Another important concept in Sumerian theology, was that of me. The me were universal decrees of divine authority. They are the invocations that spread arts, crafts, and civilization. Enki became the keeper of the me. Inanna comes to Enki and complains at having been given too little power from his decrees. In a different text, she gets Enki drunk and he grants her more powers, arts, crafts, and attributes – a total of ninety-four me. Inanna parts company with Enki to deliver the me to her cult center at Erech. Enki recovers his wits and tries to recover the me from her, but she arrives safely in Erech with them.
Nanna is another name for the moon god Sin. He is the product of Enlil’s rape of Ninlil. (Kramer, 1963, pp. 146-7.) Nanna was the tutelary deity of Ur (Kramer 1963 p. 66), appointed as king of that city by An and Enlil. He established Ur-Nammu as his mortal representative, establishing the third Ur dynasty. Nanna was married to Ningal and they produced Inanna and Utu. He rests in the Underworld every month, and there decrees the fate of the dead. He averts a flood of his city by visiting Enlil in Nippur on a boat loaded with gifts and pleading with him. He refuses to send aid to Inanna when she is trapped in the underworld.
Son of Nanna and Ningal, god of the Sun and of Justice, Utu goes to the underworld at the end of every day and while there decrees the fate of the dead. When Inanna’s huluppu tree is infested with unwelcome guests, he ignores her appeal for aid. He aided Dumuzi in his flight from the galla demons by helping him to transform into different creatures. He opened the “ablal” of the Underworld for Enkidu, to allow him to escape, at the behest of Enki. Through Enki’s orders, he also brings water up from the earth in order to irrigate Dilmun, the garden paradise, the place where the sun rises. He is in charge of the “Land of the Living” and, in sympathy for Gilgamesh, calls off the seven weather heroes who defend that land.
Bibliography
? Crawford, Harriet, Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991.
? Kramer, Samuel Noah, and Maier, John, Myths of Enki, the Crafty God, Oxford University Press, New York,1989.
? Kramer, Samuel Noah The Sumerians The University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1963.
? Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth, Harper & Row, NY, 1983.
The New American Bible, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1970.