INANNA, better known as Ishtar, Astarte, or the Queen of Heaven, has a long history as one of the most popular pagan deities on Earth. We believe she is the fallen spirit known in Revelation as Mystery Babylon.

This week, we look at an important aspect of her story—the myth of her marriage to the shepherd-king Dumuzi, known in the Bible as Tammuz. This story has given birth to the Greek tale of Aphrodite and Adonis, the “dying and rising god” meme among scholars, and the women who wept for Tammuz at the north gate of the Temple in Ezekiel’s day.

Was Dumuzi a human or the demonic spirit of a pre-Flood giant who inhabited a human king in Sumer after the Flood? We will never know, but one thing is for sure: Our King, Jesus Christ, is the good shepherd, and Dumuzi/Tammuz is not.