The ME (Divine Offices of Civilization)
Kingship, craft, music, even strife — all of civilization handed down as objects the gods could carry off.
Also: me · the me · divine decrees · divine offices · garza · parsu · ordinances of civilization
The me (pronounced 'may') are one of the most distinctive Sumerian ideas: the divine 'givens' that make ordered civilized life possible. They include kingship and priesthood, the crafts and the arts, the temple offices, music, sexual customs, and even darker realities like strife and deceit — a complete inventory of the institutions of culture, conceived as objects the gods possess and bestow. In one famous myth Inana carries the me off from Enki to her city Uruk. To hold the me is to hold the very building-blocks of an ordered world.
In short
The me — the fixed divine powers, offices, and norms that constitute civilization (kingship, priesthood, crafts, sexual mores, music, even falsehood and strife), held by the gods and granted to humankind.
Where it’s found
'Inana and Enki' (ETCSL 1.3.1, in corpus); 'Enki and the world order' (ETCSL 1.1.3, in corpus)
How the idea developed across Sumer, Babylon & Assyria
A characteristically Sumerian concept; its Akkadian counterpart is the more abstract notion of parṣu (rite, office, ordinance). The famous catalogue of the me appears in 'Inana and Enki', where the goddess transfers them from Eridu to Uruk.