February 11, 2008


In Cuneiform–The Oldest Dream of Dumuzi

In preparing for an upcoming dream workshop I came across this, the oldest recorded dream from the ancient culture of Mesopotamian Sumeria at around 3400 BCE. It was a nightmare.

In ancient times…the shepherd lay down, he lay down to dream. He woke up–it was a dream! He shivered–it was sleep! He rubbed his eyes, he was terrified.

“A dream, my sister! A dream! In my dream, rushes were rising up for me… Tall trees in the forest were rising up together over me. Water was poured over my holy coals for me, the cover of my holy churn was being removed, my holy drinking cup was torn down from the peg where it hung, my shepherd’s stick disappeared from me. … The churns were lying on their side, no milk was poured, the drinking cups were lying on their side, Dumuzi was dead, the sheepfold was haunted.

posted by Lynn Bauman in culture, religion, spirituality 

comments

4 Responses to “In Cuneiform–The Oldest Dream of Dumuzi”

  1. Sheila Ryan on February 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    The image of rushes rising up for the shepherd is terrifying.

    Where did you come across this, Lynn?

  2. Cooper Renner on February 11th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    And Dumuzi is Tammuz, yes? The dying and resurrecting god?

  3. Lynn Bauman on February 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Sheila, I found it in a new text on dreams by Rodger Kamenentz, THE HISTORY OF LAST NIGHT’S DREAM. A good book.

    I’m not sure about Tammuz, Bryan… could be, but its not clear to me. LB

  4. Sheila Ryan on February 11th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

    Just turned up this recent nextbook interview with Kamenetz.

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