d to make to her, as well as to Innanna or Istar,
large offerings of fish.

As the masculine deities had feminine forms, so it is not by any means
improbable that the goddesses had masculine forms, and if that be the
case, we may suppose that it was a masculine counterpart of Nina who
founded Nineveh, which, as is well known, is attributed to Ninos, the
same name as Nina with the Greek masculine termination.

Nin-Gursu.

This deity is principally of importance in connection with the ancient
Babylonian state of Lagas, the home of an old and important line of
kings and viceroys, among the latter being the celebrated Gudea, whose
statues and inscribed cylinders now adorn the Babylonian galleries of
the Louvre at Paris. His name means "Lord of Girsu," which was
probably one of the suburbs, and the oldest part, of Lagas. This deity
was son of En-lila or Bel, and was identified with Nirig or Enu-restu.
To all appearance he was a sun-deity. The dialectic form of his name
was /U-Mersi/, of which a variant, /En-Mersi/, occurs in an
incantation published in the fourth volume of the /Cuneiform
Inscriptions of Western Asia/, pl. 27, where, for the Sumerian "Take a
white kid of En-Mersi," the Semitic translation is "of Tammuz,"
showing that he was identified with the latter god. In the second
volume of the same work Nin-Girsu is given as the pronunciation of the
name of the god of agriculturalists, confirming this identification,
Tammuz being also god of agriculture.

Bau.

This goddess at all times played a prominent part in ancient
Babylonian religion, especially with the rulers before the dynasty of
Hammurabi. She was the "mother" of Lagas, and her temple was at
Uru-azaga, a district of Lagas, the chief city of Nin-Girsu, whose
spouse she was. Like Nin-Girsu, she planted (not only grain and
vegetation, but also the seed of men). In her character of the goddess
who gave life to men, and healed their bodies in sickness, she was
identified with Gula, one of those titles is "the lady saving from
death". Ga-tum-duga, whose name probably means "making and producing
good," was also exceedingly popular in ancient times, and though
identified with Bau, is regarded by Jastrow has having been originally
distinct from her.

Eres-ki-gal or Allatu.

As the prototype of Persephone, this goddess is one of much importance
for comparative mytholog