Me- Mesopotamian ConceptConcept
Also known as: Meh and Parṣu
Domains
Description
The divine powers that made civilization possible: kingship and treachery, music and slander, the art of lovemaking and the scribal art, over a hundred in all. Enki guarded them in his temple at Eridu until Inanna got him drunk and sailed away with the lot.
Mythology & Lore
The Powers of Civilization
The me (pronounced "may") were the divine powers that made civilized existence possible. Sumerian texts enumerate over a hundred: the throne of kingship and the art of treachery, the scribal art and the art of slander. The list spared nothing. Every skill and institution that set civilization apart from wilderness operated under its particular me, and the powers of deceit stood alongside the powers of truth.
Enki, god of wisdom and fresh waters, kept the me in his temple at Eridu, the Apsu, the cosmic freshwater abyss beneath the earth. Eridu was the oldest city in Mesopotamian tradition, and Enki guarded the divine powers there.
Inanna's Theft
The defining myth of the me tells how Inanna obtained them for her city of Uruk. She traveled to Eridu and visited Enki, who welcomed her with a great feast. As the beer flowed, the god of wisdom grew recklessly generous. "Take the me of kingship!" he declared. "Take the me of the throne! Take the me of the exalted scepter!" One by one, he gave her over a hundred divine powers.
Inanna loaded them onto her Boat of Heaven and set sail for Uruk before her host could reconsider. When Enki sobered and realized what he had done, he was horrified. He sent his vizier Isimud with various creatures to intercept the boat and reclaim the me. Seven times Isimud caught up with her; seven times Inanna's minister Ninshubur fought off the attackers. The me reached Uruk safely.
Inanna arrived and unloaded the divine powers, establishing them in her city. Enki, faced with what could not be undone, eventually made his peace with the loss.