Enheduanna

Akkadian poet

• Born: c. 2320 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Akkad, Mesopotamia (now in Iraq)
• Died: c. 2250 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Akkad?, Mesopotamia (now in Iraq)

Poetry by Enheduanna to the moon god, Nanna, and the goddess Inanna is among the earliest poetry in existence and is the earliest body of poetry composed by a woman.

Early Life

Aside from what sparse biographical information is gleaned from her 153-line hymn to Nanna and a few other resources, little detailed information exists about the life of Enheduanna (ehn-hee-dew-AHN-ah). It has been verified that she was the daughter of Sargon, founder of the Akkad Dynasty that flourished under his leadership from 2334 b.c.e. to 2279 b.c.e. Sargon, also known as Sharrukin, a longtime king of Akkad in Mesopotamia, lived to a considerable age. Toward the end of his reign, the jurisdictions under his rule revolted against him and besieged him in Akkad. Sargon, however, despite his years, withstood the siege and defeated the rebels. His victory was attributed to the mystical intervention of Nanna and Inanna.

It became customary in Mesopotamia around this time for affluent families to send one daughter into a cloister as a high priestess (entum) to pray for her family’s welfare. These young women were awarded generous dowries that might include livestock, a house, land, household slaves, and other valuables. Enheduanna, the first such entum-priestess, was appointed to her post by her father, the king, to add legitimacy to his rule by demonstrating his family’s submission to and reverence for the gods.

King Sargon was the first monarch to appoint a daughter to serve as high priestess to the moon god, Nanna. Following this appointment, a succession of royal princesses served as priestesses to Nanna over the next one thousand years, a custom that did not end until the reign of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylonia. Enheduanna was relatively young when she became a priestess. Her early years were presumably cloistered, as were her later ones, and were filled with prayer and with producing an impressive body of poetry and an extensive number of hymns.

Two seals uncovered by archaeologists mention her name. These seals are designed in a typical classical Akkadian style and bear marked similarities to seals that have been attributed to the early Akkadian period, close to the beginning of Sargon’s reign. Archaeologist Rainer Michael Boehmer, however, on inspecting these seals, considered it impossible to place them chronologically as early as the other seals dating to Sargon’s early kingship. He finds it more likely that Enheduanna’s seals are products of a later period within her father’s reign.

One long poem by Enheduanna to Inanna, preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets, has been translated and is among the oldest pieces of literature in existence anywhere in the world. Although the dates of Enheduanna’s birth and death can only be conjectured, she is thought to have been born in Akkad some fifty miles north of Baghdad in what is today Iraq. None of the sources currently available to scholars provides any information about her mother or her siblings. It is thought that she was high priestess for at least twenty-five years during her father’s reign. She outlived her father and continued as high priestess for many years after he died in 2279 b.c.e.

Life’s Work

The position as high priestess was a choice one, as was the position of scribe, to which Enheduanna’s father also appointed his daughter. Scribes, who were usually men, were among the best-remunerated people in the kingdom. Because of the complexity of making cuneiform impressions on clay tablets, their work was highly specialized. Women who served as high priestesses sometimes were married but more frequently, like Enheduanna, were unmarried and celibate. Like Enheduanna, most of them were cloistered.

Generally, ancient cuneiform literature has been viewed as anonymous, but such was not the case with Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform works, which have colophons much like the title pages of modern books. Although these colophons do not contain authors’ names, separate lists of such names exist, connecting these names either with those of the kings they served, which helps to date their work, or with works generally attributed to them, although these attributions are frequently undependable. Some cuneiform works divulge the names of their authors within their texts, as is the case in Enheduanna’s hymn to Inanna.

Fortunately, three kinds of sources—archaeological, historical, and literary—serve to document Enheduanna’s remarkable career. The aforementioned seals are among the archaeological sources that have been carefully examined. A realistic depiction of Enheduanna was found on a limestone disc from Ur. Inscriptions from Ur reviewed by two eminent archaeological scholars, Ignace J. Gelb and H. Hirsch, confirm that Enheduanna was the daughter of Sargon, the king, and served as the high priestess of Nanna of Ur, the moon god.

Actually, Enheduanna’s original name was Heduanna. The en- that precedes this name is an honorific term of reverence and indicates her position as high priestess. All the extant writing attributed to her was produced under her later name, indicating that she began her writing career after she was appointed high priestess.

Enheduanna is the first among a long procession of royalty who held the office of high priestess in Akkad and other Near East venues throughout the next millennium. It is known that Enheduanna continued to function in her position after her father died but that toward the end of his reign, when revolts against him shook his kingdom, she was forced out of office for a time. She resumed her services as high priestess during the reign of her nephew, Naram-Sin. Typically, high priestesses served for considerable lengths of time, their tenures generally assumed to be for life. Presumably Enheduanna occupied her position throughout most of her lifetime up until her death, save for the period when she was forced out of office.

