Dumuzi

This holistic tradition entered Persian culture through the Zoroastrian divinity Mithra and his beloved Anahita, derivations from the Sumerian divine couple, Inanna and Dumuzi.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld: Eden Revisited: Shahram Karimi and the Re-Enchantment of Art Lisa Paul Streitfeld 2011

This holistic tradition entered Persian culture through the Zoroastrian divinity Mithra and his beloved Anahita, derivations from the Sumerian divine couple, Inanna and Dumuzi.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld: Eden Revisited: Shahram Karimi and the Re-Enchantment of Art Lisa Paul Streitfeld 2011

Partly, I read Dumuzi as weaker because the image I get of him is not of Inanna returning to find him set up as a ruler in her place; rather he's lazing about, playing his music (like the Davidic/Virgilian shepherd-boy-musician he is) and generally not fulfilling his responsibility of grief as her consort and thereby inferior (unlike the sons she doesn't sic the demons on).

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

This holistic tradition entered Persian culture through the Zoroastrian divinity Mithra and his beloved Anahita, derivations from the Sumerian divine couple, Inanna and Dumuzi.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld: Eden Revisited: Shahram Karimi and the Re-Enchantment of Art Lisa Paul Streitfeld 2011

In the version where Innana first descends to conquer the Underworld, transforms into a corpse and then is saved with the help of Enki, she picks Dumuzi to descend in her place, because (that, at least, is my own interpretation) she founds him sitting in her former place, i.e. she singles him out because of his position of power, which is the ultimate flow of the tragic hero in high-mimetic tragedy.

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

So Dumuzi may become a chimera/arcanum as he transforms into a gazelle in his bid to escape the demons pursuing him, but relative to his society and worldscape he is disempowered, a humble shepherd, a boy crying for his mother — a nobody.

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

Dumuzi, by way of Adonis (Adonai?), is part source for the crucifixion's ... structure of resonances, it seems to me.

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

Dumuzi as draft-dodger/deserter does have a victim-of-fate air to me.

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

To me, Dumuzi seems like a shepherd from Virgil's eclogues who's simply stumbled into Inanna's power-play.

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009

This explains the universal scale of myth, which aims to recreate the cyclical movement of the seasons, of night/day, death/birth, etc. (as evident in most myths in the world and the one you cite, the myth of Innana and Dumuzi).

A Theory of Modes and Modalities Hal Duncan 2009