Tammuz
(sprout of life), properly “the Tammuz,” the article indicating that at some time or other the word had been regarded as an appellative. (Ezekiel 8:14) Jerome identifies Tammuz with Adonis, of Grecian mythology, who was fabled to have lost his wife while hunting, by a wound from the tusk of a wild boar. He was greatly beloved by the goddess Venus, who was inconsolable at his loss.
His blood according to Ovid produced the anemone, but according to others the adonium, while the anemone sprang from the tears of Venus. A festival in honor of Adonis was celebrated at Byblus in Phoenicia and in most of the Grecian cities, and even by the Jews when they degenerated into idolatry. It took place in July, and was accompanied by obscene rites.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia on Tammuz
Tammuz tam'-uz, tam'-mooz (tammuz; Thammouz): ⇒See a list of verses on TAMMUZ in the Bible. (1) The name of a Phoenician deity, the Adonis of the Greeks. He was originally a Sumerian or Babylonian sun-god, called Dumuzu, the husband of Ishtar, who corresponds to Aphrodite of the Greeks. The worship of these deities was introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Astarte, and appears among the Greeks in the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite, who are identified with Osiris and Isis of the Egyptian pantheon, showing how widespread the cult became. The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death (Frazer, Adonis, Attis and Osiris). This mourning for Tammuz was celebrated in Babylonia by women on the 2nd day of the 4th month, which thus acquired the name of Tammuz (see CALENDAR). This custom of weeping for Tammuz is referred to in the Bible in the only passage where the name occurs (Eze 8:14…
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible on Tammuz
In the 6th year of Jehoiacliin's captivity, and the 5th day of the 6th month, Ezekiel saw women in the north gate of the temple 'weeping for Tammuz' (Ezk 8'*). Tammuz was a Bab. deity wliose worship had been imported into the west at an early perioa. The name was originally the Siunerian Dumu-zi, 'the son of life,' which became in Semitic Baby- lonian Duwu-zu and DHzu, tliough in Babylonian con tract- tablets of the age of Abraham we al.so find Tamuzu (see Bee. de trav. rclat. a, la phil. et arch. (gyp. et assyr. t. xvii. p. 39 note). The form Ta'flz given by en-Nedim, an Arab writer of the 10th century, contains a reminisAnce of the abbreviated form, like the Thoas and Theias of Greek mythology. Tammuz was originally the Sun-god, the son of Ea and tlie goddess Sirdu, and the bridegroom of the goddess Istar. He seems to have been primarily a god of Eridu, the culture-city of Baby- lonia on the Persian Giilf. His home was under tlie shade of the tree of life or world-tree, .vhicli grew in the midst of the garden of Eridu, and on either side of which flowed the rivers Tigris and Euphra…
Fausset's Bible Dictionary on Tammuz
From tamzuwz, "melted down," referring to the river Adonis fed by the melted snows of Lebanon, also to the sun's decreasing heat in winter, and to Venus' melting lamentations for Adonis. Tammuz was the Syrian Adonis (Jerome), Venus' paramour, killed by a wild boar, and according to mythology permitted to spend half the year on earth and obliged to spend the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was kept to him in June (Tammuz in the Jewish calendar) at Byblos, when the Syrian women tore off their hair in wild grief, and yielded their persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to the earth. The idea fabled was spring's beauties and the river's waters destroyed by summer heat (the river Adonis or nahr Ibrahim in spring becomes discolored with the heavy rains swelling the streams from Lebanon, which discoloration superstition attributed to Tammuz' blood); or else the earth clothed with beauty in the half year while the sun is in the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he descends to the lower (Eze 8:1…
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Easton, M.G. (1893) Easton's Bible Dictionary. 3rd edn. Thomas Nelson. [Public Domain]
- Nave, O.J. (1897) Nave's Topical Bible. Topical Bible Publishing Co.. [Public Domain]
- Hastings, J. (ed.) (1909) A Dictionary of the Bible. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Smith, W. (ed.) (1884) Smith's Bible Dictionary. London: John Murray. [Public Domain]
- Fausset, A.R. (1878) Fausset's Bible Dictionary. [Public Domain]A Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia