'Kutha' (modern ''Tell Ibrahim'') was an ancient city of
Sumer on the right bank of the eastern branch of the Upper
Euphrates, north of
Nippur. It was the cult city of
Nergal.
'Kutha' is also the name of the capital of the Sumerian underworld,
Irkalla.
Occultism
The author of a modern
occult book called the
Simon Necronomicon claimed that the name
Cthulhu used in the works of
H.P. Lovecraft is based upon this name. It was argued that Cthulhu was actually ''Kuthalu'', which was reported as meaning "Man of Kutha" or "Man of the underworld" and thus a god of the dead, or more specifically
Nergal. This was offered as part of many claims that Lovecraft's
Cthulhu Mythos fiction was based upon
Sumerian mythology.
There is actually no evidence to support this claim, and Chris Siren, author of the Sumerian Mythology FAQ, states that "Lu" meaning "man" was only used as a prefix and not a suffix (so the name, had it actually existed, would have been ''Lukutha'' and not ''Kuthalu'') and specifically referred only to mortal men and not gods.