Tammuz (Syriac: ܬܡܘܙ; Hebrew: תַּמּוּז, Transliterated Hebrew: Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew: Tammûz; Arabic: تمّوز Tammūz; Akkadian: Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian:Dumuzid (DUMU.ZI(D), "faithful or true son") was the name of a Sumerian god of food and vegetation, also worshiped in the later Mesopotamian states ofAkkad, Assyria and Babylonia.
Ritual mourning[edit]
In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and, in his Akkadian form, the parallel consort of Ishtar. The Levantine Adonis ("lord"), who was drawn into the Greek pantheon, was considered byJoseph Campbell among others to be another counterpart of Tammuz,[1] son and consort. The Aramaic name "Tammuz" seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid.[citation needed] The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. Tamuzi also is Dumuzid or Dumuzi.
Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East, as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day "funeral" for the god. Recent discoveries reconfirm him as an annual life-death-rebirth deity: tablets discovered in 1963 show that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna's release,[2] though the recovered final line reveals that he is to revive for six months of each year (see below).
In cult practice, the dead Tammuz was widely mourned in the Ancient Near East. Locations associated in antiquity with the site of his death include both Harran andByblos, among others. A Sumerian tablet from Nippur (Ni 4486) reads:
- She can make the lament for you, my Dumuzid, the lament for you, the lament, the lamentation, reach the desert — she can make it reach the house Arali; she can make it reach Bad-tibira; she can make it reach Dul-šuba; she can make it reach the shepherding country, the sheepfold of Dumuzid
- "O Dumuzid of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully, "O you of the fair-spoken mouth, of the ever kind eyes," she sobs tearfully. "Lad, husband, lord, sweet as the date, [...] O Dumuzid!" she sobs, she sobs tearfully.[3]
Tammuz in the Hebrew Bible[edit]
These mourning ceremonies were observed at the door of the Temple in Jerusalem in a vision the Israelite prophet Ezekiel was given, which serves as a Biblical prophecy which expresses YHWH's message at His people's apostate worship of idols:
- "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. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these." —Ezekiel 8:14-15
It is quite possible that among other Judeans the Tammuz cult was not regarded as inconsistent with Yahwism.[4]
Ezekiel's testimony is the only direct mention of Tammuz in the Hebrew Bible, though echoes of Tammuz have been seen in the books of Isaiah, and Daniel.[5]
Dumuzid in the Sumerian king list[edit]
In the Sumerian king list two kings named Dumuzi appear:
- Dumuzid of Bad-tibira, the shepherd (reigning 36 000 years), the fifth King before the Flood
- Dumuzid of Kuara, the fisherman (reigning 100 years), the third King of the first dynasty of Uruk, reigning between Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, circa 2,700 BC.
Other Sumerian texts showed that kings were to be married to Inanna in a sacred marriage, for example a hymn that describes the sacred marriage of King Iddid-Dagan (ca 1900 BC).[6]
Dumuzid and Inanna[edit]
Today several versions of the Sumerian death of Dumuzi have been recovered, "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld", "Dumuzi's dream" and "Dumuzi and the galla", as well as a tablet separately recounting Dumuzi's death, mourned by holy Inanna, and his noble sister Geštinanna, and even his dog and the lambs and kids in his fold; Dumuzi himself is weeping at the hard fate in store for him, after he had walked among men, and the cruel galla of the Underworld seize him.[7]
A number of pastoral poems and songs relate the love affair of Inanna and Dumuzid the shepherd. A text recovered in 1963 recounts "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" in terms that are tender and frankly erotic.
According to the myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, represented in parallel Sumerian and Akkadian[8] tablets, Inanna (Ishtar in the Akkadian texts) set off for the netherworld, or Kur, which was ruled by her sister Ereshkigal, perhaps to take it as her own.[citation needed] Ereshkigal is in mourning at the death of her consort, Gugalanna (The Wild Bull of Heaven Sumerian Gu = Bull, Gal = Great, An = Heaven). She passed through seven gates and at each one was required to leave a garment or an ornament so that when she had passed through the seventh gate she was a simple woman, entirely naked. Despite warnings about her presumption, she did not turn back but dared to sit herself down on Ereshkigal's throne. Immediately the Anunnaki of the underworld judged her, gazed at her with the eyes of death, and she became a corpse, hung up on a meathook.
Based on the incomplete texts as first found, it was assumed that Ishtar/Inanna's descent into Kur occurred after the death of Tammuz/Dumuzid rather than before and that her purpose was to rescue Tammuz/Dumuzid. This is the familiar form of the myth as it appeared in M. Jastrow's Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World, 1915, widely available on the Internet. New texts uncovered in 1963 filled in the story in quite another fashion,[2] showing that Dumuzi was in fact consigned to the Underworld himself, in order to secure Inanna's release.
Inanna's faithful servant attempted to get help from the other gods but only wise Enki/Ea responded. The details of Enki/Ea's plan differ slightly in the two surviving accounts, but in the end, Inanna/Ishtar was resurrected. However, a "conservation of souls" law required her to find a replacement for herself in Kur. She went from one god to another, but each one pleaded with her and she had not the heart to go through with it until she found Dumuzid/Tammuz richly dressed and on her throne. Inanna/Ishtar immediately set her accompanying demons on Dumuzid/Tammuz. At this point the Akkadian text fails as Tammuz' sister Belili, introduced for the first time, strips herself of her jewelry in mourning but claims that Tammuz and the dead will come back.
There is some confusion here. The name Belili occurs in one of the Sumerian texts also, but it is not the name of Dumuzid's sister who is there named Geshtinana, but is the name of an old woman whom another text calls Bilulu.
