Talk:Me (mythology)

Crafts

The article currently lists arts and sciences. Should crafts be added too? Pottery seems more like a craft than an art.

The list could be more specific too as to what arts and sciences (and possibly crafts).

Major rewrite/removed content

I am heavily rewriting this article, and include below the content I'm removing along the way:

Me are considered to be ancient and extremely valuable. Some myths depict them as concrete physical objects, such as a throne--holding the me of kingship--that can be sat upon, for example. Sometimes me are carried, worn, held, or otherwise handled like normal objects. Generally the me are possessed by Anu or Enlil, the highest ranking deities in the Sumerian pantheon, but they can be assigned to lower ranking gods.

In a poem known modernly as "Inanna and Enki" Inanna and her father Enki get drunk and gamble for ownership of the me that Enki possesses. Inanna wins the gambling contest; she takes the me and provides it to human beings. Some compare this poem with the theft of fire by Prometheus in Greek mythology.

Contrary to the earlier practice in this article, I am following my main source in pluralizing me with an "s", although I have chosen to write mes rather than Kramer's "me's". Plurals with apostrophes bug me. TCC (talk) (contribs) 08:48, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

pronunciation

How do you pronounce the word? - Zepheus (ツィフィアス) 17:52, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

According to page 17 it is pronounced "may". Near as I can tell, the IPA in this article differs from this. 99.27.201.107 (talk) 07:56, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

References

Aka tech-tree

Though not referred to as mes, the "inventions" that allow for cultural advancement in Sid Meier's Civilization games certainly parallel, and seem to be based on, the mes. Asat 05:34, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Mythology and nature

The text says that mes like victory are to abstract to show the people. Surely concepts like victory could have been explained to the people. To paraphrase Aristotle, he said that the ability to explain and discuss abstract thought was part of the logos or an identifier of the gods. I'm only just starting to look into these myths so I could be wrong, just curious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.180.72.58 (talk) 11:29, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

The poem is quite clear that the me are treated as physical objects. They're stored in a specific location in the E-abzu, Inanna loads them into her chariot, and then exhibits them to the people of Uruk as she unloads them. Sumerians weren't idiots: if they meant she merely explained these things they'd have said so, and in that case Enki could hardly worry about them being missing from their places.

Sumerians also did not have Aristotlean ideas about their gods, which were not the Greek gods. You're projecting an idea several millennia before its time. 192.91.147.35 (talk) 01:41, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Citations

Several works appear in the bibliography section with no citations in the text. Could someone please add references to them so we know what ideas came from where? 192.91.147.35 (talk) 01:43, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

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