Shara
Mesopotamian · deity · early dynastic sumer · Recorded classification
Shara is the god of the other side. The Lagash-Umma border war is the earliest well-documented war between states and it was fought as a lawsuit between gods; this registry carried Ningirsu of Lagash — added earlier in this same pass — and not Shara of Umma. He looks after irrigation, herds and fields, and carries a barbed arrow, which is the usual combination for a city god who has to feed his people and defend them. His mother at Umma is Inanna of Zabalam. His wife in the third millennium is Ninura, whose cult faded afterwards; she is added in this same pass, so the marriage is a link rather than a sentence.
Parentage
- parent: Inanna
Domains
- agriculture
- war
Relations
- spouse: NinuraHis wife in the third millennium; after the Old Babylonian period her cult fades and he is paired with Usaḫara or Kumulmul instead.Reference treatment naming Ninura, a goddess of the same area, as Shara's wife in the third millennium BCE. (secondary)
- child of: InannaSon of Inanna in the Umma tradition; the father is not named. In her Descent she finds him in mourning dress, sitting in the dust, and passes him over when choosing who will take her place.Reference treatment of Shara: at Umma he was regarded as the son of Inanna of Zabalam by an unknown father. (secondary)
Sources
- Shara is the tutelary god of Umma, a god of agriculture, animal husbandry and irrigation who is also a divine warrior, regarded at Umma as the son of Inanna of Zabalam, and one of the gods found mourning in Inanna's Descent.: Reference treatment of Shara: his city, his spheres, his parentage at Umma, his wife Ninura, and his appearance in Inanna's Descent. (secondary)