In any case, the Sumerian texts relate how Dumuzid fled to his sister Geshtinana who attempted to hide him but who could not in the end stand up to the demons. Dumuzid has two close calls until the demons finally catch up with him under the supposed protection of this old woman called Bilulu or Belili and then they take him. However Inanna repents.
Inanna seeks vengeance on Bilulu, on Bilulu's murderous son G̃irg̃ire and on G̃irg̃ire's consort Shirru "of the haunted desert, no-one's child and no-one's friend". Inanna changes Bilulu into a waterskin and G̃irg̃ire into a protective god of the desert while Shirru is assigned to watch always that the proper rites are performed for protection against the hazards of the desert.
Finally, Inanna relents and changes her decree thereby restoring her husband Dumuzi to life; an arrangement is made by which Geshtinana will take Dumuzid's place in Kur for six months of the year: "You (Dumuzi), half the year. Your sister (Geštinanna), half the year!" This newly recovered final line upset Samuel Noah Kramer's former interpretation, as he allowed: "my conclusion that Dumuzi dies and "stays dead" forever (cf e.g. Mythologies of the Ancient World p. 10) was quite erroneous: Dumuzi according to the Sumerian mythographers rises from the dead annually and, after staying on earth for half the year, descends to the Nether World for the other half".[9]
The "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi"[edit]
Aside from this extended epic "The Descent of Inanna," a previously unknown "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" was first translated into English and annotated by Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer and folklorist Diane Wolkstein working in tandem, and published in 1983.[10] In this tale Inanna's lover, the shepherd-king Dumuzi, brought a wedding gift of milk in pails, yoked across his shoulders.
The myth of Inanna and Dumuzi formed the subject of a Lindisfarne Symposium, published as The Story of Inanna and Dumuzi: From Folk-Tale to Civilized Literature: A Lindisfarne Symposium, (William Irwin Thompson, editor, 1995).
In Arabic sources[edit]
Tammuz is the month of July in Iraqi Arabic and Levantine Arabic (see Arabic names of calendar months),[11] and references to Tammuz appear in Arabic literature from the 9th to 11th centuries AD.[12] In a translation of an ancient Nabataean text by Kuthami the Babylonian, Ibn Wahshiyya (c. 9th-10th century AD), adds information on his own efforts to ascertain the identity of Tammuz, and his discovery of the full details of the legend of Tammuz in another Nabataean book:
Ibn Wahshiyya also adds that Tammuz lived in Babylonia before the coming of the Chaldeans and belonged to an ancient Mesopotamian tribe called Ganbân.[12] On rituals related to Tammuz in his time, he adds that the Sabaeans in Harran and Babylonia still lamented the loss of Tammuz every July, but that the origin of the worship had been lost.[12]
Al-Nadim in his 10th century work Kitab al-Fehrest drawing from a work on Syriac calendar feast days, describes a Tâ'ûz festival that took place in the middle of the month of Tammuz.[12] Women bewailed the death of Tammuz at the hands of his master who was said to have "ground his bones in a mill and scattered them to the wind."[12] Consequently, women would forgo the eating of ground foods during the festival time.[12] The same festival is mentioned in the 11th century by Ibn Athir as still taking place at the appointed time on the banks of the Tigris river.[12]
Literary references[edit]
- John Milton, "Paradise Lost", Book I
- Oscar Wilde, "Charmides"
Church of the Nativity and Shrine of Adonis-Tammuz[edit]
According to some scholars,[14] the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built over a cave that was originally a shrine to Adonis-Tammuz.
Performances[edit]
A performance of Inanna's descent to the Underworld was organised in 2001 at the Cove in Denmark, Western Australia, and it has also been used by Jean Houston as a part of her Mystery School work.
References[edit]
- ^ Joseph Campbell "the dead and resurrected god Tammuz (Sumerian Dumuzi), prototype of the Classical Adonis, who was the consort as well as son by virgin birth, of the goddess-mother of many names: Inanna, Ninhursag, Ishtar, Astarte, Artemis, Demeter, Aphrodite, Venus" (in Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God pp 39-40).
- ^ a b Edwin M. Yamauchi, "Tammuz and the Bible" Journal of Biblical Literature 84.3 (September 1965:283-290).
- ^ Inana and Bilulu: an ulila to Inana, from Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (Oxford)[1][2]
- ^ Women's Bible Commentary | edited by Carol Ann Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe | Westminster John Knox Press, 1998 | pg 197
- ^ The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel | By Mark S. Smith | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002 | pg 182
- ^ Samuel Noah Kramer, "Cuneiform studies and the history of literature: The Sumerian sacred marriage texts", ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107 (1963:485-527).
- ^ Samuel Noah Kramer, "The Death of Dumuzi: A New Sumerian Version" Anatolian Studies 30, Special Number in Honour of the Seventieth Birthday of Professor O. R. Gurney (1980:5-13).
- ^ Two editions, one ca 1000 BCE found at Ashur, the other mid seventh century BCE from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.
- ^ S. N. Kramer, "Dumuzi's Annual Resurrection: An Important Correction to 'Inanna's Descent'" Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 183 (October 1966:31), interpreting this newly-recovered final line as uttered by Inanna, though the immediately preceding context is incomplete.
- ^ Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer editors/translators 1983. Inanna, Queen of Heaven & Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. (New York: Harper Colophon).
- ^ Cragg, 1991, p. 260.
- ^ a b c d e f g Fuller, 1864, pp. 200-201.
- ^ de Azevedo and Stoddart, 2005, pp. 308-309.
- ^ Giuseppe Ricciotti, Vita di Gesù Cristo, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana (1948) p. 276 n.
- ^ NPNF2-06. Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome
- ^ Marcello Craveri, The Life of Jesus, Grove Press (1967) pp. 35-36
Bibliography[edit]
- de Azevedo, Mateus Soares; Stoddart, William (FWD) (2005), Ye shall know the truth: Christianity and the perennial philosophy, World Wisdom, Inc, ISBN 9780941532693
- Cragg, Kenneth (1991), The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 9780664221829
- Fuller, John Mee (1864), Essay on the Authenticity of the Book of Daniel, Deighton, Bell and co.
Further reading[edit]
- Campbell, Joseph, 1962, Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
- Campbell, Joseph, 1964. Occidental Mythology: The Masks of God (New York:Viking Penguin)
- Kramer, Samuel Noah and Diane Wolkstein, 1983. Inanna : Queen of Heaven and Earth (New York : Harper & Row) ISBN 0-06-090854-8
- Jacobsen, Thorkild, 1976, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press)
Dumuzid or 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[edit]
"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:
- Inanna's descent to the netherworld: Inanna, after descending to the underworld, is allowed to return, but only with an unwanted entourage of demons, who insist on taking away a notable person in her place. She dissuades the demons from taking the rulers of Umma and Bad-tibira, who are sitting in dirt and rags. However, when they come to Uruk, they find Dumuzid the Shepherd sitting in palatial opulence, and seize him immediately, taking him into the underworld as Inanna's substitute.
- Dumuzid and Ngeshtin-ana: Inanna gives Dumuzid over to the demons as her substitute; they proceed to violate him, but he escapes to the home of his sister, Ngeshtin-ana (Geshtinanna). The demons pursue Dumuzid there, and eventually find him hiding in the pasture.
- Dumuzid and his sister: Fragmentary. Dumuzid's sister seems to be mourning his death in this tablet.
- Dumuzid's dream: In this account, Dumuzid dreams of his own death and tells Ngeshtin-ana, who tells him it is a sign that he is about to be toppled in an uprising by evil and hungry men (also described as galla, 'demons') who are coming to Uruk for the king.[1] No sooner does she speak this, than men of Adab, Akshak, Uruk, Ur, and Nippur are indeed sighted coming for him with clubs. Dumuzid resolves to hide in the district of Alali, but they finally catch him. He escapes from them and reaches to the district of Kubiresh, but they catch him again. Escaping again to the house of Old Woman Bilulu, he is again caught, but then escapes once more to his sister's home. There he is caught a last time, hiding in the pasture, and killed.
- Inanna and Bilulu: This describes how Inanna avenges her lover Dumuzid's death, by killing Old Woman Bilulu.
Deity[edit]
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 (anallallu-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 [according to whom?] is the Northern orRed-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]
Sources[edit]
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dalley, Stephanie (tr.), Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991, p. 129, n. 56
- ^ Sandars, Nancy K., The Epic of Gilgamesh, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1960, 1972, p. 86
- ^ Dalley, Stephanie (tr.), Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991, pp. 78-79
- ^ Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson, The Ancient Near East: A History, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1971, p. 32
What if Lugh was the same as Tammuz?
(1/1)
Muireagain:
I have previous expressed my belief, in this forum, that the young heroic gods of Celtic literature (Lugh, Lleu, Gwri, Curoi, Mabon, Mac Oc) are one and the same and I derive this from parallels with the Slavic young heroic god Yarilo. I see the same analogy with Tammuz of Syria. (This is not very surprising for Yarilo is already associated with Tammuz.)
Take this passage from the Old Testament: Ezek. 8:14 to 16 “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. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”
Ezek. 8:14 and weeping women reflect the Arabic writer of the tenth century description of the rites observed by the heathen Syrians of Harran, the Arabic writer says: “Tammuz (July). In the middle of this month is the festival of el-Bûgât, that is, of the weeping women, and this is the Tâ-uz festival, which is celebrated in honour of the god Tâ-uz. The women bewail him, because his lord slew him so cruelly, ground his bones in a mill, and then scattered them to the wind. The women (during this festival) eat nothing which has been ground in a mill, but limit their diet to steeped wheat, sweet vetches, dates, raisins, and the like.” Tâ-uz is identified by Fraser as Tammuz.
In "The Feast of Saint Martin in Ireland" by Seán O Súilleabháin, we learn of the Irish tradition of St Martin being ground to death in a mill.
“Apart from the shedding of blood in honor of Saint Martin, Ireland also has a great many traditional legends which associate the saint with mills. A few may be summarized here: (a) Saint Martin sees a miller at work on November 11 (the Saint’s own feast day) and demands that, in accordance with popular custom, the wheel should cease to turn on that day;3 the miller refuses to stop the mill, and when the saint insists, throws Martin into the mill, where he is ground to pieces. (b) Martin is employed in a mill the owner of which orders his unwilling workmen to work as usual on November 11; Martin refuses, saying that no wheel should turn on that day, and the miller casts him under the wheel and grinds him to death. (c) Martin, who is a miller, insists on working on November 11, but instead of getting meal as a result, he finds that sprouting corn issues from between the millstones; he never again uses his mill on that day.(d) Martin, who is employed in a mill, is thrown between the wheels when he refuses to work on Sunday. (e) A miller refuses to stop work on the saint’s feast day, and his mill is swallowed up by the river; from that time forth , his former customers their corn on the riverbank each night and find it ground by morning; this goes on until someone steals a portion of the corn from the riverbank by night; the miraculous milling ceases thenceforward. (f) Our Saviour, disguised as a poor man, asks Martin, a poor miller, for some food; Martin has none to give but divides his cloak with the poor man4; Martin’s mill prospers from that day forth.
These legends of Martin’s violent death, which are well known in Ireland, have either given rise to or are based upon the belief that no mill wheel should turn on St. Martin’s Day.”
Though this is nineteenth century folklore, the grinding death appears earlier in ninth-century Ireland:
"THE TRAGICAL DEATH OF DIARMAIT'S THREE SONS.
