Enheduanna- Mesopotamian FigureMortal"High Priestess of Nanna at Ur"
Also known as: En-hedu-ana
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Description
Stripped of her priesthood during a revolt and driven from the temple of Nanna at Ur, Enheduanna poured her anguish into a hymn to Inanna. Daughter of Sargon of Akkad, she is the earliest author known by name in human history.
Mythology & Lore
The Priestess of Ur
Enheduanna lived around 2285–2250 BCE. Her father, Sargon of Akkad, founded the world's first empire and appointed her high priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur. A limestone disc excavated at Ur shows her performing a libation ceremony, her hair bound up, her figure robed for ritual. She composed in Sumerian: hymns to Inanna, a cycle of temple hymns covering over forty sanctuaries across Sumer and Akkad, and other devotional works.
The Exaltation of Inanna
During a revolt, a rebel named Lugal-Ane expelled Enheduanna from her temple. Stripped of her office and exiled, she composed the "Exaltation of Inanna" (nin-me-šár-ra, "Lady of all the divine powers"), an appeal to the goddess in language that moves between praise and raw anguish.
"I, Enheduanna, will offer supplications to her. My tears, like sweet beer, I will pour out to the holy Inanna."
The poem opens with Inanna's cosmic powers, turns to Enheduanna's suffering, and builds to a declaration that the goddess has intervened. Inanna heard. Enheduanna was restored.
Her works continued to be copied in Mesopotamian scribal schools for centuries after her death.
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