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Me

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This is a page on Me which leads us to the Waterhouse family

Stephensonia

Ea* is Enki* and a diety represented as a house on water. Ea is not Tolkein's Eä - though it might be a reason for Randy Waterhouse's thinking of himself as a Dwarf.

Authored entries

Me

The me are the ancient Sumerian incantations of Neal Stephenson's third novel, Snow Crash, and its most compelling SF concept: a virus neé drug cum religion created by the intersection of these with modern cult/ure.

The me are short verb phrases that literally act on the human mind like commands in a programming language. That is, they activate the human body directly and bypass the mind, which might otherwise inhibit obeying the command that is the me. They were supposed to be held by priests until certain actions like harvesting or planting or irrigating or building were required, and then released only for that purpose. Presumably noun phrases would also be required, for instance, to denote where to go to do the action, or what materials to use, if there's a choice. Which, in a primitive economy, there wouldn't be: huts are made of straw or sticks, granaries of brick, etc. Simple.

Deeper: Me

Me is a concept in the cosmology of Sumerian mythology which describes the discrete bestowal of each of the arts and sciences by the gods to humans. In one poem, Inanna is described as meeting with Enki, the divine caretaker of the me, and getting him drunk in a plot to steal them from him (compare with the theft of fire by Prometheus in Greek mythology).

Deeper? Let me show you how deep the rabbit hole goes...Curiouser and curiouser....

Something alike "Me" is used in a novel by Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi. It is a gesture made with the whole body or a part of it forcing exposed person into some action, so, for example, there is a "me" called "Serve Me" to force a daimon to let the main personality of an Ariste ("me" are used mostly by Aristoi, not Demos) unto his/hers control (Aristoi can run their minds in parallel like computers using daimonions, something like controlled scientifically, useful type of schizophrenia - main character is, for example, using it to make love to two women at the the same time, one through HyperLogos, one in the Realized World). Oh, the main character is called Gabriel, which leads us to Mycroft AKA Mike from Robert E. Henlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Mike is also a self-concious computer from the novel by the same author, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, who is also Adam Selene, supposedly the greatest mathematican alive. It is a clear demonstration of the power of a whisper campaign. Possibly maybe.

Ishtar or Inanna

Ancient_ishtar.JPG Ishtar, also known as Htar (or Inanna in Sumerian mythology) , the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte. The meaning of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make her the "leading one" or "chief." At all events it is now generally recognized that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is likewise uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the worship of a great mother goddess independent of any association with a male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history. She appears under various names, among which are Nanã, Innanna, Nina and Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi we find these various names which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the older names are employed it is always the great mother-goddess who is meant. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her independent position despite and throughout all changes that the Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. Even when Ishtar is viewed as the consort of some chief — of Marduk occasionally in the south, of Assur more frequently in the north — the consciousness that she has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost sight of.

With Adbeel (Gen. xxv. 13) may be identified Idibi'il (-ba'il) a tribe, employed by Tiglath-Pileser IV (733 BCE) to watch the frontier of Musri (Sinaitic peninsula or Northern Arabia). This is suggested by the fact that Ashurbanipal (7th century) mentions as the name of their deity Atar-Samain (i.e. "Ishtar of the heavens").

We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the scope of this goddess to life in general — to the growth of plants and trees from the fructifying seed — was a natural outcome of a fundamental idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as clothed in splendor and power — one might almost say as the personification of life itself.

But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she also withdraws her favours and when she does so the fields wither, and men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power. The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked. While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner — whether voluntary or involuntary it is hard to say — all fertility ceases on Earth, but the time comes when she again returns to Earth, and as she passes each gate the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again clad in her full splendour, to the joy of mankind and of all nature. Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the change of seasons is the story of Ishtar's love for her son and consort Tammuz — symbolizing the spring time — but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and, according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her journey to that region. She is a life-death-rebirth deity.

In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as E-anna, "heavenly house," in Erech; E-makh, "great house," in Babylon; E-mash-mash, "house of offerings," in Nineveh. Of the details of her cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of Ishtar, were not permitted to marry.

In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons. On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the Moon god, and Shamash, the Sun god, she is the third figure in a triad personifying the three great forces of nature — Moon, Sun and Earth, as the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrate, the tendency of the Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ha — the heavens, the earth and the watery deep — form another illustration of this same tendency.

Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus — a conception which is essentially a product of theological speculation — no particular locality for her cult is present. It is because the cult, like that of Sin and Shamash, is spread over all Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of theological speculation.

