Английская Википедия:Bitu (god)
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Infobox deity Bitu or Bidu (formerly read Neti or Nedu) 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.
Name
The spellings BituШаблон:Sfn and Bidu are both used in modern scholarship.Шаблон:Sfn The name of the gatekeeper of the underworld was written in Sumerian as dNE.TI.Шаблон:Sfn In older sources, it was read as Neti.Шаблон:Sfn The reading Bidu has been established by Antoine Cavigneaux and Farouk al-Rawi in 1982Шаблон:Sfn based on the parallel with the syllabic spelling Bitu (bi-tu).Шаблон:Sfn Multiple other syllabic spellings are attested, including bí-ti, bí-du8, bí-duḫ and bi-ṭu-ḫi.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn The name is however derived from the imperative form of Akkadian petû, "open."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn
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.Шаблон:Sfn The omission might therefore be a simple scribal mistake.Шаблон:Sfn
According to Шаблон:Ill, it is possible that a connection existed between the name of Bitu and that of Ipte-Bitam,Шаблон:Sfn the sukkal (attendant deity) of the agricultural god Urash.Шаблон:Sfn
Character
Bitu's primary function is that of a gatekeeper (ì-du8).Шаблон:Sfn He could also be addressed as the "great gatekeeper," ì-du8 gal.Шаблон:Sfn This epithet was transcribed in Akkadian as idugallu.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn
His position in enumerations of underworld deities varies between sources.Шаблон:Sfn The First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum pairs him with the legendary king Etana, also believed to be a functionary of the underworld.Шаблон:Sfn In an incantation from the middle of the second millennium BCE, he appears between Namtar and Gilgamesh.Шаблон:Sfn An Assyrian funerary inscriptions mentions him alongside Ningishzida.Шаблон:Sfn
In a single text, the position of the doorman of the underworld is instead assigned to Namtar.Шаблон:Sfn
Mythology
In Inanna's Descent, Bitu announces the arrival of the eponymous goddess in the land of the dead to his mistress, Ereshkigal.Шаблон:Sfn He is also tasked with telling Inanna to remove various articles of clothing while she enters through the seven gates of the underworld.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn
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.Шаблон:Sfn
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.Шаблон:Sfn
References
Bibliography
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Citation
- Шаблон:Citation
External links
