Ezekiel 8:14-15

The Worship of Tammuz. Then follows a scene in which the women lament for Tammuz a clear allusion to a Babylonian cult. Tammuz (pp. 631 f.), impersonation of the fructifying, gladdening sun, god of the spring vegetation, is represented as later in the year descending to the realm of the dead. Thither he was followed by the goddess Ishtar, and this accounts for the part here taken by the women in the cult. Here we strike upon the danger-point in the old nature religions; they easily developed licentious features. Whether these were practised in Israel in Ezekiel's time or not, such a cult constituted a grave menace. (For an illuminating account of Tammuz, who roughly corresponds to Adonis, see J. F. McCurdy, History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, §§ 1186- 1190.)