Thoughts on poems: Enheduanna
Disc of Enheduanna (B16665), Old Akkadian, circa 2300 BCE. Courtesy of the Penn Museum. [1]
Inanna and the Divine Essences
Lady of all the divine attributes, resplendent light… [2]
This is an adaptation from a line in an ancient Akkadian poem which was originally composed over four thousand years ago by the earliest known author. Enheduanna is the first named author in human history. She wrote herself into the poems that she composed, thus writing herself indelibly into history.
Map of Sumer including Ur. [3]
A Brief History
Sumer arose after the Neolithic age in present day Iraq in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as Mesopotamia. The Sumerians are cited as inventing the first system of writing, known as cuneiform, and establishing many artistic conventions still in use today (more on that in a bit). Roughly a thousand years later, the Akkadian kings overtook the Sumerians. The Akkadians were a Mesopotamian people whose government functioned as an absolute monarchy. In order to assert Akkadian spiritual and political power, Enheduanna was appointed by her father, Sargon of Akkad, as high priestess of Nanna (the Moon god) in the Sumerian city of Ur. She oversaw the city’s clerics in order to enforce Akkadian rites, her responsibilities included composing prayers (poems).
Enheduanna’s poems reflect her devotion not only to Nanna, but, perhaps, most devoutly to Ishtar, the goddess of [sexual] love and war. To the Sumerians this goddess was called Inanna. Enheduanna primarily wrote in Sumerian, and hence, her usage of the Sumerian name, Inanna. Up to that point in human history, Mesopotamian writing was not being ascribed to particular individuals. Despite the norm, Enheduanna named herself in poetry and acknowledged its unique authorship, leaving evidence of provenance that is difficult to deny.[4]
The compiler of this tablet is Enheduanna.
My king, something has been produced that no person had produced before. [5]
Register detail from the Disc of Enheduanna (B16665). Courtesy of the Penn Museum. [1]
The Disc of Enheduanna
Despite the Akkadian imperial force, Sumerian artistic conventions did not fall away. While not all Mesopotamian art norms are Sumerian, all Mesopotamians were influenced by this “first civilization”. Keeping this in mind, here is a closer look at the Disc of Enheduanna. The Disc, is a circular piece of carved alabaster (calcite) having an approximate 10” diameter. One side features a relief carving with a single register. The register detail from the Disc of Enheduanna (pictured above), shows, from left to right, a profile view of a stepped structure, a table, and four standing figures.
Some Sumerian temples were developed into “high” temples with platforms decreasing in size as they stack up, forming a stepped pyramid structure. These are referred to as “ziggurats”, and both Sumerians and Akkadians employed these structures as part of their temple complexes. The building on the left side of the Disc of Enheduanna probably represents a space for sacred rites.
Directly to the right of the symbolic building is an altar, a Y-shaped table with a flat top. The figure to the right of the altar is holding something above it so viewers can see that an offering is being made. According to one source, it is a libation (a liquid offering) [4]. Libations rituals were practiced and represented throughout the ancient world (see a Sumerian example below).
On the Disc of Enheduanna, all four figures are shown in “composite pose”; showing multiple views on one subject. Often in Sumerian art, humans are symbolically shown with faces in profile while having frontal bodies. Powerful people are shown as complementary as possible. Since the four figures are witnesses to a sacred ritual they must be priests or priestess. Three of the four figures are represented similarly with smooth clothing and of equal height. Sumerian art employed hieratic scale. The larger, more decorative, and more formal the figures were, the greater their symbolic power was meant to represent. On this Disc, Enheduanna is the second figural human from the left. She is the tallest of the four, she wears an elaborate headdress, and her stance is composite with an added gesture. Enheduanna has one hand up and other folded across her torso supporting her upright arm which endorses the libation. She is overseeing the ritual. Her clothing has layers of fringing which is eye-catching, emphasizing her importance.
An example of Sumerian relief carving with two registers showing two libation scenes [6].
On the reverse side of the carved relief Disc of Enheduanna, there are no figures. Instead, there is Sumerian writing identifying Enheduanna as the “bride of Nanna” and the “daughter of Sargon of Akkad”. The inscription is there to prove both her relationship to the men in her life and to her high status.
Reverse detail from the Disc of Enheduanna (B16665). Courtesy of the Penn Museum. [1]
To read the poem by Enheduanna, here is a link to a summary and translation from the project site Unveiling the World of Enheduanna: Exaltation of Inanna [7]
Sources:
Excerpt from: Love Poems by Women, editor Wendy Mulford, 1990, p. 91
Charles Halton and Saana Svärd, Women’s Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Anthology of the Earliest Female Authors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 79. via [3]
Amin, Osama Shukir Muhammed. "A Sumerian Wall Plaque Showing Libation Scenes." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 26 Jul 2014. Web. 01 Nov 2024.
Unveiling the World of Enheduanna: Exaltation of Inanna
