Mythology

incestuous relation between father and daughter finds an echo in the relation between Saturn and Vesta in Greek mythology, as Milton’s lines remind us: Thee bright-haired Vesta, long of yore To solitary Saturn bore; His daughter she, in Saturn’s reign Such mixture was not deemed a stain. But we have no clue to the interpretation of the details of the myth. Professor Thorkild Jacobsen has said with regard to it, ‘This myth endeavours to trace a causal unity among many disparate phenomena, but it is a unity causal in the mythopoeic sense only. When plants are seen as born of soil and water, we can still follow, although with reservations. Towards the end of the myth, however, the deities born that Enki may be healed have no intrinsic connexion either with soil who bears them, or with water.’ [5] The myth does at least show that although the Babylonians borrowed much from Sumerian mythology, the Semitic mind found it difficult to accept many elements in that mythology. The Myth of Dumuzi and Enkimdu Another Sumerian myth is of interest as finding an echo in the Hebrew story of Cain and Abel, but without its tragic ending. It deals with the age-long rivalry between the agricultural and the pastoral modes of life. In the myth Inanna, or Ishtar, is about to choose a husband. The choice lies between the shepherd-god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, and the farmer-god Enkimdu. Inanna’s brother Utu, the sun-god, favours Dumuzi, but Inanna herself prefers Enkimdu. Dumuzi urges his suit and claims to have everything that Enkimdu can offer and more. Enkimdu endeavours to appease Dumuzi and offers him all kinds of gifts, but Dumuzi remains determined to have Inanna, and apparently succeeds in his intention, since, as we have already seen, various myths represent Dumuzi as the husband of Inanna. Kramer’s rendering of the conclusion of the poem is worth quoting. Enkimdu speaks: ‘Thou, O shepherd, why dost thou start a quarrel? O Shepherd Dumuzi, why dost thou start a quarrel? Me with thee, O shepherd, me with thee why does thou compare? Let thy sheep eat the grass of the earth, In my meadowland let thy sheep pasture, In the fields of Zabalam let them eat grass, Let all thy folds drink the water of my river Unun.’ Dumuzi speaks: ‘I, the shepherd, at my marriage do not enter, O farmer, as my friend, O farmer, Enkimdu, as my friend, O farmer, as my friend, do not enter: Enkimdu replies: ‘Wheat I shall bring thee, beans I shall bring thee, Beans of . . . I shall bring thee,

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