The
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
me sign is a common multi-use sign of the ''
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins wit ...
'', the 1350 BC
Amarna letters, and other
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...
texts. It also has a
sumerogram
A Sumerogram is the use of a Sumerian cuneiform character or group of characters as an ideogram or logogram rather than a syllabogram in the graphic representation of a language other than Sumerian, such as Akkadian or Hittite.
Sumerograms are no ...
mic usage for ME in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.
Because of its extensive syllabic multi-use (in the Epic of Gilgamesh), its grammatical usage would be as follows: all the syllabic usages possible, but for alphabetic usage, as follows; for consonants, it could be used for "m", "s", "š", "b", and "p". (''b'' and ''p'' are interchangeable, and ''s'' can also be substituted for ''š'', and vice versa for all four). For the vowel ''e'' ( or ''ì'', ''i'' ), all the four vowels, ''a, e, i,'' and ''u'', can also be interchanged in the formation of words.
''Epic of Gilgamesh'' usage
In the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'', Tablets I-XII, ''"me"'' is used for the following meanings by the following numbers: me-(98) times, mì-(9), sip-(1), šeb-(3), šep-(1), šib-(12), šip-(2), and ME-(5) times.
[Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian ]Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins wit ...
'', Sign List, pp. 155-165, Sign no. 532, p. 164.
See also
*
Me (mythology)
In Sumerian mythology, a ''me'' (; Sumerian: ; akk, paršu) is one of the decrees of the divine that is foundational to those social institutions, religious practices, technologies, behaviors, mores, and human conditions that make civilizat ...
References
*
Moran, William L.
William Lambert Moran (August 11, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American Assyriologist. He was born in Chicago, United States.
In 1939, Moran joined the Jesuit order. He then attended Loyola University in Chicago, where he received his ...
1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. 393 pages.(softcover, )
* Parpola, 1971. ''The Standard Babylonian
Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins wit ...
'',
Parpola, Simo,
Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project is an international scholarly project aimed at collecting and publishing ancient Assyrian texts and studies based on them. Its headquarters are in Helsinki in Finland.
State Archives of Assyria
State Archives ...
, c 1997, Tablet I thru Tablet XII, Index of Names, Sign List, and Glossary-(pp. 119–145), 165 pages.
Cuneiform signs