Sumer

Dumuzid's Dream

Dumuzid's dream

Anonymous / tradition · c. 17th century BC (Old Babylonian copies of an older Sumerian composition) · Ur (Iraq) · poetry

Dumuzi wakes from a nightmare of demons closing in and, unlike the confident heroes of the Gilgamesh cycle, spends the whole poem fleeing in genuine terror, arguing that even a god chosen to die can meet death only with panic, not resignation.

Read the text

ETCSL 1.4.3 - Dumuzid's dream (translation)

Descends from

Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld · c. 17th century BC (Old Babylonian copies; the poem's underlying composition is usually dated close to this era)

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