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Bible Encyclopedias
Tammuz
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Tam´muz, a Syrian deity, for whom the Hebrew idolatresses were accustomed to hold an annual lamentation (). This idol was the same with the Phoenician Adon or Adonis, and the feast itself such as they celebrated. The feast held in honor of Tammuz was solstitial, and commenced with the new moon of July, in the month also called Tammuz; it consisted of two parts, the one consecrated to lamentation, and the other to joy; in the days of grief they mourned the disappearance of the god, and in the days of gladness celebrated his discovery and return. Tammuz appears to have been a sort of incarnation of the sun, regarded principally as in a state of passion and sufferance, in connection with the apparent vicissitudes in its celestial position, and with respect to the terrestrial metamorphoses produced, under its influence, upon vegetation in advancing to maturity.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Tammuz'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/t/tammuz.html.
