Birtum

Birtum was a Mesopotamian god who was the husband of Nungal, the goddess of prisons.^[1]

His name means "fetter" or "shackle" in Akkadian, and he was likely a deification of such objects.^[1] While the word is grammatically feminine, the deity was regarded as male.^[1] A similar word, birdu ("pimple"), is etymologically unrelated to his name.^[1]

Birtum was likely a son of Enlil, as evidenced by the fact Nungal was regarded as the daughter in law of this god.^[2] In god lists he appears in the circle of Nergal as one of the underworld gods.^[1]

Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that originally Birtum was worshiped alongside Nungal in a presently unknown city which declined in the third millennium BCE, which lead to transfer of its tutelary deities to Nippur.^[3] An analogous process likely occurred also when it comes to other deities, such as Nisaba, whose cult was transferred from Eresh, which disappears from records after the Ur III period, to Nippur.^[4]

References

Bibliography

• Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998) (in de) 
• Lambert, Wilfred G. (1980). "The Theology of Death". Death in Mesopotamia. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag. ISBN 87-500-1946-5. OCLC 7124686. 
• Michalowski, Piotr (1998) 
• Sjöberg, Åke W. (1973). "Nungal in the Ekur". Archiv für Orientforschung (Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO)/Institut für Orientalistik) 24: 19–46. ISSN 00666440. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41637722. Retrieved 2022-02-23. 

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