United States or Cyprus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Let us now turn back to the preceding chapter, and compare the position of the people of the Shilluk tribe, and the subjects of the Grail King, with that of the ancient Babylonians, as set forth in their Lamentations for Tammuz. There we find that the absence of the Life-giving deity was followed by precisely the same disastrous consequences; Vegetation fails
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 reference assumes the knowledge of a tale in which the goddess was represented as breaking a costly vessel adorned with precious stones, in sign of her grief for the lost Tammuz. Suitable mourning for Tammuz, therefore, will secure the sympathy of Belili also.
He now brought his intellect to bear upon "the Cardiff Giant," and soon produced an amazing theory, developing it at length in a careful article. See McWhorter, "Tammuz and the Mound-builders," in the "Galaxy," July, 1872. This theory was simply that the figure discovered at Cardiff was a Phenician idol; and Mr.
I should be inclined to regard the Egyptian deity primarily as a Culture Hero, rather than a Vegetation God. It is also permissible to point out that in the case of Tammuz, Esmun, and Adonis, the title is not a proper name, but a vague appellative, denoting an abstract rather than a concrete origin. Proof of this will be found later.
A point which differentiates the worship of Tammuz from the kindred, and better known, cult of Adonis, is the fact that we have no liturgical record of the celebration of the resurrection of the deity; it certainly took place, for the effects are referred to: "Where grass was not, there grass is eaten, Where water was not, water is drunk, Where the cattle sheds were not, cattle sheds are built."
Devakî is likewise figured with the divine Krishna in her arms, as is Mylitta, or Istar, of Babylon, also with the recurrent crown of stars, and with her child Tammuz on her knee. Mercury and Æsculapius, Bacchus and Hercules, Perseus and the Dioscuri, Mithras and Zarathustra, were all of divine and human birth. The relation of the winter solstice to Jesus is also significant.
Her anxiety to enter Aralû indicates that the original form of the myth, which must have represented the descent as forced and not voluntary, has been modified by the introduction of a new factor, the search for her dead consort, Tammuz. The character of Ishtar as the goddess of war may also have influenced this portrayal of her rage.
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.
When the festival of Tammuz comes, let them combine with the weeping for the god, a dirge in memory of the dead. Let them pray to Ishtar and Tammuz. If remembered by the living, the dead will at least enjoy the offerings made to them, regain, as it were, a temporary sense of life; but more cannot with certainty be hoped for. The outlook for the dead, it will be seen, is not hopeful.
Word Of The Day