Dying-and-rising god
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A dying-and-rising god, life–death–rebirth deity, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected. Examples of gods who die and later return to life are mo
The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton (1891)
Odin whispers to a dead Baldr as he is to be sent out to sea.
The Osiris-bed is where he renews the harvest cycle in Egypt.
Bronze figurine of Osiris
Dumuzid
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Dumuzid, Dumuzi, or Tammuz, known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd and to the Canaanites as Adon, is an ancient Mesopotamian and Levantine deity associated with agriculture and shepherds, who
Dying-and-rising god
…Golden Bough (1890). Frazer associated the motif with fertility rites surrounding the yearly cycle of vegetation. Frazer cited the examples of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Zagreus, Dionysus, and Jesus. Frazer's interpretation of the category has been critically discussed in 20th-century scholarship, to…
Ancient Sumerian depiction of the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid
A bull man fighting four quadrupeds. Inscription "Ama-Ushumgal" (𒀭𒂼𒃲𒁔 dama-ušumgal), namesake of the mythical king or shepherd Dumuzi. Early Dynastic II, circa 2600 BC. Royal Museums of Art and History - Brussels.
Ancient Mesopotamian clay tablet dating to the Amorite Period (c. 2000-1600 BC), containing a lamentation over the death of Dumuzid, currently held in the Louvre Museum in Paris
Original Sumerian tablet of the Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzid