Kakka

Kakka (; also romanized as Kaka or Gaga) was a Mesopotamian deity. She was originally worshiped across Upper Mesopotamia as a healing goddess, but later on came to be secondarily viewed as a male messenger god in Babylonia. Kakka's oldest attested cult center is Maškan-šarrum, located in the south of Assyria, though she was also worshiped in the kingdom of Mari, especially in Terqa. She appears in numerous theophoric names from this area, with Akkadian, Amorite and Hurrian examples attested. As early as in the Old Babylonian period she could be associated with Ninshubur, and later on with Papsukkal as well. However, she developed connection with Ninkarrak, Išḫara and possibly Nisaba as well. The male form of Kakka appears as a messenger of Anu in the Sultantepe version of the myth Nergal and Ereshkigal, and as a messenger of Anshar in Enūma Eliš.

==Name== A deity named dga-ga is already attested in the Early Dynastic god list from Abu Salabikh. It is assumed that theophoric names with the element gag-ga or ga-ga, known from Old Akkadian Eshnunna and Gasur, refer to the same figure. The spelling ga-ga remained in use through the entire Old Akkadian period and in later times in Babylonia and Assyria, but additional variants are attested in texts from Mari and Terqa, including gag-ga, ka-ak-ka and ka-ka. Romanizations used in Assyriological literature include Kaka and Gaga. However, Piotr Steinkeller argues that the spellings with a double consonant indicate that Kakka is a more accurate representation of the original pronunciation, and points out the god list An = Anum provides the gloss dgaka-kaga, indicating dga-ga was pronounced as Kakka. This romanization is also considered preferable by Selena Wisnom.