Chatterbox Monday

Nice, but unfortunately not quite right. Ekimmu is an out-of-date reading of the Akkadian (that's the overarching term for Babylonian and Assyrian) word for "spirit of the dead, ghost, revenant". Cuneiform is polyvalent, i.e. one sign/character can be read in different ways. This has let to many "wrong" readings in the past; e.g. the demoness Lamaštu used to be known as "Labartu". The struggle for "correct" readings is real (usually you need to luck out by finding an alternative spelling or you need to have a solid etymology). Here someone was keen to have an etymological connection to the verb ekēmu 'to snatch away', and they were no doubt confused by the existence of an associated word "thief, snatcher" that is also used to describe a demon and could maybe be a standalone name, but the word is ekkēmu, and it usually just applied to Lamaštu.

The word for "ghost", on the other hand, has been known now for a number of decades to be eṭimmu (the T with the dot underneath is a T pronounced with a bit more gusto). Its etymology goes back to the Sumerian word gidim with the same meaning. The word is used to describe any spirit of the dead and not vampire-like beings, but ghosts are generally malevolent and bad news for the living, particularly the family of the deceased. The spirits of the dead were thought to get restless if they had been denied a proper funeral.

There is a lot of Mesopotamian lore about vampire-like demons, first and foremost Lamaštu, who preys mainly on pregnant women and babies and who was thought to drink blood, but the concept of the undead drinking blood did not exist. There was, however, an illness that was known as the "hand of a ghost".

The "Ekimmu" seems to have taken on a life of its own in popular culture, as is so often the case - hang on, was this the sound of something being pushed through the letterbox? COULD IT BE MY DARK SOULS???