Tammuz

1. The name of the fourth month of the post-exilic Jewish calendar (see An Old Testament Year 1). It acquired this name from a custom related to 2 below.

2. A Phoenician deity, imported from the Babylonians but adopted by many of the cultures, including the Egyptians and Greeks, and given different names. Tammuz was originally a beautiful shepherd who was killed by a wild boar. He was so well loved, however, he became deified and was celebrated in Babylon during the fourth month of the year when women would weep in remembrance. Tammuz is referred to only once in the Bible, in Eze 8, in which the prophet—in exile in Babylon—was taken in a vision to Jerusalem where he saw the elders of Israel involving themselves in abominable idolatry in the temple, including women who were "mourning the god Tammuz" (v14). It is no coincidence that this was during the same month Ezekiel had his vision (1:1).

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Eaton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia