Library Mesopotamian Texts Hymn to Tammuz
Accadian Hymn to Tammuz
From Records of the Past (Sayce). Primary cult address to Tammuz as shepherd and bridegroom of Ishtar—the figure behind the women’s weeping in Ezekiel 8:14.
Accadian hymn to Tammuz (Du’uzu), the shepherd and bridegroom of Ishtar / Istar, preserved with an Assyrian interlinear and translated by A. H. Sayce in Records of the Past.
O shepherd, Lord Tammuz, Bridegroom of Istar!
Lord of Hades, Lord of Tul-Sukhba!
Understanding one, who among the papyri the water drinks not!
His brood in the desert, even the reed, he created not.
Its bulrush in his canal he lifted not up.
The roots of the bulrush were carried away.
O god of the world, who among the papyri the water drinks not!
English translation by A. H. Sayce in Records of the Past. Public domain. Digital text via Project Gutenberg Babylonian and Assyrian Literature compilation (#10887).