Bau (goddess)

Bau
Tutelary goddess of Girsu
Bust of a goddess, perhaps Bau, from Girsu. Louvre Museum.
Major cult center	Girsu, Lagash, later Kish
Symbol	waterfowl, scorpion
Genealogy
Parents	Anu (father) Abba (mother)
Spouse	Ningirsu (in Lagash) Zababa (in Kish)
Children	Igalim, Shulshaga, Ḫegir, six other deities

Bau (cuneiform: 𒀭𒁀𒌑 ^dBa-U₂; also romanized as Baba or Babu) was a Mesopotamian goddess. The reading of her name is a subject of debate among researchers, though Bau is considered the conventional spelling today.^[1] While initially regarded simply as a life-giving deity, in some cases associated with the creation of mankind, over the course of the third and second millennia BCE she also acquired the role of a healing goddess. She could be described as a divine midwife. In art she could be depicted in the company of waterfowl or scorpions.

In sources from Lagash and Girsu, Bau's husband was the god Ningirsu. Among their children were deities such as Igalim, Shulshaga and Ḫegir. While they could still be regarded as a couple in later sources, from the Old Babylonian period onwards Bau was also viewed as the wife of Zababa, the tutelary god of Kish. Another deity associated with her was her attendant goddess Lammašaga. Most likely for political reasons, Bau also came to be associated, and partially syncretised, with the medicine goddess Ninisina. However, their character was not identical, for example Bau was not associated with dogs and was not invoked against demons in incantations. In the late second millennium BCE she also came to be associated with Gula, and could be equated with her, though texts where they are two separate goddesses are known too. In one case, Bau is described as the deity who bestowed Gula's position upon her.

The earliest evidence indicates that Bau's initial cult center was Girsu, and that early on she also came to be worshipped in Lagash. Multiple kings of this city left behind inscriptions which mention her, and some of them, for example Uru'inimgina, referred to her as their divine mother. She is also attested in the theophoric names of many ordinary people. While the area where she was initially worshipped declined in the Old Babylonian period, she was transferred to Kish, and continued to be venerated there as late as in the Neo-Babylonian period. She is also attested in texts from Uruk dating to the Seleucid period.