In some of the early Sumerian myths we have references to various entities that are a threat to the gods. These are generally trees. They generally are described as radiant or having a terrifying aura. Often they have their own minions. Often they are described as being killed and even eviscerated only to show up elsewhere as a loyal Udug subservient to the god who supposedly killed them.
Gilgamesh defeats the protector of the cedar forests. Ninurta defeats the Asag demon and also the seven slain heroes each of whom have tree aspects. When Inanna is raped it is under a radiant tree. There are enough tree related myths that it forms a clear pattern that something is there. Just what picture all of these puzzle pieces come together to make is a mater of some debate.
This is a peculiar trend for several reasons. The first reason that this is peculiar is that Sumer is known for a lot of things, but it is not known for its trees. Sumer didn't have much in the way of forests. Why then are these tree demons so common?
One possible reason is that, in the texts, these demons are presented as foreign spirits. The tree entities are generally presented in the form of a foreign threat from the mountains. The Sumerians were commonly being attacked by foreigners from the mountains. The Sumerian pantheon was known to adopt gods from other pantheons, but not without making those gods accept the Order of the universe. These myths could be the adoption, or rather abduction, of gods from another pantheon by force.
The death in the myths should not be taken as a literal death, but rather as a complete and total defeat. The defeated party being stripped of their power and taken by force into the pantheon. Death in Sumerian mythology, like a few other subjects, is something that can easily be taken at face value, but should not always be taken literally. The bull of heaven died every spring until he was killed for good by Gilgamesh.
It is my hypothesis that some time, not too long before the advent of the written record, the Sumerians clashed with an Indo European culture other than the Hurians. The Sumerians were victorious, but adopted many of the gods that they were impressed with for one reason or another. If the culture had been the Hurians we would see Hittite names for the tree entities. They were also treated as being more foreign than other Mesopotamians who were generally looked upon as ignorant.
This is however nothing more than a pet theory. New evidence could easily cause me to alter my thoughts on the subject, or to discard the idea altogether. For now though this is the best explanation for the oddities that I can find.
What we can say about these tree spirits is important enough without conjecture into the nature of their possible origin. These myths show that death for a god or a demon is not the same as mortal death. They show that the Sumerian pantheon did take in foreign gods, but only under special circumstances. They show that threat to the Order is more important to the gods than threat to the individual, and that something that is foreign ceases to be foreign once it is brought under the order.
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