The spellings Bitu^[1] and Bidu are both used in modern scholarship.^[2] The name of the gatekeeper of the underworld was written in Sumerian as ^dNE.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]

In Inanna'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]

Bibliography edit

• Deller, Karlheinz (1991). "On the Names of some Divine Doorkeepers" (PDF). N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (1): 14–16. ISSN 0989-5671. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
• George, Andrew R. (2003). The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic: introduction, critical edition and cuneiform texts. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814922-0. OCLC 51668477.
• Katz, Dina (2003). The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press. ISBN 1-883053-77-3. OCLC 51770219.
• Nashef, Khaled (1991). "A Further Note on the Name of the Chief Doorkeeper of the Netherworld" (PDF). N.A.B.U. Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (1): 67–69. ISSN 0989-5671. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
• Kramer, Samuel Noah (1961), Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-1047-7
• Streck, Michael P. (2014), "Türhütergottheiten A. In Mesopotamien · Divine door-keepers A. In Mesopotamia", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-05-13

• Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature