ammuz and Gishzida will know that they are meant. The mourning of Adapa
will be regarded as a sign of reverence for the two gods, whose sympathy
and good-will will thus be secured.

The introduction of Tammuz and Gishzida introduces a widely spread
nature-myth into the story. Gishzida is identical with Nin-gishzida, a
solar deity whom we came across in the old Babylonian pantheon.[1097]
Tammuz similarly is a solar deity. Both represent local solar cults. At
a later period, Nin-gishzida is entirely absorbed by Ninib, but the
Adapa legend affords us a glimpse of the god still occupying an
independent, though already inferior, position. The Babylonian
calendar[1098] designates the fifth month as sacred to Gishzida, while
the fourth month is named for Tammuz. The two deities, therefore, take
their place in the systematized pantheon as symbolical of the phases of
the sun peculiar to its approach to the summer solstice. The
disappearance of the two gods signifies the decline of the year after
the summer solstice. Of Tammuz, the popular myth related that it was
Ishtar,[1099] represented as his consort, who carried him off. Since the
disappearance of Gishzida embodies precisely the same idea as that of
Tammuz, it was natural that the story should in time have been told only
of the one. The annual mourning for Tammuz was maintained in Babylonia
to a very late period. The Adapa legend shows us that at one time the
festival was celebrated in honor of the two related deities. The Tammuz
festival was celebrated just before the summer solstice set in, so that
the mourning was followed immediately by rejoicing at the reappearance
of the god whose coming heralded the culmination of vegetation.

The destructive storms take place during the winter, when Tammuz and
Gishzida have disappeared. Adapa's mourning is thus an indication of the
season of the year when his encounter with the south wind took place.
Since Adapa succeeds in overcoming the destructive wind, the wintry
season has passed by. Summer is approaching. The time for celebrating
both the fast and the festival of the two solar deities has arrived.
Tammuz and Gishzida, the gods of spring, accordingly stand at Adapa's
side, ready to plead his cause before Anu. So much being clear, we may
advance a step further in the interpretation of the legend. By the side
of Tammuz and Gishzida, there is still a third solar deity who belongs
to the spring of the year,--Marduk, who, by virtue o