Dumuzid the Shepherd (Canaanites: "Adon") was the first and primary consort of the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar).
The cult of Dumuzid later spread to the Levant and to Greece, where he became known under the West Semitic name Adonis.
The myth of Inanna and Dumuzid later became the basis for the Greek myth of Aphrodite and Adonis.
As pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period, Jews may have begun to drop the Tetragrammaton when presented alongside Adonai and subsequently to expand it to cover for the Tetragrammaton in the forms of spoken prayer and written scripture.