Kammani-Gula
Okay, we made Kammani up because we needed a Big Bad who wasn’t bad. A goddess who wants to save people.
But the name “Kammani” is a real name from Mesopotamia and Gula is the real Babylonian goddess of healing, and her sacred animal really is the dog, which we didn’t know when we made Kammani up. Sometimes things just work out. She was also called Nin-Karrak, Ga-tum-dug and Nm-din-dug, meaning “the lady who restores to life”, or “the Goddess of Healing.” Uh huh. We’re sticking with Kammani Gula. According to a source which I have lost the reference for:
“In neo-Babylonian days her cult continues to occupy a prominent position, and Nebuchadrezzar II speaks of no less than three chapels or shrines within the sacred precincts of E-Zida in the city of Borsippa, besides a temple in her honour at Babylon.”
Why does that sound like something Rick Moranis would say in Ghostbusters?
Louis: Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
But I digress. Kammani is a good goddess in our book, and Gula was a lovely deity by everybody’s report, including Nebuchadrezzar II. So here’s a cylinder seal impression of Gula and her dog. Kammani is just like Gula except better looking with bigger boobs:
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A goddess who wants to save people
my spidey sense are tingling. oh, sorry, that was medicine i just drank. never mind. does a good job, does she?
Synchronicity is fun!
OK–if she is an ancient Babylonian god, what kind of dog does SHE have? Afghan? Saluki? Pharaoh? I vote for an Afghan hound–they are awesome dogs! And they are a very old breed. AND they are lion hunters. Just my $.02 worth. Shutting up now.
She has Mesopotamian Temple Dogs. Bikki-lum and Ummi-waquat. She brought them back with her.
Wait’ll you see the pictures.
Ooh my Arabic is so rusty and the meanings would be twisted by the time they got to Arabic from Sumerian anyway… Daughter of the Moon and Mother of Hunting? Yay poopers!!
Bikki and Ummi mean Daughter and Mother?
Because I think they’re sisters. Ummi would never have a pup as dumb as Bikki.
Pratchett did fallible gods so well — I hope this becomes a minor publishing trend! And I love the name Bikki-lum. It sounds like a really yummy British cookie. I wonder if my kids would like to name the next dog that shows up “Bikki-lum”?
One of my favorite books of all time is Thorne Smith’s NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS. Gotta re-read it for inspiration. All the marble statues in a museum come alive and havoc ensues. (Thorne Smith also wrote Topper).
Umm is mother. Ummi is “my mother” if said in 1st person, or “mother of” if a nominative, part of a title or name. Bikki I’m not so sure about - bint is daughter, more precisely virgin, but “binti” is my daughter if said in 1st person, or “daughter of” as a nominative, like ummi. A few thousand years and consonant shift could turn binti into bikki… I shall go hunt. And I’m not convinced of my noun translations either.
Mother of Hunting is a compliment. Daughter of the Moon could as easily be an insult - spacey
I’m good with Ummi being Mother of Hunting.
But she and Bikki are DEFINITELY sisters.
Hmmm. Maybe we should put up the Ummi and Bikki post so you can see what I’m talking about.
You sound like you’re having fun. That’s good.
Krissie, I was just wondering, when was the last time you read Nightlife of the Gods? If it’s been more than a decade, I’m dying to hear what you think about it now.
Thanks to you, I found it on the internet last night, and started reading it.
I may have read the books as a kid — I’m pretty sure I saw one of the Topper movies on Ted Turner’s first cable channel. And year or two ago, I got the first Topper book — and was a bit surprised. NLotGods — also surprising.
Lots of food for thought there. Why did guys in the 30s and 40s sound like the rabid feminists of the 80s and 90s? Only sex-reversed. Some of those guys were just completely freaked out by women . . . .
I dunno — when I was a kid, I picked up on certain things, and as an adult I pick up the book, and just can’t find it anymore. Instead, I find something totally different! This has happened with me with several books.
i think gula is a good god
Y CAN’T I SEE THE LAST PIC!? :-((