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Why art thou thus attired? For whom hast thou put on mourning? Adapa replies: 'Two gods have disappeared from the earth, therefore do I wear a mourning garment. 'Who are the two gods who have disappeared from the earth? Tammuz and Gishzida looked at one another, broke out in lament. 'O Adapa!
Tammuz and Gishzida thereupon intercede with Anu on behalf of Adapa, and succeed in appeasing the god's wrath. If the story ended here, we would have a pure nature-myth the same myth in a different form that we encountered in the Creation epic, in the Deluge story, and in the Zu legend. Adapa would be merely a designation of Marduk and nothing more.
Since the disappearance of Gishzida embodies precisely the same idea as that of Tammuz, it was natural that the story should in time have been told only of the one. The annual mourning for Tammuz was maintained in Babylonia to a very late period. The Adapa legend shows us that at one time the festival was celebrated in honor of the two related deities.
By the side of Tammuz and Gishzida, there is still a third solar deity who belongs to the spring of the year, Marduk, who, by virtue of his later position as the head of the pantheon, sets aside his two fellows and becomes the solar god of spring par excellence.
At a later period, Nin-gishzida is entirely absorbed by Ninib, but the Adapa legend affords us a glimpse of the god still occupying an independent, though already inferior, position. The Babylonian calendar designates the fifth month as sacred to Gishzida, while the fourth month is named for Tammuz.
The introduction of Tammuz and Gishzida introduces a widely spread nature-myth into the story. Gishzida is identical with Nin-gishzida, a solar deity whom we came across in the old Babylonian pantheon. Tammuz similarly is a solar deity. Both represent local solar cults.
The word that I speak to thee take to heart. The messenger of Anu approached. 'Adapa has broken the wings of the south wind. Deliver him into my hands.... Ea obeys the order, delivers up Adapa, and everything happens as was foretold. Upon mounting to heaven and on his approach to the gate of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida were stationed at the gate of Anu. They saw Adapa and cried 'Help, Lord!
Tammuz and Gishzida will look at one another; they will sigh and speak a favorable word before Anu, and the glorious countenance of Anu they will show thee. Tammuz and Gishzida will know that they are meant. The mourning of Adapa will be regarded as a sign of reverence for the two gods, whose sympathy and good-will will thus be secured.
He advises him to present himself at the throne of Anu for trial, and to secure the intervention of two gods, Tammuz and Gishzida, who are stationed at the gate of heaven, Anu's dwelling-place.
The Tammuz festival was celebrated just before the summer solstice set in, so that the mourning was followed immediately by rejoicing at the reappearance of the god whose coming heralded the culmination of vegetation. The destructive storms take place during the winter, when Tammuz and Gishzida have disappeared.
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