A record of her difficulties when her father’s subjects attempted to overturn his rule is found in her hymn “The Indictment of Nanna,” in which she relates in some detail how she was forced from her position toward the end of her father’s reign. She escaped to Ur but seemingly returned to her cloister and to her writing shortly after Sargon died in 2279 b.c.e.

Everything would point to her ending her days there, although no existing account assigns a definite date of death to her or recounts the final days of her life. It is altogether possible that she lived to be nearly seventy, perhaps even older.

Enheduanna’s writing style was sufficiently distinctive that an existing cycle of hymns to the temples of Sumer and Akkad seem clearly to be from her hand. The colophon of this significant theological piece from Mesopotamia suggests that she was its author. A poem titled “In-min-me-hus-a” (“The Myth of Inanna and Ebih”), while not specifically identified as having been written by Enheduanna, is in her style and was likely written by her.

This poem deals with the revolt of Jebel Hamrin against Enheduanna’s nephew, Naram-Sin, under whose reign Enheduanna was restored to her post as high priestess. In this poem, in which Enheduanna slips into the first person singular at one point, the writer points to Inanna’s omnipotence and unyielding control over all aspects of human existence.

The 153-line hymn to Inanna is probably the product of Enheduanna’s more mature years, possibly of her old age. Much of what is revealed in it shows an acquaintance with the revolts of the people against Sargon and later against Naram-Sin as recorded in hymns whose authorship has not conclusively been identified, but whose style, subject matter, and subtlety of expression resemble writing known to be by Enheduanna.

If the early hymns were, as seems likely, composed by Enheduanna, they reveal an author steeped in the traditional theological thinking of the times. As her writing continued, however, Enheduanna changed her views of the traditional theological tenets of her era in subtle ways. In the hymns to Inanna, the author’s voice is impassioned, losing some of the detached objectivity found in the earlier works. She presents the goddess in ways that allow audiences of common people to relate to her, thereby humanizing considerably the thrust of her writing and of her theological position. One might conclude from reading the hymns to Inanna that Enheduanna had mellowed in her later years. She appeared surely to be moving away from a lockstep theology to one that could bend to accommodate the common people of Sumer and Akkad.

Significance

Among the significant aspects of Enheduanna’s life is that she, with the help of her father, established the convention of having influential families consign one daughter to be a high priestess and to pray for the family’s welfare. This practice continued in parts of the Near East for the next thousand years. It later served as a model for cloistered Christian nuns. The Ancrene Wisse (early thirteenth century), an important medieval document composed in Britain that currently exists in nine manuscripts written variously in English, Latin, and French, outlines what the life of an anchoress should be, and many of its mandates are remarkably similar to the Sumerian and Akkadian conceptions of how a high priestess would conduct her life.

Also of great significance is the poetic writing of Enheduanna, which for centuries provided models for aspiring writers. Throughout the millennium following her life, Enheduanna’s writing was copied by those in training to be scribes. That Enheduanna served as a scribe is worth noting because she was among the first women throughout history to break into a profession that traditionally had been an all-male stronghold.

Enheduanna was a bright, powerful woman blessed with a remarkable gift for writing. Years after her death she was still venerated, almost deified, in writings that omit the en- honorific from her name. Spending most of her life cloistered allowed her time to think deeply and to write. She stands today among the earliest of feminists, demonstrating her feminist activism in her poem “The Indictment of Nanna.”

Bibliography

Hallo, William W., and J. J. A. Van Dijk. The Exaltation of Inanna. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1968. This translation and scholarly consideration of Enheduanna’s hymn to Inanna is thorough and helpful, although not for the beginner. Its biographical presentation of Enheduanna is the most extensive in print, although it is sparse. The literary analyses of Enheduanna’s writing offer keen insights.

Postgate, J. N. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. New York: Routledge, 1992. Provides a socioeconomic backdrop that helps readers understand the society of Enheduanna and her father, King Sargon. Part 3, “The Written Record,” and Part 14, “Religion and Politics,” are especially relevant for students of Enheduanna’s work.

Toorn, Karel van der. From Her Cradle to Her Grave: The Role of Religion in the Life of the Israelite and the Babylonian Woman. Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1994. Toorn provides a context for understanding the religious context of Enheduanna’s era. The comparisons between Israelite and Babylonian women present sharp contrasts between the groups.

Vivante, Bella, ed. Women’s Roles in Ancient Civilizations: A Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. The relevant chapters in this collection are those by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, “Women in Ancient Mesopotamia,” and Mayer I. Gruber, “Women in the Ancient Levant,” both of which provide more biographical information about Enheduanna than most available sources. One might question some of the dates ascribed to Enheduanna and her work, but overall the assessments are clear and useful. A sensible starting point for nonexperts.

Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. New York: Harper and Row, 1983. This volume includes a selective compilation of Sumerian poetry written about Inanna, including some by Enheduanna. A helpful background resource for increasing one’s understanding of the role that Inanna played in Sumerian/Akkadian literature and religion.