The Ugaritic texts also attest the existence of dual and plural forms, Gaṯarāma and Gaṯarūma, used to refer to Gaṯaru himself in association with other deities, such as the moon god Yarikh and the sun goddess Shapash.
[5] Gregorio del Olmo Lete argues that he should be identified as a deceased royal ancestor, but according to Dennis Pardee this translation relied on a since disproved assumption that the phrase gṯr w yqr refers to a legendary founder of the Ugaritic ruling house.
[7] One of the texts mentioning them states that during one of the Ugaritic festivals they had to enter the royal palace, where Gaṯaru himself subsequently received offerings of silver.
[1] An alternative would be assuming that the word is treated as an abstract noun, "power," rather than as an adjective in this case, which is the solution preferred by Dennis Pardee, but no other attestations supporting such a translation are presently known.
[5] However, according to Piotr Steinkeller, unlike the Ugaritic texts, the sources from Emar and Mari do not provide direct evidence in favor of interpreting him as a god associated with the underworld.
[2] The equation is based on the similar meaning of Lugalirra's name: the element ir is treated as the Sumerian translation of gašru in lexical texts.
[22] However, the Akkadian god whose name had been directly translated into Sumerian language as "Lugalirra" was not Gašru, but rather Bēl-gašer (also romanized as Bēl-gašir), the tutelary deity of Shaduppum,[23] known for example from a cylinder dedicated to him for the life of Ipiq-Adad II of Eshnunna.