Bitu (god)

The spellings Bitu{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=401}} and Bidu are both used in modern scholarship.{{sfn|George|2003|p=128}} The name of the gatekeeper of the underworld was written in Sumerian as ^dNE.TI.{{sfn|Deller|1991|p=14}} In older sources, it was read as Neti.{{sfn|Kramer|1961|p=87}} The reading Bidu has been established by Antoine Cavigneaux and Farouk al-Rawi in 1982{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=163}} based on the parallel with the syllabic spelling Bitu (bi-tu).{{sfn|Deller|1991|p=14}} Multiple other syllabic spellings are attested, including bí-ti, bí-du₈, bí-duḫ and bi-ṭu-ḫi.{{sfn|Nashef|1991|p=67}} Michael P. Streck suggests that the forms with du₈ should be understood as a learned spelling based on the meaning of this cuneiform sign, "to loosen," and on the Sumerian word for a gatekeeper, ì-du₈.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=163}} The name is however derived from the imperative form of Akkadian petû, "open."{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=174}} Based on this etymology Dina Katz argues that the concept of a gate of the underworld, and the descriptions of this location in which it resembles a fortified city, were Akkadian in origin.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=175}}

In the so-called First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum Bitu's name is written without a dingir sign denoting divinity, though he is classified as a deity in Death of Gilgamesh and elsewhere.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=120}} The omission might therefore be a simple scribal mistake.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=376}}

According to {{ill|Khaled Nashef|de|Khaled Nashef}}, it is possible that a connection existed between the name of Bitu and that of Ipte-Bitam,{{sfn|Nashef|1991|p=67}} the sukkal (attendant deity) of the agricultural god Urash.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=163}}

Bitu's primary function is that of a gatekeeper (ì-du₈).{{sfn|Katz|2003|pp=174-175}} He could also be addressed as the "great gatekeeper," ì-du₈ gal.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=163}} This epithet was transcribed in Akkadian as idugallu.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=163}} In incantations which were meant to compel demons and ghosts to return to the underworld, a formula placing them under the control of Bitu was sometimes used.{{sfn|George|2003|p=500}}

His position in enumerations of underworld deities varies between sources.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=401}} The First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum pairs him with the legendary king Etana, also believed to be a functionary of the underworld.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=120}} In an incantation from the middle of the second millennium BCE, he appears between Namtar and Gilgamesh.{{sfn|George|2003|p=130}} An Assyrian funerary inscriptions mentions him alongside Ningishzida.{{sfn|Deller|1991|pp=14-15}}

In a single text, the position of the doorman of the underworld is instead assigned to Namtar.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=164}}

In Inanna's Descent, Bitu announces the arrival of the eponymous goddess in the land of the dead to his mistress, Ereshkigal.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=401}} He is also tasked with telling Inanna to remove various articles of clothing while she enters through the seven gates of the underworld.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=179}} In the text Death of Ur-Namma, Bitu is absent, but seven anonymous doorkeepers are mentioned among the underworld deities, possibly as a reflection of the motif of seven gates mentioned in Inanna's Descent.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=358}}

In the later of the two known versions of the myth Nergal and Ereshkigal, Bitu is the first of the seven gatekeepers of the underworld listed.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=164}}

The late text Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince describes Bitu as a hybrid creature with the head of a lion, feet of a bird and hands of a human.{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=164}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal|last=Deller|first=Karlheinz|title=On the Names of some Divine Doorkeepers|journal=N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires|issue=1|year=1991|issn=0989-5671|url=http://sepoa.fr/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1991-1.pdf|pages=14–16|access-date=2022-05-13}}
• {{cite book|last=George|first=Andrew R.|author-link=Andrew R. George|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/1603/|title=The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic: introduction, critical edition and cuneiform texts|publisher=Oxford University Press|publication-place=Oxford New York|year=2003|isbn=0-19-814922-0|oclc=51668477}}
• {{cite book|last=Katz|first=Dina|title=The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources|publisher=CDL Press|publication-place=Bethesda, MD|year=2003|isbn=1-883053-77-3|oclc=51770219}}
• {{cite journal|last=Nashef|first=Khaled|title=A Further Note on the Name of the Chief Doorkeeper of the Netherworld|journal=N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires|issue=1|year=1991|issn=0989-5671|url=https://sepoa.fr/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1991-4.pdf|pages=67–69|access-date=2022-05-13}}
• {{citation|last=Kramer|first=Samuel Noah|author-link=Samuel Noah Kramer|date=1961|title=Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-8122-1047-7}}
• {{citation|last=Streck|first=Michael P.|entry=Türhütergottheiten A. In Mesopotamien · Divine door-keepers A. In Mesopotamia|encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie|year=2014|entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#11794|access-date=2022-05-13}}

• [https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld] in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

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Category:Mesopotamian gods

Category:Underworld gods

Category:Liminal gods

Category:Mesopotamian underworld