Mesopotamian Ghosts: Creation, Hermeneutics and Medicine

This article examines why Mesopotamian ghosts (eṭemmu) enter the human body through the ears, causing illnesses. Analyses of images, cuneiform commentary, medical, omen, ritual and lexical texts as well as mythological narratives, from the first to the third millennia BCE, reveal that this belief was echoed in creation mythology. We propose that the name of the slaughtered rebel god, whose flesh and blood were mixed with clay to create man and ghost, might be read as dUznê-ila “God’s Ears.” This reading is not without problems, but it embodies divine wisdom and intelligence (ṭēmu) through hearing and comprehending godly instructions. Moreover, examination of the Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia (7th century BCE) demonstrates that ghost afflictions overwhelmingly cluster in the Head, Ears, and Neck Treatises, with the Ear section containing exclusively ghost-related treatments. Also, a Persian-period commentary interprets one of the signs for “ghost” (GÍDIM) as “opener of the ear.” The ghost’s creation from a deity defined by listening (“God’s Ears”) may explain why afflictions disturb predominantly the head region, establishing a coherent etiological framework that shaped medical practice. In short, mythology might have provided the matrix for how a ghost afflicted the living, which remained consistent for over two millennia, but not without developments and innovations.