Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, “Continuity of Pagan Religious Traditions in Tenth-Century Iraq.” in A. Panaino and G. Pettinato (eds.). Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena. Melammu Symposia 3. Milan: Universita di Bologna & IsIAO 2002, p. 102
John P. Peters, "The Worship of Tammuz" in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 36, No. 1/2 (1917), pp. 100-111
F.A. Vanderburgh, Babylonian Tammuz Lamentations. BM Tablet 23702" in The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures Vol. 27, No. 4 (Jul., 1911), p. 312-321
Encyclopedie , Jewish Encyclopedia, , TAMMUZ Babylonian deity supposed to be referred to in Ezek. viii. 14. He is regarded as the husband, or sometimes as the son, of the goddess Ishtar, who descended to Hades every year in the fourth month, named after him,and remained there till the following spring. He is accordingly supposed to represent the spirit of the spring vegetation; and there was a period of mourning in Babylonia to mark the discontinuance of growth. It has been suggested that the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz was a survival in Jewish folk-lore of the mourning for Tammuz; while the myth of Adonis in classical literature has also been associated with the legend. The reference in Ezekiel to the women weeping for Tammuz certainly shows a trace of a cult in early Israel; but how far it extended it is difficult to say. W. Robertson Smith attempted to associate the Tammuz-worship with the sacrificial rites connected with "the king of the woods."
M. Jastrow , Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World, , If she (Ishtar) will not grant thee her release,
To Tammuz, the lover of her youth,
Pour out pure waters, pour out fine oil;
With a festival garment deck him that he may play on the flute of lapis lazuli,
That the votaries may cheer his liver. [his spirit]
Belili [sister of Tammuz] had gathered the treasure,
With precious stones filled her bosom.
When Belili heard the lament of her brother, she dropped her treasure,
She scattered the precious stones before her,
"Oh, my only brother, do not let me perish!
On the day when Tammuz plays for me on the flute of lapis lazuli, playing it for me with the porphyry ring.
Together with him, play ye for me, ye weepers and lamenting women!
That the dead may rise up and inhale the incense.