CUTHA (Hebr. Kútháh). – Region from which, in addition to Babylon, Avah, Emath, and Sepharvaim, Sargon transported inhabitants to Samaria in order to colonize it (II Reg. 17:24–30). From these colonists, mixed with the Israelite remnants, the Samaritans originated. The Cutheans must have been the most numerous, since both Josephus (Antiq. Iud., IX, 14, 3; XIII, 9, 1, etc.) and the Talmud call the Samaritans Cutheans.
They worshipped the god Nergal (loc. cit., 17:30), originally an agricultural chthonic deity, later the god of the underworld and bringer of death and slaughter. C. is commonly identified with Kutú of the inscriptions, often mentioned together with Borsippa and Babylon, and with present-day Tell Ibráhim, approximately 30 km northeast of Babylon. Giorgio Castellino