Bau (goddess)

Bau or Baba (cuneiform: 𒀭𒁀𒌑 Dba-u2)was the tutelary goddess of Lagash in ancient Mesopotamia.[2] She later acquired the role of a divine physician, which she shared with the goddesses Gula, Ninisina, Ninkarrak and Nintinugga.[1]

Bau
Tutelary goddess of Lagash; divine physician
Bust of a goddess, perhaps Bau, from Girsu. Louvre Museum.
Major cult centerGirsu,[1] Lagash, later Kish
Symbolsnake, scorpion, swan
ParentsAnu and Abba
ConsortNingirsu (in Lagash), Zababa (in Kish)

Name

The meaning of Bau's name is unknown.[3] Its reading is uncertain and various possibilities have been proposed, including Bau, Baba, Bawu and Babu.[4] While "Baba" is a relatively common reading in literature, the evidence both in favor and against it is inconclusive.[5] Edmond Sollberger considered "Bawa" to be the original form, with Baba being a latter pronunciation, similar to the change from Huwawa to Humbaba.[6] Maurice Lambert assumed Baba was the Akkadian reading and that as such in scholarship it should be only employed in strictly Akkadian contexts.[6] Richard L. Litke regarded "Bau" as the most likely pronunciation.[7]

Giovani Marchesi notes that it is not certain if the phonetic spelling "Baba" found in a few Old Akkadian texts corresponds to the goddess from Lagash or another deity, though it does seem that "Baba" and "Bau" were interchangeable in the writing of theophoric names, for example in the case of the legendary queen Kubaba/Ku-Bau.[8] He concludes that Bau was most likely the original pronunciation at the time when the orthography of the name was standardized in the third millennium BCE.[9] However, Gonazalo Rubio disagrees with Marchesi's conclusions and argues that the reading Baba would fit the pattern evident in other names of Mesopotamian deities with no clear Sumerian or Semitic etymologies, such as Alala, Bunene or Zababa.[10]

Due to the uncertainties surrounding the reading of the name, some experts favor the spelling BaU, including Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz.[11]

Thorkild Jacobsen's proposal that the name was "an imitation of dog's bark, as English 'bowwow'" is regarded as erroneous today, as unlike other healing goddesses (Gula, Ninisina, Nintinugga and Ninkarrak) Bau was not associated with dogs.[7]

Character and worship

In Lagash
Statue of Gudea, the king who elevated the rank of Bau in the local pantheon.
A tablet mentioning sacrifices made to various gods worshiped in the state of Lagash, including Bau.

Bau became an important goddess during the reign of the Second Dynasty of Lagash (c. 2230-2110 BCE) on the account of her connection with Ningirsu.[12] Some of the Lagashite kings, notably Eanatum, Lugalanda and Urukagina, designated her as their divine mother, though sometimes this role was fulfilled by a different local goddess, Gatumdag, instead (as in the case of Enanatum I and Enmetena).[13] She was also regarded as a goddess of abundance, and as such was depicted with a vase with flowing streams of water in art.[14] Her connection to kings extended to the cult of deceased rulers as well.[1] She was also regarded as a divine mediator.[15] A joint temple of Bau and Ningirsu called Eninnu is known from various records.[16] She appeared frequently in theophoric names from Lagash.[17]

The highest cultic official of Bau in the city-state of Lagash, and as a result one of the most powerful political figures in it was a high priestess, with one named Geme-Lamma being known from a number of seals.[18] While servants and scribes are depicted lead by minor goddesses to meet with Bau in seals, the high priestess was depicted interacting with the goddess directly.[18]

Gudea elevated Bau's rank to equal of that of Ningirsu, and called her "Queen who decides the destiny in Girsu."[14] This made her the highest ranking goddess of the local pantheon of Lagash,[15] putting her above Nanshe.[19] During the reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur, she was the second most notable "divine wife" after Ninlil,[20] with some sources (ex. from Nippur) indicating she was exalted above Ningirsu.[21]

While not a healing goddess at first, Bau acquired traits of this class of deities at some point in the third millennium BCE,[22] with a zame hymn referring to her as "the great physician," usually an epithet of Ninisina, already.[23] Even in Isin Bau was sometimes addressed with a number of epithets usually belonging to Ninisina as a healing goddess, for example in a hymn from the reign of Ishme-Dagan.[22] As a healing goddess Bau was also connected to midwifery.[24] A hymn praising Bau for her role as a midwife was composed to celebrate the birth of the child of queen Kubatum, wife of Shu-Sin.[3]

In at least one case Bau's symbol in the role of a healing deity was a snake,[19] rather than a dog like in the case of Ninisina or Gula.[7] In other contexts, as a spouse or mother, she was depicted with scorpions (associated with marriage) or swans.[19] The various symbols assigned to her indicate that she was a multifaceted deity[25] with a fluid sphere of influence.[17]

In Kish

While the original Lagashite cult of Bau declined alongside the city (a situation analogous to that of Ningirsu as an independent deity, as well as other southern deities such as Shara and Nanshe),[26] she continued to be worshiped in Kish in northern Babylonia, where she arrived in the Old Babylonian period.[27] She remained a major goddess of that city as late as the neo-Babylonian period.[28] In Babylon, "Bau of Kish" was celebrated during certain festivals in the temple of Gula.[29]

Associations with other deities
A seated figurine of Bau from Ur, on display in Iraq Museum.

