in Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian deity especially popular in the southern orchard regions and later in the central steppe area. He was the young bridegroom of the goddess Inanna (Ishtar) (Akkadian: Ishtar), a fertility figure sometimes called the Lady of the Date Clusters. As such, he represented the power of growth and new life in the date palm. In Uruk, the marriage of Dumuzi-Amaushumgalana to Inanna, in her role as goddess of the storehouse, was essentially a harvest festival, symbolizing the security the community felt after laying in provisions for the new year, just as a young couple finds security in marriage. Dumuzi-Amaushumgalana (One Great Source of the Date Clusters) was essentially a form of Dumuzi (Tammuz), the Sumerian god of fertility and reproduction.