Forms of Tammuz—­The Weeping Ceremony—­Tammuz the Patriarch and the Dying God—­Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic God—­The Mediterranean Racial Myth—­Animal Forms of Gods of Fertility—­Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz—­Attis, Adonis, and Diarmid Slain by a Boar—­Laments for Tammuz—­His Soul in Underworld and the Deep—­Myth of the Child God of Ocean—­Sargon Myth Version—­The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf—­Tammuz Links with Frey, Heimdal, Agni, &c.—­Assyrian Legend of “Descent of Ishtar”—­Sumerian Version—­The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar—­The Egyptian Isis and Nepthys—­Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives—­Great Mothers of Babylonia—­Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods—­The Various Indras—­Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth—­Lovers of Germanic and Classic Goddesses—­The Lovers of Ishtar—­Racial Significance of Goddess Cult—­The Great Fathers and their Worshippers—­Process of Racial and Religious Fusion—­Ishtar and Tiamat—­Mother Worship in Palestine—­Women among Goddess Worshippers.

Among the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of Heaven—­the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to life again.  He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent part in the religious life of the people.

Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, “Tammuz of the Abyss”.  He was also “the child”, “the heroic lord”, “the sentinel”, “the healer”, and the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a considerable period.  “Tammuz of the Abyss” was one of the members of the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, “world destroyer”, Burnunta-sa, “broad ear”, and Bara and Baragulla, probably “revealers” or “oracles”.  In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga, “child of the renowned spirit”.  She may have been identical with Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of Tammuz.  This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina.  Tammuz, in his character as a patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods:  the human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to grow corn and cultivate fruit trees.  As the youth who perished annually, he was the corn spirit.  He is referred to in the Bible by his Babylonian name.

When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and “every form of creeping things and abominable beasts”—­a suggestion of the composite monsters of Babylonia—­he was brought “to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz".[105]