The same tale is found in Rawl. B. 502, fo. 73 b and 74 b. Cf. also the Felire, p. Ixxxviii.
[Translation]
1. The sons of Diarmait son of Fergus Wiymouth, Dunchad, Conall and Maelodor, went once on a foray into the land of Leinster, where they chanced upon Maelodrán son of Dimma Cr?n. The sons of Diarmait overtook him, for he was on foot, and could not get his horse from Deoraid, his gillie (his bridleman, R. 502), who went however on the horse to his help. The horse ran (too far, R. 502) among the host, and the gillie was slain. At the cry of Maelodrán the horse started and raised his side to him, after leaving the gillie behind. Thereupon Maelodrán got on his horse, and mingled with the host and chased them. The sons of Diarmait ran before him towards a mill, and went and were about the carr of the millshaft in the millpool.
2. Then he went up to them along the millpool. There was an old woman there grinding in the mill. It occurred to him to kill them through the pressure of the shaft. ' Let it go, thou hag!' saith Maelodrán. They were crushed round the shaft, for the men were young, so that the three sons of the king of Ireland fell by him. Hence Ultan sang:
O mill,
That hast ground corn of wheat,
It was no crushing of oats (?)-
Thou groundest on Cerball's grandsons.
The grain the mill grindeth,
Is not oats but it is red wheat;
Of the branch of the great tree was
The feed of Mael-odrán's mill."
The death by being grinded like barleycorn is an impossibility as detailed in Mac Eoin’s paper 'The Death of the Boys in the Mill' Celtica XV, 1983, 60-64. (Mac Eoin argues that Mael Odran must have crushed the (three) boys with his own physical strength.)
As the form of death is impossibility and described in verse, I can only wonder if it once had religious connotations as in Tammuz’s harvest death.
Though I do not known who Green Martin stands for (Green George is regarded as Tammuz), Dr hOgain in Encyclopedia states a belief that Lugh represents a Harvest Cult. Though I know not his reasoning, I am sure Dr hOgain has proof of such a connection to make such a statement.
So could Irish month of Lugnasad (as the month of Tammuz is) be the month of the harvest (grinding) death of Lug?
Ezek. 8:16 and “they worshipped the sun toward the east” reminds me such quoted passage from “The Fate of the Children of Turenn”: “It is then Bres, son of Elathan, rose up and said: ‘It is a wonder to me the sun to be rising in the west to-day, and it rising in the east every other day.’ ‘It would be better for us it to be the sun,’ said the Druids. ‘What else is it?" said he. "It is the shining of the face of Lugh, son of Ethlinn,’ said they.”
Certainly Lugh (and Gwri) can be regards to share solar attributes with Tammuz.
Of course the problem with associating Lugh with Tammuz is void in the worship, of such a nature young solar vegetation god, between Syria and western Celts. But yet suppose such a linkage, what happens to Irish mythology if you regard Lugh (Gwri) as Tammuz?
I have previous expressed my belief, in this forum, that the young heroic gods of Celtic literature (Lugh, Lleu, Gwri, Curoi, Mabon, Mac Oc) are one and the same and I derive this from parallels with the Slavic young heroic god Yarilo. I see the same analogy with Tammuz of Syria. (This is not very surprising for Yarilo is already associated with Tammuz.)
Take this passage from the Old Testament: Ezek. 8:14 to 16 “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. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”
Ezek. 8:14 and weeping women reflect the Arabic writer of the tenth century description of the rites observed by the heathen Syrians of Harran, the Arabic writer says: “Tammuz (July). In the middle of this month is the festival of el-Bûgât, that is, of the weeping women, and this is the Tâ-uz festival, which is celebrated in honour of the god Tâ-uz. The women bewail him, because his lord slew him so cruelly, ground his bones in a mill, and then scattered them to the wind. The women (during this festival) eat nothing which has been ground in a mill, but limit their diet to steeped wheat, sweet vetches, dates, raisins, and the like.” Tâ-uz is identified by Fraser as Tammuz.
In "The Feast of Saint Martin in Ireland" by Seán O Súilleabháin, we learn of the Irish tradition of St Martin being ground to death in a mill.
“Apart from the shedding of blood in honor of Saint Martin, Ireland also has a great many traditional legends which associate the saint with mills. A few may be summarized here: (a) Saint Martin sees a miller at work on November 11 (the Saint’s own feast day) and demands that, in accordance with popular custom, the wheel should cease to turn on that day;3 the miller refuses to stop the mill, and when the saint insists, throws Martin into the mill, where he is ground to pieces. (b) Martin is employed in a mill the owner of which orders his unwilling workmen to work as usual on November 11; Martin refuses, saying that no wheel should turn on that day, and the miller casts him under the wheel and grinds him to death. (c) Martin, who is a miller, insists on working on November 11, but instead of getting meal as a result, he finds that sprouting corn issues from between the millstones; he never again uses his mill on that day.(d) Martin, who is employed in a mill, is thrown between the wheels when he refuses to work on Sunday. (e) A miller refuses to stop work on the saint’s feast day, and his mill is swallowed up by the river; from that time forth , his former customers their corn on the riverbank each night and find it ground by morning; this goes on until someone steals a portion of the corn from the riverbank by night; the miraculous milling ceases thenceforward. (f) Our Saviour, disguised as a poor man, asks Martin, a poor miller, for some food; Martin has none to give but divides his cloak with the poor man4; Martin’s mill prospers from that day forth.
These legends of Martin’s violent death, which are well known in Ireland, have either given rise to or are based upon the belief that no mill wheel should turn on St. Martin’s Day.”
Though this is nineteenth century folklore, the grinding death appears earlier in ninth-century Ireland:
"THE TRAGICAL DEATH OF DIARMAIT'S THREE SONS.
