Enheduanna, High Priestess of Sin at Ur

Enheduanna

The scribe written out of history

Virginia Woolf pinpointed the problem female writers faced when she famously declared: “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman”. Indeed, how many people know that the first ever author was female? Enheduanna, a Sumerian poet, lived in the 23rd century BC and was the world’s first writer to be known by name. As High Priestess of the Temple of Sumer, she worked in a key religious-political role for her father, King Sargon of Akkad, who tasked her with reconciling the Sumerian and Akkadian gods to create stability in his empire. At the same time, she scribed the first hymns, psalms, poetry and prayers – models that were later copied by the Hebrew Bible and the Homeric hymns, and even influenced early Christianity. Her powerful writings included the story of ferocious warrior goddess Inanna, who defeated a mountain even though the other gods refused to help her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enheduanna

Enheduanna (Akkadian: 𒂗𒃶𒁺𒀭𒈾[citation needed], also transliterated as Enheduana, En-hedu-ana, or variants; fl. 23rd century BC) was a daughter of Sargon of Akkad, High Priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sin) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur.

Enheduanna has left behind a corpus of literary works, definitively ascribed to her, that include several personal devotions to the goddess Inanna and a collection of hymns known as the "Sumerian Temple Hymns" (certain texts not ascribed to her might also be her works). This makes her one of the earliest author and poets known by name in world history.

She was the first known woman to hold the title of EN, a role of great political importance that was often held by royal daughters. She was appointed to the role by her father, King Sargon of Akkad. Her mother was probably Queen Tashlultum. Enheduanna was appointed to the role of High Priestess in a shrewd political move by Sargon to help secure power in the Sumerian south where the City of Ur was located.

She continued to hold office during the reign of Rimush, her brother. It was during the reign of Rimush that she was involved in some form of political turmoil, expelled, then eventually reinstated as high priestess. Her composition 'The Exaltation of Inanna' or ‘nin me sar2-ra’[9] details her expulsion from Ur and eventual reinstatement (Franke 1995: 835). This correlates with 'The Curse of Akkade'in which Naram-Sin, under whom Enheduanna may have also served, is cursed and cast out by Enlil. After her death, Enheduanna continued to be remembered as an important figure, perhaps even attaining semi-divine status.

The profile photo is of a modern reconstruction of the Ziggurat of Ur looming over the ruins of the Giparu, the temple complex where Enheduanna lived and was buried.

Enheduanna is well-known from archaeological and textual sources. Two seals bearing her name, belonging to her servants and dating to the Sargonic period, have been excavated at the Royal Cemetery at Ur. In addition an Alabaster disc bearing her name and likeness was excavated in the Giparu at Ur, which was Enheduanna's main residence. The statue was found in the Isin-Larsa (c. 2000–1800 BCE) levels of the Giparu alongside a statue of the priestess Enannatumma.

Copies of Enheduanna's work, many dating to hundreds of years after her death, were made and kept in Nippur, Ur and possibly Lagash alongside Royal inscriptions which indicates that they were of high value, perhaps equal to the inscriptions of Kings.

Enheduanna composed 42 hymns addressed to temples across Sumer and Akkad including Eridu, Sippar and Esnunna. The texts are reconstructed from 37 tablets from Ur and Nippur, most of which date to the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods (Sjöberg and Bergman 1969:6–7). This collection is known generally as 'The Sumerian Temple Hymns'. The temple hymns were the first collection of their kind; in them Enheduanna states: “My king, something has been created that no one has created before.” The copying of the hymns indicates the temple hymns were in use long after Enheduanna's death and were held in high esteem.

Her other famous work is 'The Exaltation of Inanna' or 'Nin-Me-Sar-Ra' which is a personal devotion to the goddess Inanna and also details Enheduanna's expulsion from Ur.

Enheduanna's authorship raises the issue of female literacy in ancient Mesopotamia; in addition to Enheduanna royal wives are known to have commissioned or perhaps composed poetry[19] and the goddess Nindaba acted as a scribe: As Leick notes "to some extent the descriptive epithets of Mesopotamian goddesses reveal the cultural perception of women and their role in ancient society".

The majority of Enheduanna's work is available in translation at the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. It has also been translated and compiled into a unified narrative by Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer and poet Diane Wolkstein. Their version, published under the title Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, was published by Harper Perennial in 1983.