Epic of Gilgamesh VI
Ancient Near East
Where are your bridegrooms that you keep forever' Where is your 'Little Shepherd' bird that went up over you! See here now, I will recite the list of your lovers. Of the shoulder ... his hand, Tammuz, the lover of your earliest youth, for him you have ordained lamentations year upon year! You loved the colorful 'Little Shepherd' bird and then hit him, breaking his wing, so now he stands in the forest crying 'My Wing'! You loved the supremely mighty lion, yet you dug for him seven and again seven pits.
Date: 2100 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Ezekiel 8:14
Hebrew Bible
12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’” 13 He said to me, “You will see them practicing even greater abominations!” 14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater abominations than these!”
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... These lines refer to the annual festival of wailing for Tammuz (compare Ezekiel 8:14), the god of vegetation, who was believed to descend to the underworld each autumn and to return with the advent of spring ..."
Heidel, Alexander
The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels
(p. 51) University of Chicago Press, 1973
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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