The same tale is found in Rawl. B. 502, fo. 73 b and 74 b. Cf. also the Felire, p. Ixxxviii.
[Translation]
1. The sons of Diarmait son of Fergus Wiymouth, Dunchad, Conall and Maelodor, went once on a foray into the land of Leinster, where they chanced upon Maelodrán son of Dimma Cr?n. The sons of Diarmait overtook him, for he was on foot, and could not get his horse from Deoraid, his gillie (his bridleman, R. 502), who went however on the horse to his help. The horse ran (too far, R. 502) among the host, and the gillie was slain. At the cry of Maelodrán the horse started and raised his side to him, after leaving the gillie behind. Thereupon Maelodrán got on his horse, and mingled with the host and chased them. The sons of Diarmait ran before him towards a mill, and went and were about the carr of the millshaft in the millpool.
2. Then he went up to them along the millpool. There was an old woman there grinding in the mill. It occurred to him to kill them through the pressure of the shaft. ' Let it go, thou hag!' saith Maelodrán. They were crushed round the shaft, for the men were young, so that the three sons of the king of Ireland fell by him. Hence Ultan sang:
O mill,
That hast ground corn of wheat,
It was no crushing of oats (?)-
Thou groundest on Cerball's grandsons.
The grain the mill grindeth,
Is not oats but it is red wheat;
Of the branch of the great tree was
The feed of Mael-odrán's mill."
The death by being grinded like barleycorn is an impossibility as detailed in Mac Eoin’s paper 'The Death of the Boys in the Mill' Celtica XV, 1983, 60-64. (Mac Eoin argues that Mael Odran must have crushed the (three) boys with his own physical strength.)
As the form of death is impossibility and described in verse, I can only wonder if it once had religious connotations as in Tammuz’s harvest death.
Though I do not known who Green Martin stands for (Green George is regarded as Tammuz), Dr hOgain in Encyclopedia states a belief that Lugh represents a Harvest Cult. Though I know not his reasoning, I am sure Dr hOgain has proof of such a connection to make such a statement.
So could Irish month of Lugnasad (as the month of Tammuz is) be the month of the harvest (grinding) death of Lug?
Ezek. 8:16 and “they worshipped the sun toward the east” reminds me such quoted passage from “The Fate of the Children of Turenn”: “It is then Bres, son of Elathan, rose up and said: ‘It is a wonder to me the sun to be rising in the west to-day, and it rising in the east every other day.’ ‘It would be better for us it to be the sun,’ said the Druids. ‘What else is it?" said he. "It is the shining of the face of Lugh, son of Ethlinn,’ said they.”
Certainly Lugh (and Gwri) can be regards to share solar attributes with Tammuz.
Of course the problem with associating Lugh with Tammuz is void in the worship, of such a nature young solar vegetation god, between Syria and western Celts. But yet suppose such a linkage, what happens to Irish mythology if you regard Lugh (Gwri) as Tammuz?
QuercusRobur:
I don't think anything would happen to Irish mythology.
You seem to be lumping a whole load of gods into one entity. Lugh is definately not the same as Angus Mac Og - the first is associated with all arts and crafts and the second with lovers.
I thought this site was for those with a Celtic path, not for eclectics who lump various deities together and say they're the same thing?
I don't think anything would happen to Irish mythology.
You seem to be lumping a whole load of gods into one entity. Lugh is definately not the same as Angus Mac Og - the first is associated with all arts and crafts and the second with lovers.
I thought this site was for those with a Celtic path, not for eclectics who lump various deities together and say they're the same thing?
Muireagain:
Next you'll be thinking that Feast of Tara held on Samhain (All Saints Day, i.e. Halloween), was in early Irish Literature associated with November?
From Dr Binchy paper “Fair of Tailtiu and Feast of Tara” in Eriu XVIII
“[(Eriu XIV. 14 ff.) O’Rahilly] … Professor Carney (Studies in E.I Literature, pp. 334 f.), who argues convincingly that in the light of the evidence collected by O’Rahilly the Feast of Tara as recorded in the annals, was the ancient ritual by which the kings of Tara were inaugurated. He also rightly stress the sexual connotation of the word feis (v.n. of foiad) in this symbolical mating of the king with the goddess; for this is the supreme fertility rite, designed to secure that man and beast and earth shall be fruitful throughout the king’s dominions. Hence, despite the virtually uniform testimony of the later sources, it is unlikely to have has any connexion with the festival of Samain and the dying year; on the contrary, one would expect it to be held, like similar rites the world over, at seed-time.” (Bolding is mine for emphasize.)
But back to your original comment Angus Og Mac. He is already associated with Maponos, Mabon, Gwri and Curi (by Dr Loomis and by Dr Gruffydd). I just added Lugh/Lleu into the mix for I think there is strong analogy in these two young heroic gods.
So is there anything in assuming that there is one youthful Celtic hero who compares well with role of Tammuz (who identified as Dumuzi and Baal or with Slavic Yarilo and Green George or in Turkey with Khidir (http://khidr.org/hizir.htm).
Quote:
"A Muslim writer in about AD 900 compared St. George with the Mesopotamian God Tammuz. Moslems also identified St. George with the mysterious prophet Khidr , known as the Verdant One and whose footsteps leave a green imprint. Khidr shares his day, 23 April, with the Saint. — William Anderson, The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth"
What if we equate Lleu as a Celtic version of Tammuz (god of summer and the cereal crop (barelycorn))? Then in the story of ‘Math fab Mathonwy Lleu’, Lleu’s marriage with Blodeuwedd (who equated with Bláthnat wife of Curoi/Gwri) represents the arrival of summer and his death would be the harvest and like Yarilo (or the son of the Cailleach) his returns marks the triumph of summer over winter. And so the cycle continues.
Next you'll be thinking that Feast of Tara held on Samhain (All Saints Day, i.e. Halloween), was in early Irish Literature associated with November?
From Dr Binchy paper “Fair of Tailtiu and Feast of Tara” in Eriu XVIII
“[(Eriu XIV. 14 ff.) O’Rahilly] … Professor Carney (Studies in E.I Literature, pp. 334 f.), who argues convincingly that in the light of the evidence collected by O’Rahilly the Feast of Tara as recorded in the annals, was the ancient ritual by which the kings of Tara were inaugurated. He also rightly stress the sexual connotation of the word feis (v.n. of foiad) in this symbolical mating of the king with the goddess; for this is the supreme fertility rite, designed to secure that man and beast and earth shall be fruitful throughout the king’s dominions. Hence, despite the virtually uniform testimony of the later sources, it is unlikely to have has any connexion with the festival of Samain and the dying year; on the contrary, one would expect it to be held, like similar rites the world over, at seed-time.” (Bolding is mine for emphasize.)
But back to your original comment Angus Og Mac. He is already associated with Maponos, Mabon, Gwri and Curi (by Dr Loomis and by Dr Gruffydd). I just added Lugh/Lleu into the mix for I think there is strong analogy in these two young heroic gods.
So is there anything in assuming that there is one youthful Celtic hero who compares well with role of Tammuz (who identified as Dumuzi and Baal or with Slavic Yarilo and Green George or in Turkey with Khidir (http://khidr.org/hizir.htm).
Quote:
"A Muslim writer in about AD 900 compared St. George with the Mesopotamian God Tammuz. Moslems also identified St. George with the mysterious prophet Khidr , known as the Verdant One and whose footsteps leave a green imprint. Khidr shares his day, 23 April, with the Saint. — William Anderson, The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth"
What if we equate Lleu as a Celtic version of Tammuz (god of summer and the cereal crop (barelycorn))? Then in the story of ‘Math fab Mathonwy Lleu’, Lleu’s marriage with Blodeuwedd (who equated with Bláthnat wife of Curoi/Gwri) represents the arrival of summer and his death would be the harvest and like Yarilo (or the son of the Cailleach) his returns marks the triumph of summer over winter. And so the cycle continues.
Muireagain:
Instead of starting a new thread, I have tagged this on the end this previous topic for it association with Samain:
Beltaine according to the surviving version of Cormac glossary and the “Wooing of Emer”: every year fire was kindled by Druids for Biel, a idol god of prosperity. Then with great incantations newly born, of every livestock, would be driven through the fires to purify (“given over into the possession of Bel”) against plagues.
It seems a similar custom of purification by fire was once practiced in Rome at the yearly festival of Palilla (April 21st). (The day also became the celebration of the birthday of Rome.)
Description of Palilia from Ovid Fasti Book IV (beginning years of 1st century AD):
“…
Of beans, in chaste purification, in my full hands:
Indeed, I’ve leapt the threefold line of flames,
…
Saying: ‘Protect the cattle and masters alike:
And drive everything harmful from my stalls.
…
Huge cakes for Pales, Mistress of the shepherds.’
…
Then leap, with nimble feet and straining thighs
Over the crackling heaps of burning straw.
…
They and their cattle leaping through the flames,
…”
Propertius: The Elegies: Book IV.1:1-70 Rome and its history (end years of 1st century BC):
“they celebrated the Parilla, annually, with bonfires of straw, and such purification as we repeat now with the docked horse’s blood.”
Fraser links this fiery festival of Palilia with the Slavic purification fires of St George’s Day festival, on April 23. He notes the Estonians burnt sulphur on St George’s Day in a custom similar to the Romans on Palilia. He also offers a quote from Shakespear to show the English also lighted fires on St George’s Day.
Independently I find the Turk’s also celebrated St George’s Day, they call is Hidirellez. Hidirellez is from the combination of Khidir-Elias. (St Elijah the Thunderer was identified by Slavs with the supreme thunder god Perun and George (equated to Khidir) with his son Yarilo (equated to Tammuz).
These fires of purification are also found amongst the pagans of the Old Testament:
Jeremiah 32:35:
35And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
2 Kings 23
9Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
10And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
11And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
Leviticus 18:21:
21And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
(Moloch has been equated with Baal who also appears in the Old Testament.)
Around 1921 Prof Eoin Mac Neill presented the idea that Moloch (who child sacrifice is associated with, though probably through a corruption of the idea of passing through his flames of purification/baptism) was the biblical model used to describe Crom Cruaich and his child sacrifices.
If you willing for a moment to assuming that Crom Cruaich is a god like Moloch/Baal and that the fires of Moloch are the same custom ascribed to the fires of Bial, then Crom Cruaich (an idol god) is equatable with Biel (another idol god). Yet Biel was celebrated at Cet-Samain and Crom Cruiach on Samain?
Well asking myself this question: I noticed that the sacfice for Crom Cruiach at Samain, is for Milk and corn! Yet if this Samain was held in November it becomes defunct to ask for corn, with the blood of childern, because the harvest is in. Following the same line of reasoning that says that the fertility rites of the “Feast of Tara” could not have been consider to have been held at the death of summer, but at seeding time. It only makes sense that if you are going to make sacifices for corn, it to should be held at seeding time with the uncertainy of the growing season ahead of you...
(Post Script: Further reading 'The strange world of human sacrifice By Jan N. Bremmer', introduces the ideas of Old Testment scholar O. Eissfeldt (1887-1973). Who understood mōlek in relation to Punic molk/mulk, a cogante common name as part of child sacifice terminology. The Imlk phrases should be rendered in the following way: 'to cause one's son/daughter to pass through the fire as a molk-sacrifice.' Bottomline through distortion Molek, a ritual activity, became a seperate god Moloch.)
