Lahar's gender is a topic of debate in scholarship, though it is agreed the name refers to a female deity in a god list from the Middle Babylonian period and to a male one in the myth Theogony of Dunnu.
"[1] The same logogram, dU8, could also be used to write the name of another deity associated with herding, Šunidug ("his hand is good")[3] as well as of his father Ga'u (Gayu), the shepherd of Sin,[2] and of the mother of Dumuzi, Duttur.
[6] According to Lambert, the deity Ninsig known from the god list An = Anum, who according to him was male and whose name he translates as "lord wool," is identical with Lahar.
[12] In the discussed poem, after drinking alcohol Lahar starts to bicker with Ashnan over which one of them provides humans with more useful goods, and eventually the conflict between them has to be settled by Enlil, who at Enki's suggestion proclaims the grain goddess the winner.
[13] According to Markham J. Geller, the passage about the origin of Ashnan and Lahar from this composition is directly quoted in the incantation series Udug Hul.