"Thammuz" was the god of the Syrians, the same as the river god Adonis, who was said to have been slain by a wild boar in the mountains of Libanus, from which the river Adonis flows.  At certain seasons this river became of a ruddy hue, which the inhabitants supposed to proceed from the blood of Adonis rising and mixing with it.  This was the signal for celebrating the feasts of Adonis, when the women made loud lamentations, inflicted stripes on themselves, and performed all the ceremonies of frantic grief, as if for a dead relation or protector.  Then they performed funeral obsequies in honour of him.  On the next day it was reported that he revived and ascended to heaven.  The discolouration of the water, Maundrel, who saw it in that state, says is produced by a sort of red earth, washed by the rain from the adjacent heights into the river.  Tamuz means secret; hence Adonis was so called from the mystery observed in some of his rites, which were of a gross and impious kind.  These were transferred to Jerusalem—even to the very temple on Mount Sion, to which Milton refers here.  Ezekiel (viii. 13, etc.) says that he witnessed these abominations in the temple, where he "saw between the porch and the altar twenty-five men with their faces towards the east, worshipping the sun."  He also "saw at the door of the gate towards the north, women weeping for Thamuz." (Collection of Ancient and Modern British Authors, vol. 42: Milton's Paradise Lost, 1850).