Instead of starting a new thread, I have tagged this on the end this previous topic for it association with Samain:
Beltaine according to the surviving version of Cormac glossary and the “Wooing of Emer”: every year fire was kindled by Druids for Biel, a idol god of prosperity. Then with great incantations newly born, of every livestock, would be driven through the fires to purify (“given over into the possession of Bel”) against plagues.
It seems a similar custom of purification by fire was once practiced in Rome at the yearly festival of Palilla (April 21st). (The day also became the celebration of the birthday of Rome.)
Description of Palilia from Ovid Fasti Book IV (beginning years of 1st century AD):
“…
Of beans, in chaste purification, in my full hands:
Indeed, I’ve leapt the threefold line of flames,
…
Saying: ‘Protect the cattle and masters alike:
And drive everything harmful from my stalls.
…
Huge cakes for Pales, Mistress of the shepherds.’
…
Then leap, with nimble feet and straining thighs
Over the crackling heaps of burning straw.
…
They and their cattle leaping through the flames,
…”
Propertius: The Elegies: Book IV.1:1-70 Rome and its history (end years of 1st century BC):
“they celebrated the Parilla, annually, with bonfires of straw, and such purification as we repeat now with the docked horse’s blood.”
Fraser links this fiery festival of Palilia with the Slavic purification fires of St George’s Day festival, on April 23. He notes the Estonians burnt sulphur on St George’s Day in a custom similar to the Romans on Palilia. He also offers a quote from Shakespear to show the English also lighted fires on St George’s Day.
Independently I find the Turk’s also celebrated St George’s Day, they call is Hidirellez. Hidirellez is from the combination of Khidir-Elias. (St Elijah the Thunderer was identified by Slavs with the supreme thunder god Perun and George (equated to Khidir) with his son Yarilo (equated to Tammuz).
These fires of purification are also found amongst the pagans of the Old Testament:
Jeremiah 32:35:
35And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
2 Kings 23
9Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
10And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
11And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
Leviticus 18:21:
21And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
(Moloch has been equated with Baal who also appears in the Old Testament.)
Around 1921 Prof Eoin Mac Neill presented the idea that Moloch (who child sacrifice is associated with, though probably through a corruption of the idea of passing through his flames of purification/baptism) was the biblical model used to describe Crom Cruaich and his child sacrifices.
If you willing for a moment to assuming that Crom Cruaich is a god like Moloch/Baal and that the fires of Moloch are the same custom ascribed to the fires of Bial, then Crom Cruaich (an idol god) is equatable with Biel (another idol god). Yet Biel was celebrated at Cet-Samain and Crom Cruiach on Samain?
Well asking myself this question: I noticed that the sacfice for Crom Cruiach at Samain, is for Milk and corn! Yet if this Samain was held in November it becomes defunct to ask for corn, with the blood of childern, because the harvest is in. Following the same line of reasoning that says that the fertility rites of the “Feast of Tara” could not have been consider to have been held at the death of summer, but at seeding time. It only makes sense that if you are going to make sacifices for corn, it to should be held at seeding time with the uncertainy of the growing season ahead of you...
(Post Script: Further reading 'The strange world of human sacrifice By Jan N. Bremmer', introduces the ideas of Old Testment scholar O. Eissfeldt (1887-1973). Who understood mōlek in relation to Punic molk/mulk, a cogante common name as part of child sacifice terminology. The Imlk phrases should be rendered in the following way: 'to cause one's son/daughter to pass through the fire as a molk-sacrifice.' Bottomline through distortion Molek, a ritual activity, became a seperate god Moloch.)
Nature Sex: Jesus and Adonis / Tammuz Similarities
Posted on December 2nd, by Derek Murphy in Pagan Christs.
Tammuz (Sumerian Dumuzi) was the consort of Ishtar. He is mentioned, already in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as a suffering lover of the goddess, a shepherd beloved and scapegoat of the netherworld. When Ishtar tries to become Gilgamesh’s lover, he points out that her past lovers have not fared well. “Dumuzi, the lover of your youth, year upon year, to lamenting you doomed him.” (Gilgamesh 137) When Gilgamesh is mourning the death of Enkidu, he presents a carnelian flute for “Dumuzi, shepherd beloved of Ishtar”, so that he may welcome his friend and walk at his side (epic of Gilgamesh, translated Andrew George, 68). Thus Dumuzi, who was thought to have been originally a historical king that entered into sexual union with the goddess, had also been considered a god in his own right more than three thousand years ago. His demise is tied to the story of Ianna’s descent into the underworld. The reason she gives for entering the underworld is to attend her brother-in-law’s funeral rites (Gugalana, the Bull of Heaven which had just been killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu). After she decides to go down into the Great Below, she leaves instructions for her rescue in case she does not return. As she descends, she is required to remove one of her seven layers of clothing at each of the seven gates, until she stood before Ereshkigal, queen of the underworld, naked and humble. Ereshkigal ‘fixed the eye of death’ upon her and she was turned into a corpse, and hung from a hook on the wall like a piece of rotting meat. After three days and three nights, her servant Ninshubar, following instructions, tried to get the gods to save her. Only one, Enki, agreed to help. He fashioned two sexless creatures from the dirt under the fingernails of the gods, and gave them the food and water of life to sprinkle on Ianna’s corpse. She returned to life, and Ereshkigal agreed to release her, but she had to provide another in her place. When she came back to heaven she found Dumuzi enjoying himself in her absence (on her throne or under a tree), rather than mourning for her, and ‘fixed the eye of death’ upon him. The demons took him down to Hell; however his sister loved him so much she wanted to go in his place. So, Dumuzi spends half of the year in the underworld, while his sister spends half. During the time that Dumuzi is in the underworld, his lover Ianna misses him; this infertile time was fall and winter. When Dumuzi returns from the underworld and he is with Ianna, their love fills the world with life, causing spring and summer. The poetry of their love is graphic – but also reminiscent of the biblical Song of Songs.
