Didanu

Didanu ( Didânu, Ditānu) was a legendary Amorite ruler or ancestral figure attested in Mesopotamian and Ugaritic texts. His name is presumed to be derived from the term Tidnu, which in the third millennium BCE referred to a specific tribal group among the Amorites, as attested in sources from the times of Gudea and Shu-Sin. After the Ur III period, variants of this term only appear in literary texts, and by the end of the Bronze Age they were only ever used to designate a purely mythical figure. Various dynasties claimed descent from Didanu, including the kings of Assyria (possibly as early as during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I), the First Dynasty of Babylon, and the monarchs of Ugarit. In the last of these states, Didanu was also considered a deity.

==Etymology== The name Didanu (Ditanu) is presumed to share its origin with a variety of terms in Semitic languages derived from the root ddn or dtn, variously used as designations of tribes, toponyms, names of mythical ancestors and possibly of mythical animals. Attested examples include terms such Tidnu, Tidanum, Tidnum and Tidan. Gianni Marchesi anglicizes it as "Tidneans" as a term referring to a group of people. It has been suggested that all of these terms were related to didānu (ditānu), referring to an animal variously interpreted as bison, aurochs, or possibly a mythical creature, though this remains uncertain. It has been argued that the didānu might have functioned as an animal symbol of an Amorite clan which subsequently came to be designated by its name. Another view is that the name Ditanu and other related terms are cognates of the Akkadian word datnu, "warlike".