Bau's father was An, and she was described as his firstborn daughter sometimes.[23] Her mother was the goddess Abba or Ababa/Abau (this writing of the name poses the same problems for interpretation as that of her daughter), attested in The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur and in the god list An = Anum.[30] Another deity sharing the same name, known from a different An = Anum passage and first millennium BCE lamentation texts, was instead male and a son of Bau.[30]

In Lagash, Bau's husband was Ningirsu.[31] One of the known reliefs showing a god with his wife sitting in his lap is most likely a depiction of Bau and Ningirsu from the reign of Gudea (the other is interpreted as a depiction of Nanna and Ningal from the reign of Ur-Namma).[32] Such images were meant to highlight that the divine couples, depicted as loving spouses, act in unison, and that the corresponding kings had a special relation to them.[33]

Later on in Kish she was regarded as the spouse of Zababa.[34] Initially Zababa was the husband of Ishtar of Kish (regarded as separate from Ishtar of Uruk), but after the Old Babylonian period she was replaced in this role by Bau (though she continued to be worshiped independently).[27] Such divine couples consisting out of a healing goddesses and young warrior gods were common in Mesopotamian religion, with the most commonly referenced example being Ninisina and her husband Pabilsag.[35]

Bau's sukkal was the goddess LammaĆĄaga, "good guardian angel (lamma)," lamma being a class of tutelary and intercessory minor goddesses in Mesopotamian religion.[36] She had a temple of her own in Lagash,[11] and hymns dedicated to her are known from the curriculum of scribal schools.[28] Bau herself was possibly sometimes addressed as a lamma in Lagash.[37] It is possible that in some contexts she was identified with Bau's mother.[38]

Other healing goddesses

A degree of syncretism occurred between Bau and Ninisina, though a hymn identifying the latter with the former (Ninisina and the gods) additionally lists unrelated goddesses such as Nungal as aspects of Ninisina.[39] It's possible that the syncretism between Ninisina and Bau was politically motived and was supposed to help the kings of Isin with posing as rightful successors of earlier influential dynasties.[40]

In the god list An = Anum Bau and Ningirsu open the section much of which is dedicated to healing goddesses (including Nintinugga, Gula, and Ninkarrak).[41]

A conflation of Bau with other healing goddesses occurs in the late hymn to Gula, which however in addition to healing goddesses equates her with Nanshe, Ninsun and a number of other distinct deities as well.[42] The hymn nonetheless preserves information about their distinct spheres of influence and character.[43] A similar hymn dedicated to Nanaya, which features city goddesses rather than healing goddesses, is regarded as an exaltation meant to improve the hierarchical standing of the deity lauded in it within the pantheon.[44]

References
  1. Böck 2015, p. 3.
  2. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 237.
  3. Böck 2015, p. 4.
  4. Marchesi 2002, p. 161.
  5. Marchesi 2002, pp. 161–163.
  6. Marchesi 2002, p. 164.
  7. Marchesi 2002, p. 165.
  8. Marchesi 2002, p. 163.
  9. Marchesi 2002, p. 172.
  10. Rubio 2010, pp. 38–39.
  11. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 54.
  12. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 19.
  13. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 59.
  14. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 189.
  15. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 190.
  16. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 202.
  17. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 209.
  18. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 203.
  19. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 205.
  20. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 66.
  21. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 67.
  22. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 84.
  23. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 63.
  24. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 204.
  25. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 266.
  26. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 21–22.
  27. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 78.
  28. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 77.
  29. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 124.
  30. Samet 2014, p. 81.
  31. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 61.
  32. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 190-191.
  33. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 191.
  34. Sallaberger 2017, p. 164.
  35. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 38.
  36. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 53–54.
  37. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, pp. 192–193.
  38. Samet 2014, pp. 81–82.
  39. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 86.
  40. Böck 2015, p. 5.
  41. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 100.
  42. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 115.
  43. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 116.
  44. Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 117.

Bibliography
  • Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
  • Böck, Barbara (2015). "Ancient Mesopotamian Religion: A Profile of the Healing Goddess". Religion Compass. Wiley. 9 (10). doi:10.1111/rec3.12165. hdl:10261/125303. ISSN 1749-8171.
  • Marchesi, Gianni (2002). "On the Divine Name dBA.Ú". Orientalia. GBPress- Gregorian Biblical Press. 71 (2): 161–172. ISSN 0030-5367. JSTOR 43076783. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  • Rubio, Gonzalo (2010). "READING SUMERIAN NAMES, I: ENSUHKEĆ DANNA AND BABA". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. American Schools of Oriental Research. 62: 29–43. ISSN 0022-0256. JSTOR 41103869. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  • Samet, Nili (2014). The lamentation over the destruction of Ur. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-292-1. OCLC 884593981.
  • Sallaberger, Walther (2017), "Zababa", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2021-07-31
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