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Updated: June 12, 2025
Marduk's ship was appropriately known as Ma-ku-a, 'the ship of the dwelling. Similarly, a ship of the god Sin was called 'ship of light, reminding one of the name of the great temple to the moon-god at Ur, 'the house of the great luminary. The ship of Nin-gal, the consort of Sin, was called 'the lesser light. Bau's ship was described by an epithet of the goddess as 'the ship of the brilliant offspring, the reference being to the descent of the goddess from father Anu.
As it is, he can only combine Bau's festival with the cult of Nin-girsu, by making the New Year's Day the occasion of a symbolical marriage between the god and the goddess. Nin-girsu is represented as offering marriage gifts to Bau, on the Zagmuku. How early Bau came to occupy so significant a rank has not been ascertained.
A direct indication of this personification of heaven without the deification appears in the epithet 'child of Anu, bestowed upon the goddess Bau. The reference to the heavens in this connection is an allusion to Bau's position as the patroness of that quarter of Lagash known as the 'brilliant town, and where Bau's temple stood.
When Uru-azagga becomes a part of Lagash, Bau's dignity is heightened to that of 'mother of Lagash. As the consort of Ningirsu, she is identified with the goddess Gula, the name more commonly applied to the 'princely mistress' of Nin-ib, whose worship continues down to the days of the neo-Babylonian monarchy.
Since we know that at the time when Babylon acquired her supremacy the year began in the spring, the conservatism attaching to religious observances makes it more than probable that Bau's festival also fell in the spring.
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