he did not move: Dumuzi Speaks

In preparing to be on the teaching team at Winter Witchcamp, I've been working with the myth of the Descent of Inanna.  A persistent voice in my head has been her husband Dumuzi, who ultimately gets sent to the Underworld half the year in Inanna's place. Dumuzi often gets a bad rap as the uncaring husband who spends Inanna’s time on the Underworld perhaps enjoying his Kingship too much. He told me a different story.


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(he did not move)
(he did not move)
(he did not move)

That is what it says, of me.

(he did not move)

“In Uruk, by the big apple Tree,
Dumuzi, the husband of Inanna, was wearing his shining me-garments.
He sat on his magnificent throne; (he did not move).”

That is how is was written.

I want to ask you this:
Have you ever been left?

Did you know, she abandoned her Temples?
She left them in Uruk!
She left them in Badtikbira!
She left them in Zabalam!
In Adab she abandoned her temple to descend to the Underworld.
In Nippur.
In Kish.
In Akkad.

She left.

When her great and holy presence departed, her Priestesses came to me.
“Where has she gone," they cried.
"And when will she be back?”

I held my empty hands out to them and showed them that I had no answers.
Their questions were mine.

We had made the Sacred Marriage.
As her mother had promised, I was Inanna’s father.
I was her mother.
I treated her like a father.
I cared for her like a mother.
She opened her house to me.
I boarded the Boat of Heaven.
I heard her promises-
That she would guard her sheepfold for me.
That she would watch over my house of life.

There was promise that under my Kingship there would be fertile fields.
That the sheepfold would multiply.
That the vegetation would grow.
That the grain would be rich.
The the fish and birds would chatter in the marsh.
That the young and old reed would grow high in the canebrake
That the mashgur-tree would grow high in the steppe
That the deer and wild goats would multiply in the forest
That there would be honey and wine in the orchards
That the lettuce and cress would grow high in the gardens
That there would be long life in the palace
That there would be floodwaters in the Tigis and Euphrates
That the plants would grow high on their banks and flood the meadows
That the grain would be piled in heaps and mounds.

And yet she left.
Why?

She was Queen, of Heaven and Earth.
She was the Queen of the temple in Uruk.
She was the Queen of the Temple in Badtikbira!
She was the Queen of the Temple in Zabalam!
In Adab.
In Nippur.
In Kish.
In Akkad.

What did we not give her?

Her priests  said to me
“Wild Bull, did we not make enough offerings?
​Did she want for incense? Did we not bring enough butter, cheese, dates, fruits of all kinds? Should we have brought more sheep?”

They cried,
“Shepherd,
Did we not pour out enough beer?
We poured dark beer for her
We poured light beer for her
We poured emmer beer for her.
Was it not enough?”

They moaned, “Did we prepare the gug-bread in date syrup incorrectly?
Did we pour the wine and honey in ways that displeased her?”

I had nothing to say. No words to offer for their pain.

It was three dark days. I tried to rise to the moment. To be her equal.

I put on my shining me-garments. I held her throne. I ruled. I tried to be as strong as she was. So that when she came back, she would see that she didn’t need to leave to find what would satisfy her.

(Do you know what it is to love someone who is never satisfied?)

And then she returned.
I saw the demons of Hell at her back.
It was clear.

Whatever it took to gain Power
Inanna would do.
Even if it imperiled her people.
​Even if it imperiled me.

Under the weight of this realization, I could not move. (he did not move).

Do not forget
Do not forget
Do not forget.

When she proclaimed my guilt, and told them to take me.
Utu changed my hands into snake hands.
Utu changed my feet into snake feet.
Utu judged my claim to be just.

Do not forget
Do not forget
Do not forget.

That in the end
Even Inanna wept to watch me go.