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First Impressions
I bumped into her by accident--late
at night as I surfed for links about
poetry, ancient women's poetry to be exact. The first question I asked
myself: why didn't I already know her name? There are so many others from many different cultures, from a
later era, that I have read.
 Enheduanna, anglicized from En hedu' anna, priestess of the Moon Goddess, daughter of the king of the
world's first empire. Enheduanna, the first known writer, a poet. Her work comes to us from cuneiform
tablets, her words inscribed in the wedge shapes that were the first formal impressions in literature.
With fierce religious devotion, Enheudanna perceived her relationship with the gods as very personal.
Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love, was the priestess's most cherished deity. The style of the poems that praise
Inanna can be compared with the Book of Psalms in the Bible. In the poem, Inanna and Enlil, Enheduanna offers
her address with reverence, saying, Storms lend you wings, destroyer of the lands. Her relationship
with Inanna manifests as full of intensity, at times appealing to the goddess for help, at other times, praising
the deity for generosity.
 Enheduanna's father, Sargon I, insured his power by appointing Enheduanna priestess of the
moon goddess. This position enabled her father to claim his kingship by rights, for the power of both priests
and priestesses was unequivocal. All depended on the gods. Sargon himself claimed a birth similar to
the Biblical story of Moses. In the Book, Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, Willis and Akiki Barnstone include
the text of the birth of Sargon I with an account taken from cuneiform tablets:
My priestly mother conceived me;
secretly brought me to birth;
set me in an ark of bulrushes; made fast my door with pitch.
She consigned me to the river, which did not overwhelm me.
The river brought me to Akki, the farmer, who brought me
up to be his son…During my gardening, the goddess Ishtar
loved me, and for fifty-four years the kingship was mine.
The birth itself, written in the same style as Enheduanna, could easily be
transposed into poetic form. All of Enheduanna's writings have the grace, eloquence, and rhythmic precision
that characterize the written version of her father's birth.
Inferences can be drawn about the history of her father's kingdom. Difficult times arose from improper respect
for the gods, and Enheduanna often pled her cause. In one of her forty-three surviving poems, the king's
daughter offers a glimpse at the piety and awe she felt for this mysterious deity.
Inanna and Ebih
In the mountain where you are unworshiped
the vegetation is cursed.
You have made its grand entrance ashes.
For you the rivers rise high with blood
and the people have nothing to drink.
The army of the mountain goes to you
captive of its own accord.
Healthy young men parade before you
of their own accord.
The dancing city is filled with storm,
driving your men to you, captive.
 The Barnstones describe much of Enheduanna's poetry as "highly politicized," and
say that her poems "in their cosmic vision and ethical outrage recall Isaiah." They further compare
her to Sappho and her relationship with Aphrodite. Enheduanna, in a passage that addresses Inanna, asks, "Who
can tame your furious heart?"
It is easy to imagine the passion and intensity of this woman who lived long ago. We even know what she looked
like. A limestone disk reveals the priestess, and she is apparently observing some sort of ritual,
with her right hand raised and there are items like ritual basketas, or handled jugs used for religious practice.
A restored version of the disk is housed at the University Museum in Philadelphia.
In ancient times, women's poetry reflected concerns and themes relevant to the times. Spirituality and the
theme of romantic love are most often the subjects. A woman's fate depended on the gods and the male to whom
she belonged. The empire assembled by Sargon I was relatively stable. He even took pains to help the lower
classes, and his empire lasted for several hundred years. At times, when the kingdom was experiencing difficulty,
Enheduanna writes that the Moongod, Nanna, drove me from my sanctuary. The Antiphonal Hymn in Praise of Inanna
reads like a liturgical text, one line praising the goddess and a refrain of , Let the world know! after each line.
And in one poem, Enheduanna rejoices, Inanna loves her again.
A wealth of information exists about the first writer on record. We have the relief, the cuneiform tablets,
and forty two hymns. As history becomes more precise, one can hope that Enheduanna's history and poetry will
find its way into the classroom and the mainstream. More texts exist on women poets from ancient times than
ever before, and the poetry of Enheduanna, the much later work of Korinna, Vidya, Mahodahi and others work their
way into our culture in small increments. Sappho wrote, Someone, I tell you,/will remember us.
We will.
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Acknowledgements
The poetry of Enheduanna is reprinted with permission from A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, edited by Willis and Aliki Barnstone (Schocken Books, New York, 1992.)
The book was also used as primary source for this article. Further information on the book is available at
Kay's
personal site, Wordbeat,
at the page titled, Books and Links for Poets.
An excellent site, Enheduanna,
offers pictures of the relief of the priestess, and a wealth of biography and history. The site is by Michelle
Hart.
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