This freedom of the soul was also affirmed by Sumerians, evolving in a solar epistemology [xxxiv], because Kramer informs us about Sumerian religious views that the soul flies from
Dumuzi's body "like falcon flies against another bird" [xxxv].
This is reminiscent of the galla-demons who hunt
Dumuzi in
Dumuzi and Geshtinana (1.
However, MUL.APIN itself provides a possible explanation: It identifies the celestial Hired Laborer with the shepherd-god
Dumuzi. Accepting this interpretation of the Hired Laborer as the shepherd-god
Dumuzi, the Greek zodiacal Ram can be read as the Leader of the Flock of
Dumuzi.
(15) En el mito de Inanna (la Afrodita sumeria), Enkidu representa la agricultura y su rival
Dumuzi (la version de Adonis) la ganaderia.
Thus, for instance, Alalgar is said to have reigned for 36,000 years, and the same period is attributed to Dumu-zid /
Dumuzi ("Son of truth") and to En-sipad-zid-Annak / Ensipazianna; Berossos indicates that Aloros (the same as Alulim) reigned also for 36,000 Earthyears (cf.
Investigation into the deeper implications and parallels that lie behind these two romance marriages of King and Queen and their essential role in the health and stability of the kingdom, as well as of the two people involved, might bring out further interesting roots and beginnings in the origins of the sacred marriage and the association of the feminine with wisdom and mystery; perhaps as far back as the Sumerian mysteries of the sacred marriage between "Innana (goddess of the evening star) [and]
Dumuzi (god of vegetation)"--or further (Oelschlaeger 39-40).
Downes claims that there are a few reasons to examine Inanna as a woman's epic: "the centrality of women's experience and women's identity formation to the text; the crucial role played by the romantic relation with
Dumuzi; the importance of the female scribe in the The Descent of Inanna; and almost as significant, the way the story of Inanna resonates for contemporary women readers" (38).
In ancient Mesopotamia there were sacred hymns that recounted the courtship and marriage of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and
Dumuzi, the Shepherd-King of Uruk.