The Healing Bites of Bau
Bau was a healing and protection goddess who lived around 2,500 BCE. She was said to be the daughter of the sky god An and the god of the south wind, named Ninurta. Her temples contained an area known as “The Kennel” where sick and injured people were brought for healing. Murals in these temples show how Bau healed a sick person: by transforming them into either a dog or a wolf.
Wolf-shaped protection statues devoted to Bau bear the motto, “Don’t stop to think, bite!”
And thats just what she did. Bite. If a Sumerian patient could not be healed any other way, Bau or one of her devotees, might transform into a wolf and do just that: bite. Then she would send the patient home with one of her statues and a foggy memory of the event. The healed person would find the statue and hide it in the walls of their house, not knowing for sure what it meant. Until the next full moon it all became clear – Bau had saved his life by turning him into a werewolf.
Bau herself went on to have seven daughters named after the days of the week and also two sons. They all inherited her lycanthropy gene. Werewolves descended from Bau still find healing and protection from her figurines and talismans.