the theological schools of Babylonia, but so much of it, at
all events, rests upon ancient traditions which assigns a month to each
god; and since Marduk is not accorded the first place, but takes his
position in a group of solar deities, and since, moreover, these solar
deities have a position in the calendar which accords with their
specific solar character,[1537] we may proceed a step further and assume
with some confidence that the Babylonian scholars were guided--in large
part, at least--by ancient traditions in parceling out the months as
they did. Anu, Bel, and Ea, it is true, may have been assigned to the
first three months because of the preeminent position of these three
gods as a special triad; but even here the antiquity of the triad
furnishes a guarantee that the association of some month with some deity
belongs to a very ancient period of Babylonian history. This being the
case, it would be natural that the first day of the month sacred to a
deity would be regarded as his or her festival _par excellence_, and in
the case of the cult of a deity spreading beyond its original limits,
this festival would assume a more general character. On this day the
people would come from all parts of the district within which the cult
was carried on, to pay their homage to the god or goddess. In the days
of Gudea, we find Bau occupying this superior rank. Her festival had
assumed such importance as to serve for reckoning the commencement of
the year.

Hence it became known simply as the day of zag-muku,[1538] that is, the
New Year's Day.[1539] Whether this festival of Bau was recognized as the
New Year's Day throughout Babylonia, we do not know, but it must have
been observed in a considerably extensive district, or Gudea would have
made the attempt to give some festival connected with his favorite deity
Nin-girsu this character. 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,[1540] on the Zagmuku. How
early Bau came to occupy so significant a rank has not been ascertained.
It is her quality as the 'great mother,' as the goddess of fertility and
abundance,[1541] rather than any political supremacy of the district in
which she was worshipped, that constitutes the chief factor in giving
Bau this preeminence, just as we have found in the case o