Tammuz: A corruption of Dumuzi, the Accadian sun-god (the Adonis of the
Greeks), the husband of the goddess Ishtar. In the Chaldean calendar
there was a month set apart in honour of this god, the month of June
to July, the beginning of the summer solstice. At this festival,
which lasted six days, the worshippers, with loud lamentations,
bewailed the funeral of the god, they sat "weeping for Tammuz"
(Ezekiel 8:14) The name, also borrowed from Chaldea, of one of the
months of the Hebrew calendar.
