Dumuzid the Shepherd

Not to be confused with Dumuzid, the Fisherman.
Dumuzid the Shepherd

The marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid

The marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid
Other names Dumuzi
Title King of Sumer
Spouse(s) Inanna

Dumuzid (sometimes transcribed as Dumuzi), called "the Shepherd", from Bad-tibira in Sumer, was, according to the Sumerian King List, the fifth predynastic king in the legendary period before the Deluge. The list further states that Dumuzid ruled for 36,000 years.

In Sumerian epic literature

"Dumuzid the Shepherd" is also the subject of a series of epic poems in Sumerian literature. However, in these tablets he is associated not with Bad-tibira but with Uruk, where a namesake, Dumuzid the Fisherman, was king sometime after the Flood, in between Lugalbanda "the Shepherd" and Gilgamesh.

Among the compositions involving Dumuzid the Shepherd are:

Deity

Later poems and hymns of praise to Dumuzid indicate that he was later considered a deity, a precursor of the Babylonian god Tammuz. In Tablet 6 of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh rebuffs Ishtar (Inanna), reminding her that she had struck Tammuz (Dumuzid), "the lover of [her] youth", decreeing that he should "keep weeping year after year". Pictured as a bird with a broken wing (an allallu-bird, possibly a European or Indian roller),[2][3] Dumuzid now "stays in the woods crying 'My wing!'" (Tablet 6,ii,11-15).[4] Another possible identification for this bird is the northern or red-wattled lapwing, both of which species are well known for their distraction displays where a wing is dragged on the ground as if broken in order to divert a potential predator from the lapwing's nest. The mournful two-note call of these birds also evokes the Akkadian kappi, "My wing!".

In a chart of antediluvian generations in Babylonian and Biblical traditions, William Wolfgang Hallo associates Dumuzid with the composite half-man, half-fish counselor or culture hero (Apkallu) An-Enlilda, and suggests an equivalence between Dumuzid and Enoch in the Sethite Genealogy given in Genesis chapter 5.[5]

Family Tree

An
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ninḫursaḡ
 
 
 
 
 
Enki
born to Namma
 
 
 
Ninkikurga
born to Namma
Nidaba
born to Uraš
 
 
 
Ḫaya
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ninsar
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ninlil
 
 
 
Enlil
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ninkurra
 
 
Ningal
maybe daughter of Enlil
 
 
 
SuenNergal
maybe son of Enki
Ninurta
maybe born to Ninḫursaḡ
 
Baba
born to Uraš
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
UttuInana
maybe daughter of Enki
 
Dumuzī
maybe son of Enki
UtuNinkigal
married Nergal
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MeškiaḡḡašerBanda
 
 
 
Ninsumun
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EnmerkarGilgāmeš
 
 
Urnungal

Sources

  1. Dina Katz, The image of the netherworld in the Sumerian sources, 2003, p. 152: "At the beginning of the story they are specifically labelled as bandits, then they are 'evil men' or galla. The formulaic description of the galla as netherworld creatures occurs only after they encounter Dumuzi, but is immediately followed by their description as natives of five Sumerian cities. The description of the bandits rising against Dumuzi from an ambush is reminiscent of the original tradition." See also: Bendt Alster, Dumuzi's dream: Aspects of oral poetry in a Sumerian myth (1972), and Reallexikon der Assyriologie, Band 8 p. 548.
  2. Dalley, Stephanie (tr.), Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991, p. 129, n. 56
  3. Sandars, Nancy K., The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1960, 1972, p. 86
  4. Dalley, Stephanie (tr.), Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991, pp. 78-79
  5. Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32

See also

External links

Preceded by
En-men-gal-ana
5th King of Sumer
before c. 2900 BC or legendary
Succeeded by
En-sipad-zid-ana of Larsa
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