“My untilled land lies fallow.
As for me, Inanna,
Who will plow my vulva!
Who will plow my high field!
Who will plow my wet ground!”
“Great Lady, the king will plow your vulva.
I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your vulva.”“Make your milk sweet and thick, my bridegroom.
My shepherd, I will drink your fresh milk.
Wild bull, Dumuzi, make your milk sweet and thick.
I will drink your fresh milk.
Let the milk of the goat flow in my sheepfold.
Fill my holy churn with honey cheese.”
This story is remarkably similar to the myth of Demeter and Persephone; both explain the coming of winter through a goddess grieving for a lost loved one, who then returns.A cult ritual for Dumuzi as the Dying God “began with laments sung as a sacred cedar tree growing in the compound of the temple Eanna in Uruk. The rite seems to have closed with a triumphant procession that followed the god downstream. The god appears to represent the sap lying dormant in the rushes and trees during the dry season but reviving, to the profound relief and joy of the orchardman, with the river’s rise.” – Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness.
The mourning of Tammuz was a widespread annual ritual, which even appears in the Bible. Yahweh, giving Ezekial a sort of tour of the idolatry being practiced by the Israelites, points out the women sitting by the entrance to the north gate of the Temple of Yahweh, weeping for Tammuz. “Son of man, do you see that? You will see even more loathsome things than that,” he says (Ezek. 8:14). In Greek communities, Tammuz was called Adonis, and he was considered a consort of Aphrodite. The cult of Adonis existed in Sappho and Lesbos as early as 600BC. As Adonis is a mutation or evolved form of Tammus, in a different cultural setting, the two figures are not exactly the same. The cult of Aphrodite’s paramour Adonis held a special appeal for Greek women, combining the erotic adoration of a beautiful youth with the emotional catharsis of lamentation for his death. The Adonis cult was an early import from the Levant, probably via Cyprus, but while many of the outward forms remained the same, its cultural context and significance changed.
Adonis was modeled upon Tammuz, the consort of Ishtar whose death was annually lamented by women, and his name is a direct borrowing of the West Semitic adon, Lord (Larson 124). There are multiple versions of Adonis’ birth story, but the commonly accepted version is that Aphrodite urged Myrrha to commit incest with her father, Theias. Myrrha slept with her father in the darkness, until he used and oil lamp to learn the truth and chased after her with a knife. Aphrodite turned Myrrha into a myrrh tree, out of which Adonis was born (either when Theias shot an arrow in the tree, or when a boar tore of the bark with its tusks).
He was such a beautiful baby that Aphrodite locked him in a trunk and gave him to Persephone, queen of the underworld, for safe keeping; however Persephone was so enthralled by him that she refused to return him. Finally Zeus decided that he would be shared – six months with Aphrodite, who later seduced him, and six months with Persephone. (Hamilton) According to Ovid in The Metamorphoses, Adonis met his death by a wild boar. Aprhodite (Roman Venus), who’d been pricked by Eros’ arrow of love, specifically warned him to be careful and stay away from wild beasts:
The wild and large are much too wild for you; My dear, remember that sweet Venus loves you, And if you walk in danger, so does she. Nature has armed her monsters to destroy you –Even your valour would be grief to me. (Ovid, Metamorphoses X)
But the young Adonis ignored her warning (due to “pride and manliness”) and headed off into the wood with his hunting dogs, where he woke a great boar. The boar pierced his white loins with a great thrust, and Adonis bled to death. Although the cult of Tammuz “enjoyed near-universal recognition in Mesopotamia and his festival was so important that a Babylonian month was named after him” (Larson 124), worship of Adonis, although popular, rarely gained state sponsorship. It was viewed as a foreign cult; moreover Adonis was mostly mourned by women, in rituals not tied to a sanctuary, temple or sacred space.Women sit by the gate weeping for Tammuz, or they offer incense to Baal on roof-tops and plant pleasant plants.
These are the very features of the Adonis cult: a cult confined to women which is celebrated on flat roof-tops on which sherds sown with quickly germinating green salading are placed, Adonis gardens… the climax is loud lamentation for the dead god. (Burkert 177)
To perform the Adonia, which took place in late summer, women ascended to the roof, where they sang dirges, cried out in grief, and beat their breasts. Sappho (fr. 140a LP) mentions that the women tore their garments, a standard sign of mourning. Other features of of Adonis’ ritual belon to the cult in Classical Athens. A few days before the Adonia, garden herbs and cereals were sown in broken pots. These tender young plants were brought to the rooftops during the festival, to be withered in the hot sun as emblems of the youthful Adonis’ death. Another custom involved the laying out of Adonis dolls for burial. (Larson 124)
Frazer notes the similarity between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the cult of Adonis; the tradition is much the same even today. They bring out an effigy of the dead Jesus and parade it through town, mourning. They bury it, fasting, and then at midnight on Saturday, cry “Christ is risen!” (Incidentally, it may be noted that “Christ”, like Adonis, is a title meaning lord, or messiah, rather than a specific name; Adonis is even a name for Yahweh in the Old Testament). The resurrection of Jesus was met with joy, shouting, shrieks, and partaking of the Easter lamb (Frazer, 416). Frazer concludes that the Christian celebration of Easter was modeled on the earlier ritual concerning Adonis:
When we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis, which, as we have seen reason to believe, was celebrated in Syria in the same season. (Frazer 416)
More recent research has denied the claim that Adonis’ resurrection was celebrated; instead the focus always seems to be on the mourning of his death rather than his revival. However, Frazer may have had the cult of Attis in mind, which was very similar to that of Adonis, and did stress, not only the death, but the return of the god.