Sumerian mythology

The Sumerians practised a polytheistic religion, with gods or goddesses representing forces or presences in the world, much as in the later Greek mythology. The gods originally created humans as servants for themselves, but freed them when they became too much to handle.

Many stories in Sumerian religion appear homologous to stories in other middle-eastern religions. For example, the biblical account of the creation of man as well as Noah's flood narrative resemble Sumerian tales very closely. Gods and goddesses from Sumer have distinctly similar representations in the religions of the Akkadians, Caananites, and others. A number of related stories and deities have Greek parallels as well; for example Innana's descent into the underworld strikingly recalls the story of Persephone.

Cosmology

The universe first appeared when Nammu is probably the first of the ancient deities of Sumer — at least in the process of creation, if not in actual chronology. She was the goddess of the primeval sea that gave rise to heaven and earth. She is both mother of all the gods and wife of An, which does suggest incest of a sort. As a presumably formless abyss, curled in upon herself, and in an act of self-procreation gave birth to An, god of heaven and Ki, goddess of Earth (commonly referred to as Ninhursag). An was the god of heaven in the Sumerian pantheon until about 2500 BCE. He was then replaced by his two sons, Enlil and Enki. Ninhursag was the earth and mother-goddess. It appears the offspring of Nammu were originally An (the heavens or sky,) and Ki, (the Earth). Her union with Enki produced Ninsar, goddess of the pasture.

The union of An and Ki produced Enlil, lord of wind, who eventually became leader of the pantheon. After the banishment of Enlil from Dilmun (the home of the gods) for raping Ninlil, Ninlil has a child, Sin (god of the moon), also known as Nanna. Sin and Ningal gave birth to Inanna (goddess of love and war) and to Utu / Shamash (god of the sun). During Enlil's banishment, he fathered three underworld deities with Ninlil, most notably Nergal.

Enlil

Enlil was the god of wind, or the sky between earth and heaven. One story has his origination as the exhausted breath of An (God of the heavens) and Ki (goddess of the Earth) after sexual union. As time went on, he gained prominence until he eventually ruled the pantheon of deities.

When he was a young god, he was banished from Dilmun, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld for raping a young girl named Ninlil. Ninlil followed him to the underworld where she bore his first child, the moon god Sin. After fathering three more underworld deities, Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun when Ninlil admitted that it was her plan to seduce him all along.

He was also known as the inventor of the pickaxe (favorite tool of the Sumerians) and the reason plants grow. He used be in the possession of all the holy Me, until he gave them to Enki for safe keeping, who summarily lost them to Inanna in a drunken stupor.

Enki

Nammu also gave birth to Enki, god of the watery abyss, or the Abzu. Enki also controlled the Me, holy decrees that governed such basic things as physics and complex things such as social order and law. This accounts for the origin of most of the world as we know it. WhatsUpWithEnkiMW.jpg
Images of Enki and Ea

He was later known as Ea. The main temple to Enki was in Eridu. His symbols included a goat and a fish, which later combined into a single beast, the Capricorn, which became one of the signs of the zodiac. Male presence, god of water and the creation. He had sexual relations with his female kids during various generations.

Ea (written by means of two signs signifying "house" and "water"), in the Babylonian religion, originally Enki, the patron deity of the city of Eridu, situated in ancient times at the head of the Persian Gulf, but now, by reason of the constant accumulation of soil in the Euphrates valley, at some distance from the gulf.

Eridu, meaning "the good city," was one of the oldest settlements in the Euphrates valley, and is now represented by the mounds known as Abu Shahrein. In the absence of excavations on that site, we are dependent for our knowledge of Ea on material found elsewhere. This is, however, sufficient to enable us to state definitely that Ea was a water-deity, and there is every reason to believe that the Persian Gulf was the body of water more particularly sacred to him. Whether Ea (or A-e as some scholars prefer) represents the real pronunciation of his name we do not know.

All attempts to connect Ea with Yah and Yahweh are idle conjectures without any substantial basis. He is figured as a man covered with the body of a fish, and this representation, as likewise the name of his temple E-apsu, "house of the watery deep," points decidedly to his character as a god of the waters (see Oannes). Of his cult at Eridu, which reverts to the oldest period of Babylonian history, nothing definite is known beyond the fact that the name of his temple was E-saggila, "the lofty house"--pointing to a staged tower as in the case of the temple of Bel at Nippur, known as E-Kur, i.e. "mountain house"--and that incantations, involving ceremonial rites, in which water as a sacred element played a prominent part, formed a feature of his worship.

