The Dying God (Dumuzi / Tammuz)
Love sends him to the grave in her place — and a whole month is given over to weeping for the god who must die.
Also: Dumuzi · Dumuzid · Tammuz · dying god · dying and rising god · mourning for Tammuz
When Inana returns from the netherworld, the demons who escort her demand a substitute, and her own consort Dumuzi is taken in her place — though a yearly arrangement lets him and his sister alternate, half a year each below. Dumuzi (Tammuz in Akkadian) thus becomes the god who dies and returns, his disappearance mourned with bitter lament in the summer month that bears his name. The theme touches the rhythm of the seasons and the pain of loss, and the wailing for Tammuz was remembered for millennia — even reaching a famous mention in the book of Ezekiel.
In short
Dumuzi (Akkadian Tammuz), the shepherd-consort of Inana who is seized by the netherworld as her substitute and whose seasonal disappearance and return were mourned in cult.
Where it’s found
'Inana's descent to the nether world' (ETCSL 1.4.1); 'Dumuzid's dream' (ETCSL 1.4.3); 'Dumuzid and Ĝeštin-ana' (ETCSL 1.4.1.1), all in corpus; the Akkadian Descent of Ištar (akkadian-pending)
How the idea developed across Sumer, Babylon & Assyria
Caution: the broad 'dying-and-rising god' category (Frazer; Jacobsen's 'drama of the dying god') is an interpretive framework to flag, not a fact. The texts attest Dumuzi's death, a half-year alternation, and ritual mourning; a triumphant 'resurrection' in the Christian sense is not clearly attested and should not be asserted. Sumerian Dumuzid / Akkadian Tammuz are the strata.
The 'dying-and-RISING god' framework (Frazer/Jacobsen) is interpretive and contested; the texts attest death and a half-year alternation, not a clear triumphant resurrection. Flagged.