[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.

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.

[3] Due to the uncertainties surrounding the reading of the name, some experts favor romanizing it as BaU or Ba-U2, including Manuel Ceccarelli,[4] Jeremiah Peterson,[5] Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz.

[7] Edmond Sollberger considered "Bawa" to be the original formof the name, with "Baba" being a latter pronunciation, similar to the shift from Huwawa to Humbaba.

[10] Gonzalo Rubio disagrees with Marchesi's conclusions and argues that the reading Baba would match the structure of a number of other names of Mesopotamian deities with no clear Sumerian or Semitic etymologies, such as Alala, Bunene or Zababa.

[11] However, Ryan D. Winters states that the fact the name was written phonetically and not logographically, with two different symbols, makes it implausible it was originally pronounced as Baba, a reduplication of a single syllable.

[26] A hymn praising Bau as a divine midwife was composed to celebrate the birth of the child of queen Kubatum, wife of Shu-Sin.

[28] A depiction of Bau accompanied by a snake is known from a seal, and according to Julia M. Asher-Greve might indicate this animal was perceived as her symbol in the role of a healing deity.

[29] This interpretation has been questioned by Irene Sibbing-Plantholt, who points out that while the owner of the seal, a certain Ninkalla, was a midwife, there is no other evidence for the association between Bau and snakes, and the animal therefore might fulfill a general apotropaic role.

[30] In other contexts, presumably pertaining to her role as a wife or mother, Bau could be depicted with scorpions (associated with marriage), swans or miscellaneous waterfowl.

[40] 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.

[44] The composition preserved on the Gudea cylinders states she was a member of a group referred to as "the seven lukur priestesses of Ningirsu" or "the septuplets of Bau".

[45] Another goddess from this group, Urnunta-ea, could be addressed as a daughter of Bau and Ningirsu as early as during the reigns of Urukagina and Ur-Ningirsu I, though she is also attested as a child of Lisin (An = Anum tablet II, line 77).

[46] Furthermore, Ryan D. Winters suggests that the deity Zurmuzarmu, who occurs in An = Anum (tablet II, line 105) in a context indicating association with Kesh, is a later reflection of the names of two other of the seven lukur, Zurmu and Zarmu.

[47] It is possible that this reflects a degree of interchange between the circles of deities regarded as members of Bau's court and those associated with the local pantheon of Kesh.

[49] However, as pointed out by Ryan D. Winters, while this assumption can be found in other modern publications as well, no primary sources identify Zababa and Ishtar of Kish as spouses; he states that even if a connection other than sharing a cult center existed between them, there is no certainty it was marital.

[55] In the past, attempts were sometimes made to prove was a manifestation of Bau rather than a separate goddess, but this view is no longer considered plausible.

[18] It is possible that the development of a connection between these goddesses was politically motivated and was supposed to help the kings of Isin with posing as rightful successors of earlier influential dynasties.

[65] They were likely regarded as analogous in the Middle Assyrian period, with examples including the interchangeable use of their names in colophons and direct equation in a local Assurian recension of the Weidner god list, but they were not always viewed as identical.

[67] While the oldest attestations of Bau come from scribal school texts from Shuruppak from the Early Dynastic period, her original cult center was Girsu.

[1] Her main shrine bore the ceremonial name Egalgasu, "house filled with counsel", and was a part of the Etarsirsir,[74] a temple dedicated to her located in the Uru-ku,[75] the "sacred quarter" of the city.

[1] Some of the Lagashite rulers, including him, as well as Eanatum and Lugalanda, referred to Bau as their divine mother, though sometimes this role was fulfilled by Gatumdug instead, for example in the case of Enanatum I and Enmetena.

[29] During the subsequent reign of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Bau was the second most notable goddess worshiped chiefly in association with her respective husband after Ninlil.

[49] Old Babylonian evidence for the presence of her worshipers in this city includes a record from the reign of Ammi-Ditana which mentions a woman serving as a courtyard purifier (kisalluḫḫatum) of this goddess, and a seal from Hammurabi's time whose owner referred to herself as a servant of Zababa and Bau.

[55] An inscription from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II mentions the rebuilding of the local temple Edubba for both the city god, Zababa, and for Bau.

[74] Elsewhere in the Middle Babylonian period and beyond, Bau retained a degree of popularity, and next to Ishtar and Gula she was the most commonly invoked goddess in theophoric names.

[91] According to Andrew R. George, the temple Eulšarmešudu, "house of jubilation and perfect me", possibly located in Der and known from an unpublished hymn, might have been dedicated to Bau.