XPost: sci.anthropology   
   From: kurt.lauwereyns@skynet.be   
      
   Is it also correct to say that Dumuzi is the Sumerian name for the   
   Babylonian god Tamuz?   
      
   Greetings Kurt   
   "Barbara Lake"  schreef in bericht   
   news:34c7nuF47ith9U1@individual.net...   
   > "Larry Caldwell"  wrote in message   
   > news:MPG.1c49ef13bf697ee998b449@news.west.earthlink.net...   
   > > In article <348u97F480udpU1@individual.net>, bglake@hotmail.com (Barbara   
   > > Lake) says...   
   > >   
   > >> One other point, Dumuzi was not a Sumerian god.  He was a shepherd who   
   > >> was   
   > >> elevated to king by virtue of marrying Inanna, Queen of Heaven.  His   
   > >> death   
   > >> and resurrection fall in line with other mythology relative to the   
   > >> "rebirth   
   > >> of the earth" following winter.   
   > >   
   > > Yeah, just like Jesus was a Jewish carpenter, until he started appearing   
   > > to people after he was dead.   
   > >   
   > > Deifying people is an ancient middle eastern tradition.  It doesn't   
   > > meant they weren't gods.   
   >   
   > Perhaps I wasn't all that clear.  The earliest Sumerian account of   
   > Inanna/Ishtar and Dumuzi did not deify Dumuzi.  To my knowledge, this   
   would   
   > be the partly translated "Inanna, Queen of Heaven, Her stories and Hymns   
   > From Sumer."  Dumuzi was, in this account a lover, a husband and, for all   
   > intents and purposes, a human sacrifice.  He did not become the "Shepherd   
   > King" until his marriage to Inanna.  However, his return from the   
   > underworld, (as with Jesus), is seen as a powerful symbol of restored   
   spring   
   > and new life, a repetitive theme throughout all mythology.  Later accounts   
   > do refer to Dumuzi as a Sumerian god, and since those accounts are a   
   record   
   > of an early (if not the earliest) Sumerian belief system, I suppose that's   
   > enough.   
   >   
   > BTW, do I know you from somewhere?  Are you an attorney?   
   >   
   > Barbara   
   >   
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)