Whether Eridu at one time also played an important political role is not certain, though not improbable. At all events, the prominence of the Ea cult led, as in the case of Nippur, to the survival of Eridu as a sacred city, long after it had ceased to have any significance as a political centre. Myths in which Ea figures prominently have been found in Assurbanipal 's library, indicating that Ea was regarded as the protector and teacher of mankind. He is essentially a god of civilization, and it was natural that he was also looked upon as the creator of man, and of the world in general. Traces of this view appear in the Marduk epic celebrating the achievements of this god, and the close connexion between the Ea cult at Eridu and that of Marduk also follows from two considerations: 1. that the name of Marduk's sanctuary at Babylon bears the same name, E-saggila, as that of Ea in Eridu, and, 2. that Marduk is generally termed the son of Ea, who derives his powers from the voluntary abdication of the father in favour of his son.

Accordingly, the incantations originally composed for the Ea cult were re-edited by the priests of Babylon and adapted to the worship of Marduk, and, similarly, the hymns to Marduk betray traces of the transfer of attributes to Marduk which originally belonged to Ea.

It is, however, more particularly as the third figure in the triad, the two other members of which were Anu and Bel, that Ea acquires his permanent place in the pantheon. To him was assigned the control of the watery element, and in this capacity he becomes the shar apsi, i.e. king of the Apsu or "the deep." The Apsu was figured as an ocean encircling the earth, and since the gathering place of the dead, known as Aralu, was situated near the confines of the Apsu, he was also designated as En-Ki, i.e. "lord of that which is below," in contrast to Anu, who was the lord of the "above" or the heavens. The cult of Ea extended throughout Babylonia and Assyria. We find temples and shrines erected in his honour, e.g. at Nippur, Girsu, Ur, Babylon, Sippar and Nineveh, and the numerous epithets given to him, as well as the various forms under which the god appears, alike bear witness to the popularity which he enjoyed from the earliest to the latest period of Babylonian-Assyrian history. The consort of Ea, known as Damkina, "lady of that which is below," or Nin-Ki, having the same meaning, or Damgal-nunna, "great lady of the waters," represents a pale reflection of Ea and plays a part merely in association with her lord.

Enheduanna

The earliest known writings on the Sumerian cosmology stem from Enheduanna. Enheduanna (c:a 2300 BCE) was an Sumerian Akkadian high priestess of the moon god Nanna in Ur. She was also an author, and the daughter of king Sargon of Akkad.

She is known to us as the author of 42 hymns about Akkadian temples in different cities, a hymn to Inanna and the hymn "The Rise of Inanna". She is generally considered the oldest author known by name.

In Fiction: Ea is also a name in the Old Speach (A.A)

In various fictional texts, where words are critical to making -- true names of things, but , as infinite are arguments of mages, can possibly lie or in other words say false statements, not realizable per Realised World to HyperLogos (from Aristoi, by Walter Jon Williams) reality analogy of the Archipelago world, Earth-Sea, in the fantasy series by Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of the Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, The Other Wind. Words in the Old Speach have magical power and can be used to create spells, incantations. This kind of magic is used by men. Women use other powers, the powers of witchcraft. The Old Speach is a native tongue of the other intelligent race of the world of Ea. There are also powers of the Nameless Ones, which are usually anchored in one particular place of the earth, like Tombs of Atuan. The other intelligent race are Dragons, which are build from the language of makeing, the true name of a Dragon is {identity symbol} to the Dragon it Self. There are people who are also Dragons and dragons who are also People, be cause once upon a time People and the Dragons where {identity symbol}. Humorous fact deducted from the narrative: the difference between a normal person and a person with attribute Dragon Lord value set to true' is very simple: if you are a Dragon Lord, the dragon will first speak to you and then make torch out of you (forwardthinking), otherwise it will behave contrary-wise! :8] No human beeing has the power to influence the willt of a Dragon for they never follow orders, even the orders that come from other dragons - they very much value their freedom. You can negotiate, a Dragon MAY agree on your side, but IF you try to order, you're Kentucky Fried Chicken (and anything in range, like your housing complex OR city OR country OR planet OR universe). Dragons can travel between worlds on the winds of space freely and at willt. Sephira: Gary Oldman's character (of main Dramatis Personae), Count Vladimir (Vlad) Dracula, mmm-mm-um-mm-mmm-m-m-m from Francis F. Coppola film “Bram Stoker's Dracula” (Winona Ryder has a dual role -- Elisabeth, the doomed bride of Dracula and Mina Harker, a factioned time loop). Historically the name Dracula comes from The Order of Dracul, the Dragon, see Drake.