GULA, a Sumerian goddess, patroness of Medicine, the con sort of Nin-urta. She is identical with another goddess, known as Bau, though it would seem that the two were originally inde pendent. The name Bau is more common in the oldest period and gives way in the post-Khammurabic age to Gula. Other names borne by this goddess are Nin-Karrak, Ga-turn-dug and Nin-din dug, the latter signifying "the lady who restores to life." The designation well emphasizes the chief trait of Bau-Gula which is that of healer. She is often spoken of as "the great physician," and accordingly plays a specially prominent role in incantations and incantation rituals intended to relieve those suffering from disease. She is, however, also invoked to curse those who trample upon the rights of rulers or those who do wrong with poisonous potions. As in the case of Nin-urta, the cult of Bau-Gula is prominent in Lagash and in Nippur, but her principal cult was at Isin. While generally in close association with her consort, she is also invoked by herself, and thus retains a larger measure of independence than most of the goddesses of Babylonia and As syria. She appears in a prominent position on the designs accom panying the Kudurrus boundary-stone monuments of Babylonia, being represented by a statue attended by a dog when other gods and goddesses are merely pictured by their shrines, by sacred animals or by weapons. In neo-Babylonian days her cult con tinued to occupy a prominent position, and Nebuchadrezzar II. speaks of no less than three chapels or shrines within the sacred precincts of E-Zida in the city of Borsippa, besides a temple in her honour at Babylon.
Another deity, namely the heaven god Anu is often called Gula, for the word means simply "the great one." BIBLIOGRAPHY. A Deimel, Pantheon Babylonicum, No. 547 (Rome, Bibliography. A Deimel, Pantheon Babylonicum, No. 547 (Rome, 1914) ; S. Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, pp. 130-195 (Paris 1909) ; L. W. Ring, Babylonian Magic, No. 4, 26-5o; No. 6, ; No. 7, 11-32 (1896) ; E. Ebeling, Quellen zur Kenntniss der Bahylonischen Religion, Part 1, pp. 49-57 (Leipzig 1918) .