kills her. She is hung upon the wall from a hook, a piece of rotting meat, helpless and powerless. Luckily she had arranged for help should she not return (obviously she did not trust her sister). Erishkigal is tricked and Innana is restored to life. However, in order for her to leave the Underworld a substitute must be offered to take her place - this was the Law of the Underworld. Once one was dead one's soul belonged below and only through the substitution of another soul could one leave. Innana could not stay in the Underworld. She did not want to and her presence there caused the land above to lose its fertility.
After Ishtar the mistress of [ ] had gone down to Kurnugi,
No bull mounted a cow, no donkey impregnated a jenny,
No young man impregnated a girl in the street,
The young man slept in his private room,
The girl slept in the company of her friends.
Ishtar's Descent Into the Underworld
Accompanied by demons she sets out to find a substitute. The first three people she meets are in sackcloth and mourning for her death. Then she comes across her husband, seated upon his throne in all his finery. He she glares at with the eye of death and speaks against with the voice of wrath. She gives him over to the galla demons who have followed her to take the substitute back to the Underworld.
For some reason Innana later arranges for Dumuzi and his sister to share the role of substitute with a six-month stay for each during the year. Depending upon which myth is read she either mourned him greatly or desired his return because of the effect his death had upon the land. Dumuzi died at midsummer, the start of the harsh times. The Mesopotamian year consisted of 2 seasons only - dry and wet. The two seasons ran from equinox to equinox and about midway through (when the solstices fell) the weather changed. The dry season began in March/April but it was around the first of Tammuz (the summer solstice) that it harshened and the land and its people suffered excessive heat and drought. Crops failed and animals suffered until the autumnal equinox marked the return of the wet season with its rains and cooler weather. Tammuz marked not only the literal dark half of the year with the slow shortening of days but also the deathly part of the life cycle.
As a vegetation god Dumuzi's death has always been symbolic of the death of the crops. He lies underground awaiting resurrection. It is an interesting departure from the commonly held significance of the summer solstice. So many Pagan traditions view it as marking the height of a deity's power. As a time of prosperity with the harvest still to come. Instead, in Mesopotamian lore, it marks the time of death and hardship. Dumuzi has died and the earth itself mourns. Ritual figures of the god around the country would have been ritually cleansed, annoited, and presented for the mourners - this was the ritual of Taklimtu or 'revelation'. The Taklimtu involved the public lying-in-state of the icon of Dumuzi. With this act the mourning period commenced.
Mourning for Dumuzi was an important part of the yearly cycle of religious observances - so promient that it is even mentioned in the Bible. This marked the death of a god and the start of the mourning period. During this time women continually wept for the god.
"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." Ezekiel 8.14
The weeping and wailing continued for forty days along with fasting and self-mutilation. It ended with the Nusardil ritual where water was sprinkled over the icon - restoring life to Dumuzi. This ritual mimicked the waters-of-life splashed upon Innana when she hung dead in the Underworld and was directly connected to the concept of semen as the water of life. It also mimicked the life-restoring rains - and their action upon the seeds that lay dormant within the soil.
Summer is upon us and soon Dumuzi will die - killed by a wild boar, at the hands of Bilul and Girlag, or through Innana's orders - and be absorbed into the earth. The sun will bake the soil and gradually the plants will fade and die. And what does all this mean?
Ultimately this is a time to think about what Dumuzi means for and to us, to honour his sacrife, and to mourn his death. Dumuzi is humanity - he represents each and everyone of us in his human nature, his passion and his hubris, his strengths and his weaknesses. Through his sacrifice life continues and this is something we must remember and mimic. We are part of a greater whole and we do not stand alone and untouched by those around us. There are times where we need to give way and sacrifice so that our families, friends, communities, or even complete strangers may live and thrive. And in this sacrifice we enter the eternal cycle that is life. We become like Dumuzi reborn and resurrected.
In grieving Dumuzi we show Innana that we respect Her loss and also that Dumuzi has worth. In his hubris he died but through all of that he grew and became a willing sacrifice whose life has value. Our grief reminds Her that it is good to allow Dumuzi to return to this world and to Her bed.
I do not self-mutilate but I do engage in acts of mourning. I abstain from meat for the traditional forty day fast. I also abstain from all treats - no coffee or candy. No alcohol or special dinners. My food is simple and basic. I pray each day for the healing of this earth - a crucial thing at this point in our development. We have so badly damaged her, poisoning her flesh and water, and I pray that this will stop and people take more action to reverse this harm. This time - the Taklimtu and mourning days - is most appropriate considering Dumuzi's nature as a god of vegetation and renewal.
When the forty days are up I celebrate with a feast and some Nusardil activities. Water balloons, spray guns, and other forms of water play are very big within my culture due to the adoption of this ritual by Assyrian Christianity. However the dating of the festival has shifted over time (due to the Christianization no doubt) and Pentecost is celebrated before the 1st of Tammuz and the ritual mourning period. Around the 4th of June this year. I find it easy to join in the fun and games then as for me the Pentecostal version has little significance. Later, after the mourning period has ended, it is equally easy to persuade my Christian friends and their children to revisit Nusardil.
Feast-wise Assyrian dishes are typically Middle-Eastern and Mediterannean in style. For a religious celebration no meal is complete without harisa (wheat cooked in butter with lamb) and girdu (yoghurt mixed through rice and coated with melted butter)! Add in the kabobs, dolma, kuba (rice balls stuffed with meat), baked stuffed peppers, roasted eggplant dishes, grilled tomatoes, and other common foods and you have a feast fit to celebrate the resurrection of a god!
Beyond that I am also currently reassessing my view on the Great Cycle. After reading Matrifocus's ideas on the topic I am looking at it all anew. Innana has always seemed to me to be a truly powerful deity and her sister as well. Why they would fight never really made sense - while Innana's decision to offer up Dumuzi as a substitute for his faithlessness was completely convincing. Maybe the Death of Dumuzi isn't about him at all but completely about the twinned deities of Innana and Erishkigal...
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By Sharokin.