Meme (Mesopotamian goddess)

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Meme
Divine caregiver
Other namesMemešaga[1]
Major cult centerRakima[1]

Meme or Memešaga was a

Mesopotamian goddess possibly regarded as a divine caretaker. While originally fully separate, she eventually came to be treated as one and the same as Gula, and as such came to be associated with medicine. The god list An = Anum additionally indicates she served as the sukkal (attendant deity) of Ningal
.

Name and character

The theonym written in cuneiform as dME.ME likely can be read phonetically, though according to Manfred Krebernik a degree of caution is necessary.[2] The meaning of this name is uncertain, though it is commonly suggested that it might be an example of a so-called "baby word" (Lallwort) which referred to a mother or more generically to a female caretaker.[1][3] A lexical text from Ebla explains it as u3-me-tum, possibly to be understood as a Loanword originating in Sumerian, "nursemaid".[3] Based on these lexical factors it has been proposed that Meme was regarded as a divine caregiver.[4]

The original full name of the goddess was likely Memešaga, though in the god list An = Anum Meme and Memešaga have separate entries,[3] with the latter occurring right after the former in the Ninkarrak section.[1] Irene Sibbing-Plantholt points out that the addition of the element šaga ("good"[1]) to a theonym would find a direct parallel in the name of the goddess Lammašaga.[3]

It is assumed that even though Meme eventually came to exist only as an alternate name of other goddesses, she was initially a fully independent deity.[1]

Associations with other deities

Meme was one of Mesopotamian goddesses associated with

bilingual texts, Meme occurs in place of Gula in the Sumerian version, though this pattern is not consistent, and the latter could also be "translated" as Nintinugga or even Damu.[8]

In the god list An = Anum, the theonym Meme appears both in the Ishara and Ninkarrak sections.[2] Sibbing-Plantholt notes that these two goddesses formed a pair in other sources.[4] Further lexical lists also appear to associate Meme with Ninmug[7] and Nisaba.[2]

A deity named Meme, written dMEkà-kàME, served as the

glosses are unlikely to refer to an otherwise entirely unattested reading of the sign ME, and on this basis proposes that in another version of the list the deity Kakka, elsewhere in the same text equated with Ninkarrak, occupied Meme's position in the court of Ningal.[10] In this case Kakka would presumably be female, and Litke considered her to be distinct from the male messenger god bearing the same name.[11]

Worship

The fact that the toponym Rakima or Rakimu is explained in two separate sources as URU.KI.ÁG.dME.ME, "the beloved city of Meme,"[1] as well as the references to a temple of Meme, are assumed to indicate that in the Early Dynastic (or possibly Old Akkadian) period she was actively worshiped and had her own cult center.[12] She is attested in a number of theophoric names from the third millennium BCE, including Ur-Meme and Ir-Meme.[6] She is also mentioned in the text known as Elegy for the death of Nawritum, where the husband of the eponymous woman searches for this goddess and a Lamma deity while mourning.[3]

Memešaga, presumed to be the same deity, was worshiped in

Ur III period, and received offerings during the gusisu festival of Ninurta, though her importance in the religious life of this city was minor.[3]

The worship of Meme as an individual deity ended after the

votive objects.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Krebernik 1997, p. 57.
  2. ^ a b c d Krebernik 1997, p. 56.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 154.
  4. ^ a b c Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 154–155.
  5. ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 14.
  6. ^ a b Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 153.
  7. ^ a b c Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 155.
  8. ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, p. 87.
  9. ^ Krebernik 1997a, p. 365.
  10. ^ Litke 1998, p. 122.
  11. ^ Litke 1998, p. 25.
  12. ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 153–154.
  13. ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 160–161.
  14. ^ Sibbing-Plantholt 2022, pp. 155–156.

Bibliography

  • Krebernik, Manfred (1997), "Meme(-šaga)", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-17
  • Krebernik, Manfred (1997a), "Mondgott A. I. In Mesopotamien", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-08-17
  • Litke, Richard L. (1998). A reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian god lists, AN:dA-nu-um and AN:Anu šá Ameli (PDF). New Haven:
    OCLC 470337605
    .
  • Sibbing-Plantholt, Irene (2022). The Image of Mesopotamian Divine Healers. Healing Goddesses and the Legitimization of Professional Asûs in the Mesopotamian Medical Marketplace. Boston:
    OCLC 1312171937
    .

External links
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