En-hedu-annaaus akkadian-period

Enheduanna was En-priestess of the god Nanna-Suen in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and daughter of Sargon of Akkade. As the first historically known female author whose works have been handed down in writing, she is now considered the most important female figure of her millennium.

Life

En-hedu-anna was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad. She held the office of high priestess of the moon god Nanna in the southern Mesopotamian city of Ur and was also his wife. Her name translates from Sumerian as ‘high priestess, ornament of heaven (god) An’

Around 2350 BC, Sargon of Akkad conquered the entire Mesopotamia and created the Akkadian Empire, the first territorial state in the Ancient Near East. It can be assumed that he appointed his daughter as En-priestess of Nanna in the city of Ur, as is also documented by later kings.

The Sumerian word En literally means ‘lord’ (in some cities such as Uruk de facto a royal title), but also refers to the highest female priesthood (Akkadian entu(m)). In Ur, En-ḫedu-anna was regarded as the wife of the city god Nanna/Suen and was therefore identified with the goddess Ningal. Her official residence was therefore the E-gipar.

Towards the end of the reign of Sargon’s grandson Narām-Sîn, numerous former city-states rebelled against the Akkadian central power. The events can be reconstructed from the perspective of En-ḫedu-anna from references in the song Nin me šara: Thus, a certain Lugal-Ane came to power in their city of Ur, who claimed legitimisation as the new ruler by the city god Nanna. He is probably identical to a Lugal-An-na or Lugal-An-né, who is mentioned as king of Ur in ancient Babylonian literary texts about the war. Apparently, Lugal-Anne demanded that the high priestess and wife of the moon god En-ḫedu-anna confirm his seizure of power. En-ḫedu-anna, as the representative of the Sargonid dynasty, refused, whereupon she was suspended from her office and expelled from the city. The mention of the temple E-ešdam-ku indicates that she then found refuge in the city of Ĝirsu. In this exile, she composed the song Nin me šara, the performance of which was intended to persuade the goddess Inanna – as Ištar, the patron goddess of her dynasty – to intervene in favour of the Akkadian empire.

King Narām-Sîn did indeed succeed in putting down the rebellion of Lugal-Ane and other kings and restoring centralised Akkadian power for the remainder of his reign. En-ḫedu-anna probably then returned to her office in the city of Ur.

En-ḫedu-ana is considered the first known author in human history. She is the first writer to mention herself by name and to write about her personal life in her works.

• Nin me šara (‘Mistress of the countless Me’; modern also The Exaltation of Inana / Inana B) is a song of praise to the goddess Inanna of 154 lines.
• Innin ša gura (‘Mistress of the great heart’, modern also Inana C) is another hymn to Inanna of 274 lines.
• The temple hymns are a collection of 40 short hymns to the temples of the cities of Mesopotamia totalling 545 lines.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enheduanna