Gidim / Eṭemmu (Mesopotamian ghost)

Mesopotamian texts and summaries describe the gidim/eṭemmu as coming into existence at the moment of an individual's death, taking on the dead person's memory and personality. After death the spirit travels to the netherworld (Irkalla), spending time en route and overcoming unspecified obstacles; on arrival the Anunnaki court receives the spirit, explains the rules, and assigns it a place or fate within an ordered underworld ruled by Ereshkigal and her consort (Nergal or Ninazu). Certain conditions of death (for example dying in fire or a corpse left exposed in the desert) are described as leading to the absence of a ghost.

Surviving sources emphasize the gidim's social and existential continuity rather than a fixed visual form. They are repeatedly described as 'shades' or the continuing personhood of the deceased, possessing houses and positions in the netherworld and able to meet relatives; no standardized physical description (size, color, dress) is preserved in the summarized materials provided. Where Mesopotamian funerary formulae and mythic corpus speak of the dead, the emphasis is on social roles, memory, and household needs in the underworld rather than on distinctive iconography of the shade.

Gidim/eṭemmu travel to and dwell in Irkalla, where they lead an existence analogous in some respects to the living (houses, meetings, an assigned position). Their wellbeing is tied to offerings and cultic maintenance by surviving kin; if offerings lapse, spirits may become restless and are implicated in causing misfortune and a range of ailments. Traditional healing literature attributes many specific symptoms to ghostly action (headaches, eye and ear problems, intestinal pains, shortness of breath, dizziness, fever, and neurological or mental disorders), alongside illnesses ascribed to gods or other demons. The sun god Utu/Shamash, in his netherworld role during his daily course, is described as able to punish ghosts who harass the living or to intercede so forgotten ghosts receive offerings.