Difference between revisions of "Tammuz"

<p> 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 (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14). </p> <p> Instead of" weeping for Tammuz," the idol of beauty and licentiousness, the women ought to have wept for the national sins. [[Christian]] women, instead of weeping over fictitious tales of morbid love and carnal sorrows, ought to consecrate their fine sensibilities to the active promotion of the glory of Him who is altogether lovely, and whose bitter and unmerited sufferings should call forth our tears of grateful and glowing love. [[Imitate]] Mary who, when all others were gone, stood at the crucified Lord's sepulchre weeping, and so had her tears dried up by the risen [[Saviour]] Himself (&nbsp;John 20:11-16). Isis' relation to [[Osiris]] in Egypt was the same as that of [[Venus]] to Adonis. Adoni means my lord, like Baali. [[Constantine]] suppressed the worship for its profligacy. </p>

<p> ''''' tam´uz ''''' , ''''' tam´mōōz ''''' ( תּמּוּז , <i> ''''' tammūz ''''' </i> ; Θαμμούζ , <i> ''''' Thammoúz ''''' </i> ): </p> <p> (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, <i> Adonis, Attis and Osiris </i> ). 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 (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 ). The chief seat of the cult in Syria was [[Gebal]] (modern <i> ''''' Gebail ''''' </i> , Greek <i> ''''' Bublos ''''' </i> ) in Phoenicia, to the South of which the river Adonis ( <i> ''''' Nahr ''''' </i> <i> ''''' Ibrahı̂m ''''' </i> ) has its mouth, and its source is the magnificent fountain of Apheca (modern <i> ''''' ‛Afḳa ''''' </i> ), where was the celebrated temple of Venus or Aphrodite, the ruins of which still exist. The women of Gebal used to repair to this temple in midsummer to celebrate the death of Adonis or Tammuz, and there arose in connection with this celebration those licentious rites which rendered the cult so infamous that it was suppressed by Constantine the Great. </p> <p> The name Adonis, by which this deity was known to the Greeks, is none other than the Phoenician אדון , <i> ''''' 'Ādhōn ''''' </i> , which is the same in Hebrew. His death is supposed to typify the long, dry summer of Syria and Palestine, when vegetation perishes, and his return to life the rainy season when the parched earth is revivified and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, or his death symbolizes the cold, rough winter, the boar of the myth, and his return the verdant spring. </p> <p> [[Considering]] the disgraceful and licentious rites with which the cult was celebrated, it is no wonder that Ezekiel should have taken the vision of the women weeping for Tammuz in the temple as one of the greatest abominations that could defile the Holy House. See Adonis . </p> <p> (2) The fourth month of the Jewish year, corresponding to July. The name is derived from that of a Syrian god, identified with Adonis (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 ). See above, and [[Calendar]] . </p>