Editing Dagon (section)

== Divine genealogy and syncretism ==
No known text deals with the parentage or creation of Dagan.{{sfn|Stone|2013}} His wife was [[Shalash]]; while well attested in Tuttul and elsewhere, she is seemingly absent in sources pertaining to Dagan's cult in Terqa.{{sfn|Archi|2015|p=634}} Their children were [[Hadad]] (analogous to [[Ugarit]]ic [[Baal]]){{sfn|Schwemer|2007|p=156}} and possibly [[Hebat]],{{sfn|Feliu|2003|p=302}} who is attested alongside Dagan and Shalash in a mourning ritual from ancient [[Aleppo]].{{sfn|Feliu|2007|p=90}} Daniel Schwemer considers it possible that Dagan, while always viewed as a "father of gods," only became the father of the weather god under [[Hurrian religion|Hurrian]] influence.{{sfn|Schwemer|2007|p=156}}

While [[Wilfred G. Lambert]] proposed in 1980 that [[Išḫara|Ishara]] was sometimes regarded as the wife of Dagan,{{sfn|Frantz-Szabó|Lambert|1980|p=176}} and this theory is repeated as fact in older reference works such as [[Jeremy Black (assyriologist)|Jeremy Black]]'s and Anthony Green's ''Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia'',{{sfn|Black|Green|1992|p=56}} it is no longer considered the consensus.{{sfn|Feliu|2003|pp=54–55}}{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=324}} Lluís Feliu  in his study of Dagan concludes that the association between these two deities was limited to sharing temples in Mesopotamia, and was most likely based on their origin in the western region and shared status as foreign deities in the eyes of Mesopotamian theologians. He also points out that there is no indication that they were closely connected outside of [[Babylonia]], especially in parts of Syria where they were most commonly worshiped.{{sfn|Feliu|2003|pp=54–55}} He additionally remarks that Lambert mistakenly assumed Ishara is one and the same as [[Haburitum]], goddess of the river [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Habur]], who also appears in Mesopotamian texts in association with Dagan.{{sfn|Feliu|2003|p=55}} Both Feliu{{sfn|Feliu|2003|p=55}} and Alfonso Archi point out that Haburitum and Ishara could appear side by side in the same documents, and therefore cannot be two names of the same deity.{{sfn|Archi|2002|p=30}} Archi considers it more likely that Haburitum was analogous to [[Belet Nagar]].{{sfn|Archi|2002|p=30}}{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=324}} Like Feliu, he considers it implausible that Dagan was ever regarded as Ishara's husband.{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=324}} He points out that the latter's character was similar to [[Ishtar]]'s.{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=324}}

=== Dagan, Enlil and Kumarbi ===
In [[Ancient Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]], Dagan was equated with [[Enlil]] due to their shared role as "fathers of gods." This equation was eventually codified by the god list ''[[An = Anum]]'', which additionally equated their spouses with each other.{{sfn|Archi|2004|pp=324–325}} However, which of the two parts of this equation was viewed as the primary god varied. In [[Mari, Syria|Mari]], it was Dagan who received Enlil's epithets, and in [[Emar]] the [[Logogram|logographic]] writing <sup>d</sup>KUR, a shortened version of Enlil's epithet <sup>d</sup>Kur-gal (Great Mountain), stood for Dagan's name in the late Bronze Age.{{sfn|Archi|2004|pp=326–327}} It is unclear if this equation was responsible for the logographic writing of the name of Emar's city god as <sup>d</sup>NIN.URTA, as the god of Emar is unlikely to be Dagan's primary son Hadad (whose name was written logographically as <sup>d</sup>IŠKUR), and in Hurrian sources from Syria <sup>d</sup>NIN.URTA is the war god [[Aštabi]] rather than a weather god.{{sfn|Archi|2004|pp=327–328}}

In [[Hurrian religion|Hurrian]] tradition, Dagan was equated with [[Kumarbi]],{{sfn|Archi|2013|p=12}} though only because of shared senior position in the respective pantheons.{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=331}} Kumarbi was nonetheless called "the Dagan of the Hurrians,"{{sfn|Archi|2013|p=15}} and Shalash was viewed as his spouse due to this [[syncretism|syncretic process]].{{sfn|Archi|2013|pp=14–15}} However, she is absent from Hurrian myths about Kumarbi.

=== Dagan and weather gods ===
Due to the similarity between the names of Dagan's wife Shalash and Shala, wife of Adad in Mesopotamia, some researches conclude that the two goddesses were the same and that Dagan was possibly a weather god himself.{{sfn|Feliu|2007|pp=87–88}} However, there is no clear proof that Dagan fulfilled such a function or that he was conflated with any weather gods.{{sfn|Feliu|2007|pp=91–92}}{{sfn|Schwemer|2007|p=129}}

=== Dagan and Nisaba ===
In some documents from Syrian cities, for example Halab and Ugarit, the [[logogram]] <sup>d</sup>[[Nisaba|NISABA]] designates Dagan.{{sfn|Archi|2004|p=332}} As noted by Alphonso Archi, in [[West Semitic languages|Western Semitic]] languages such as Ugaritic Dagan's name was homophonous with the word for grain (''dgn'' in [[Ugaritic alphabet|alphabetic Ugaritic]] texts), and the logographic writing of his name as <sup>d</sup>NISABA was likely a form of wordplay popular among scribes, relying on the fact that the name of Nisaba, the Mesopotamian goddess of writing, could simply be understood as "grain" too.{{sfn|Archi|2004|pp=331–332}}