- Father: King Sargon the Great (Sargon of Agade or Akkad, ~2334-2279 BCE)
Enheduanna (Enheduana) was the daughter of the great Mesopotamian king, Sargon of Akkad. Enheduanna was the high priestess of the temple of Nanna, the Akkadian moon god, in the largest city and center of her father's empire, the city of Ur. In this position, she would also have traveled to other cities in the empire.
Enheduanna helped her father solidify his political power and unite the Sumerian city-states by merging the worship of many local city goddesses into worship of the Sumerian goddess, Inanna, raising Inanna to a superior position over other deities.
Enheduanna wrote three hymns to Inanna which survive and which illustrate three quite different themes of ancient religious faith. In one, Inanna is a ferocious warrior goddess who defeats a mountain even though other gods refuse to help her. A second, thirty stanzas in length, celebrates Inanna's role in governing civilization and overseeing the home and children. In a third, Enheduanna calls on her personal relationship with the goddess for help in regaining her position as priestess of the temple against a male usurper.
At least 53 other hymns survive that are attributed to Enheduanna, including three hymns to the moon god, Nanna, and other temples, gods, and goddesses. Surviving tablets are copies of the hymns from about 500 years after Enheduanna lived, attesting to the survival of the study of her poems in Sumer.
(The name Enheduanna is also rendered as Enheduana. The name Inanna is also rendered as Inana.)
-
Betty De Shong Meador. Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna. 2001.
-
Samuel N. Kramer, Diane Wolkstein. Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. 1983.
- The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages- Unearthing the first known author of the world
- Biography of Enheduanna, Priestess of Inanna
- The temple hymns translation and composite text with bibliography
- Enheduanna's Hymnal Prayer to Inanna ~2000BCE
- Prayer of Enheduanna - Adoration of Inanna of Ur
