Bau- Mesopotamian GodDeity"Lady of Abundance"

The City's Healer

Lagash had Ningirsu for its shield, and Bau for its breath. She was the goddess who healed, who filled storehouses, who kept the city alive between wars. Her temple stood near Ningirsu's in the sacred precinct of Girsu, and for the rulers of Lagash, tending it was as urgent as tending the walls.

Gudea, the governor who rebuilt Lagash around 2144 BCE, recorded his devotion to Bau on his famous cylinders. He restored her temple, provisioned it with regular offerings of grain and livestock, and ensured her priests lacked nothing. The inscriptions treat her as Ningirsu's consort and equal partner in the city's protection: his strength meant little without her sustenance.

The sick came to Bau's temple seeking recovery. Dogs roamed the sacred precinct, and dog figurines have turned up in archaeological layers at Lagash associated with her cult. The connection between dogs and healing was old: dogs lick wounds, and Bau's worshippers saw the animal as her living instrument. No other Mesopotamian deity claimed the dog so completely.

The New Year Festival

Once a year, at the New Year, Lagash celebrated Bau. Her statue was carried in procession through the city while priests presented offerings of food and drink. The climax was the sacred marriage: the ritual union of Bau and Ningirsu, enacted to renew fertility and the city's favor for the coming year.

Administrative tablets from the Ur III period (around 2112 to 2004 BCE) record what these celebrations cost. The quantities of grain and livestock allocated for the Bau festival were enormous, rivaling the provisions for Ningirsu's own rites. A city that spent so much on one goddess's feast was a city that believed its survival depended on her goodwill.