BituorBidu (formerly read NetiorNedu) was a minor Mesopotamian god who served as the doorkeeper of the underworld. His name is Akkadian in origin, but he is present in Sumerian sources as well.
| Bitu | |
|---|---|
doorkeeper of the underworld | |
| Abode | underworld |
The spellings Bitu[1] and Bidu are both used in modern scholarship.[2] The name of the gatekeeper of the underworld was written in SumerianasdNE.TI.[3] In older sources, it was read as Neti.[4] The reading Bidu has been established by Antoine Cavigneaux and Farouk al-Rawi in 1982[5] based on the parallel with the syllabic spelling Bitu (bi-tu).[3] Multiple other syllabic spellings are attested, including bí-ti, bí-du8, bí-duḫ and bi-ṭu-ḫi.[6] 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.[5] The name is however derived from the imperative form of Akkadian petû, "open."[7] 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.[8]
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.[9] The omission might therefore be a simple scribal mistake.[10]
According to Khaled Nashef [de], it is possible that a connection existed between the name of Bitu and that of Ipte-Bitam,[6] the sukkal (attendant deity) of the agricultural god Urash.[5]
Bitu's primary function is that of a gatekeeper (ì-du8).[11] He could also be addressed as the "great gatekeeper," ì-du8 gal.[5] This epithet was transcribed in Akkadian as idugallu.[5] 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.[12]
His position in enumerations of underworld deities varies between sources.[1] The First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum pairs him with the legendary king Etana, also believed to be a functionary of the underworld.[9] In an incantation from the middle of the second millennium BCE, he appears between Namtar and Gilgamesh.[13] An Assyrian funerary inscriptions mentions him alongside Ningishzida.[14]
In a single text, the position of the doorman of the underworld is instead assigned to Namtar.[15]
InInanna's Descent, Bitu announces the arrival of the eponymous goddess in the land of the dead to his mistress, Ereshkigal.[1] He is also tasked with telling Inanna to remove various articles of clothing while she enters through the seven gates of the underworld.[16] 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.[17]
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.[15]
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.[15]