Enheduanna: The First Author - Wattys Winner 2021

Historical Context And Authenticity

As stated in the blurb, I base this story on the real-life daughter of Sargon of Akkad and En-priestess, Enheduanna. I researched her life extensively and felt compelled to add some much-needed meat to the factual bones of this remarkable woman's life. So, based on all the facts and artifacts I could find, I tried to reconstruct her life.

Louise Pryke described Enheduanna as the ancient triple threat. A princess, a priestess, and a poet.

And because a lot of her poems were recovered during archaeological excavations, we actually know what she wrote. Enheduanna composed several works of literature, including two hymns to the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna (Semitic Ishtar). She wrote the myth of Inanna and Ebih, and a collection of 42 temple hymns.

Scribal traditions in the ancient world are often considered an area of male authority, but Enheduanna's works form an important part of Mesopotamia's rich literary history.

Her birth name is unknown, but the title Enheduanna, meaning ornament of heaven, was given to her when she became the En-priestess of Nanna in the city of Ur. For this particular reason, I have also not given the princess a name other than the title which she signed her work with.

This simple act, signing her work, was something revolutionary. Making her the first recorded author in history. All the other religious texts and poems that were found from the Akkadian Empire, or Mesopotamia at large, carry no names, nor are they written from the perspective of the writer themselves.

Enheduanna even concluded one of her works with an assertion of the work's originality and its authorship.

She wrote, "the compiler of the tablets was En-hedu-ana. My king, something has been created that no one has created before."

From all this, I concluded this act must have been a big deal. Such a big deal that perhaps it was frowned upon by other priests, and the important figures in the Sumerian community. Think about it. Sargon was the first to conquer many of the city states of Sumer, rendering the once Kings of those city powerless (reducing them to just the elite in the city), and then installed his only daughter as high priestess of one of the richest cities in Sumer, the second most powerful position a person could have in that society, after king. There must have been a lost of resistance to the rule of this foreign princess.

And there is evidence that Lugal- drove Enheduanna from her temple by force. For her only to return not much later to reclaim her position.

Now, one thing that I found very curious is that every source I found of Enheduanna stated that her father installed her as high priestess, yet none have any evidence for this. This is surprising because if you look into who Sargon was as a father, you'll quickly find that he kept his kids very close to him. His sons didn't hold any titles of their own until Sargon died, and Rimush succeeded him.
If he wanted to use his children to gain political control over the region, why not install his younger sons as high priests on other major temples? The more the marrier, right?

Perhaps we are blindly considering the male authority of a father and king here. What if Sargon didn't install his daughter as high priestess?

I am not saying this is what happened, but it seems more likely to me that the princess was chosen by a higher power. And the only ones that are higher than the king are the gods.

I feel that I also need to clarify here that this was before kings assigned divine rule to themselves, or depicted themselves as gods. As far as I could find, Sargon did not consider himself a god. His grandson Naram-sin started that trend.

(I really love this family. They are all so interesting. Where is my Netflix show about this Mesopotamian drama?)

There are several interpretations of Enheduanna's writings, and which is the right one, might be a mystery lost to the ages. So, for all the hymns I have used in this story, I picked the once that seemed the most consistent in their tone and usage of certain terms, in order to give Enheduanna a real voice. And yes, all the hymns used in this story are her real work.
The Exaltation of Inanna is the most famous work of Enheduanna, and also the most telling of her character, because she actively puts her thoughts and emotions in this text. As I read it, I felt that this was a proud woman, who's insecurities have been shaped by life, and who felt without purpose if she could not be a priestess. Or perhaps a writer. Her words are very personal, and full of emotion. She even describes spending long hours labouring over her compositions by night, for them then to be performed in the day. A sentiment I think any writer can relate to.

Yet, it was Innana that held the affection and dedication of Enheduanna, instead of Nanna, the god she was supposed to serve. Archaeologists speculate that a high priestess was viewed as the god's earthly spouse in Sumer, because of the use of a word, meaning wife (or husband, it's genderless) when describing a high priest or priestess. So, why was Enheduanna so loyal to Innana instead of her "husband" Nanna?

There is no real answer for that. I could be that it was because Sargon attributed his accomplishments to Inanna. But what interested me about Enheduanna's dedication to Inanna is the personal nature of the bond she describes in her hymns. She doesn't involve her father, or call upon the goddess as her family's deity. She calls upon her personally.

Allow me to elaborate on what I'm getting at. Inanna (later Ishtar) is known as a goddess of many things: love, beauty, sex, war, justice, and political power. The first three are predominantly female attributes, the last three predominantly male attributes. There is a Semitic derivation of her name, the god Attar. But by the time of Sargon, Inanna had fully absorbed her male counterpart, making her a very widespread goddess.

In the Akkadian Period, kurgarrū and assinnu were male servants of Innana who dressed in female clothing and performed war dances in Innana's temples. Several Akkadian texts seem to suggest that they may have also been homosexual. Which was accepted in Akkadian times. Then there is also a myth in which Inanna gets stuck in the underwold, is saved by two sexless beings. They are called galla and are described as being "neither male nor female". Some versions have Inanna bless the galla and everyone like them with the gift of healing and/or prohecy. So, yeah, Inanna also took a lot of the LGBTQ+ community under her wings way back in the day, literally. 

Taking all this into account, I suddenly wondered what if Enheduanna was gay. It would explain her devotion to Innana and the fact that she had no children.

Again, I'm not saying this is fact. We will never truly know those facts. But once the idea was in my head, Enheduanna's hymns suddenly got a whole new meaning. And I couldn't let it go. It just fitted too perfectly.

So, there you have it. My reasoning behind the choices in this story, regarding the history.

This story is more historical speculation than straight up fiction, since I tried to stay within the realm of possibility as much as possible. But I had a blast researching and writing, regardless.

Thank you so much for reading. I would like to hear your opinion in the comments, and hopefully we all bring Enheduanna the recognition she deserves.

Without her, writing would have been very different.