forces,
rather than elsewhere; but exactly which one she is, it is difficult to
say. Hommel, indeed,[37] is of opinion that she is the personified
watery depth, the primitive chaos which has only the heavens above it;
but in giving this explanation, he is influenced by the desire to
connect the name of Bau with the famous term for chaos in Genesis,
_Tohu-wa-bohu_. There is, however, no proof whatsoever that Bau and Bohu
have anything to do with one another. A goddess who can hardly be
distinguished from Bau is

Ga-tum-dug.[38]

Indeed, from the fact that she is also the 'mother of Lagash,' it might
seem that this is but another name for Bau. However, elsewhere, in two
lists of deities invoked by Gudea (Inscr. B, col. ii. 17), Ga-tum-dug is
given a separate place by the side of Bau, once placed before and once
after the latter; and it is clear therefore that she was originally
distinct from Bau. For Gudea, Ga-tum-dug is the mother who produced him.
He is her servant and she is his mistress. Lagash is her beloved city,
and there he prepares for her a dwelling-place, which later rulers, like
Entena, embellish. She is called the 'brilliant' (_Azag_), but as this
title is merely a play upon the element found in the city, Uru-azagga,
sacred to Bau, not much stress is to be laid upon this designation.
Unfortunately, too, the elements composing her name are not clear,[39]
and it must be borne in mind that the reading is purely provisional. So
much, at least, seems certain: that Bau and Ga-tum-dug are two forms
under which one and the same natural element was personified. Bau is
called in the incantation texts, the mother of Ea. The latter being
distinctly a water god, we may conclude that in some way, Bau is to be
connected with water as a natural element. The conjecture may be
hazarded that she personifies originally the waters of the upper
realm--the clouds. Since Ea, who is her son, represents the waters of
the lower realm, the relation of mother and son reflects perhaps a
primitive conception of the origin of the deep, through the descent of
the upper waters. When we come to the cosmogony of the Babylonians, it
will be seen that this conception of a distinction between the two
realms of waters is a fundamental one. This character as a spirit of the
watery elements is shared by others of the goddesses appearing in the
old Babylonian inscriptions.[40]

En-ki or Ea.

This god, who, as we shall see, becomes most promi