The Gidim are the Sumerian equivalent of ghosts (Etemmu is the Akkadian Version); they were the spirits of dead people living in the Underworld....
In Sumer, people knew that the dead who were buried poorly and then not given offerings would return to the land of the living as Gidim.
When a Gidim, by choice or not, walks in the world of the living, they have some ability to force their will upon the living.
These covetous ghosts could do physical harm to the living even going so far as to possess them by entering through the ear.
Haunting the living as an impoverished or vengeful Gidim is not the worst thing that could happen to a person at burial.
The dead in Sumer were always buried.
They were never cremated except in the most extreme of cases.
A person whose body was cremated did not go to the land of the dead. They, like the smoke and fire that consumed them, would go up to heaven.
The Gidim were simply the shades of people who had died.
The Gidim were said to make their homes in the ruins of cities that were ancient even in those times.
They were one form that the dead could take when they passed into death.
They can cause pain or sickness to the living.
The dead would do this in order to get revenge upon the living for ignoring them or for dishonoring their memories. Gidim could be protected against by enchanted ear jewelry.
The Gidim share some common factors with the zombies...
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