Uttu

Uttu(𒋳𒌆 TAG.TUG₂) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with weaving. It has been suggested that she was connected with spiders, though the evidence is limited to a single text which might reflect scribal speculation. She was worshiped in Babylon and possibly in Early Dynastic Umma. She appears in multiple myths, such as Enki and Ninhursag and Enki and the World Order.

Uttu's name was written TAG×TÙG, with the sign TAG (usually pronounced as tuku) referring to the action of weaving cloth. The word uttu could also denote a part of a loom. It is also possible that the name ^dTAG.NUN should be read as Uttu, though Joan Goodnick Westenholz rejected this interpretation and instead assumed that ^dTAG.NUN was one of the multiple writings of the name of Bizilla or a closely related goddess who like her came to be associated with Nanaya in later sources.

Uttu was regarded as the goddess of weaving. According to an esoteric explanatory text which links various materials with gods, she could be associated with colored wool.

Thorkild Jacobsen argued that Uttu was envisioned as a spider spinning a web. However, the connection between Uttu and spiders, or more precisely between her name and the Akkadian word ettūtu ("spider"), is limited to a single text, and it might represent a "learned etymology" (scribal speculation), a folk etymology or simply rely on the terms being nearly homophonous. Two copies of the text contain slightly different versions of the same passage, "the handiwork of a spider (ettūtu) will be steady in his house," or "the handiwork of Uttu will be steady in his house." Ettūtu was only one of the words for spiders present in Akkadian texts, the other two being anzūzu (written ŠÈ.GUR₄) and possibly lummû. In Sumerian, spiders were known as aš, aš₅, lùm or si₁₄. In Mesopotamian literature spiders are mostly attested in proverbs, with a particularly well attested one describing a spider (ŠÈ.GUR₄) putting a ḫamitu insect in fetters and then cutting it into pieces after it acted as a witness in a lawsuit against a kuzāzu insect. Most likely the meaning of it was that an evildoer should not act as a witness. Another proverb mentions a spider (ettūtu) which prepared a net to catch a fly but ended up threatened itself by a lizard, possibly meaning that one responsible for evil deeds will be eventually defeated by a greater force. Spiders also occur as an art motif on Early Dynastic seals associated with female weavers.

Uttu was worshiped in the E-ešgar, "house of work assignment," which was a part of the Esagil temple complex in Babylon.

^dTAG.NUN, who might be the same deity as Uttu, had a temple in Umma in the Early Dynastic period, built by king Il. ^dTAG.NUN is also attested in a theophoric name, Ur-^dTAG.NUN.

Two bilingual Sumero-Akkadian incantations known from the neo-Assyrian period mention Uttu. In both cases, she is described cooperating with Inanna on spinning yarn.

According to the myth Enki and Ninhursag, Uttu's parents were Enki and Ninkurra. In a late tradition, Ninkurra was instead a male deity and Uttu's husband. A variant of Enki and Ninhursag makes Ninkurra Uttu's grandmother and Ninimma her mother. Enki is also addressed as Uttu's father in a Neo-Assyrian incantation. However, another late text documents a tradition in which her father was Anu. In the late god list An = Anu ša amēli, Uttu is equated with Enki, which reflects a theological phenomenon of reinterpreting originally distinct deities responsible for specific professions as aspects of him even if they were originally viewed as female.