Enheduanna

Akkadian princess; Sumerian high priestess of Nanna at Ur; poet and philosopher

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Source-basedFalling

Lived -2300–-2300, aged 0

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
63 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
-2300–-2300
Aged 0

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

She's credited as the first named author in human history — a Sumerian high priestess whose hymns survived 4,300 years. Whether she actually wrote them is now the sharper question.

Biography

About

Enheduanna was appointed high priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur around 2300 BC, likely by her father Sargon of Akkad, to bind his Akkadian empire to Sumerian tradition. Works like the Exaltation of Inanna name her as their voice, and for centuries she was remembered. Then she vanished. In 1927 Leonard Woolley unearthed an alabaster disk at Ur with her name and title inscribed, pulling her back into view. The problem: every surviving manuscript was copied six centuries after her death, in a later dialect, by scribes who may have mythologized her. Modern Assyriologists argue over linguistics…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Enheduanna

Enheduanna

saidundated

She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance.

— About Inanna, Lines 18-28.

Enheduanna

saidundated

Her wrath is a devastating flood which no one can withstand. A great watercourse, she abases those whom she despises. The mistress, a hurin bird who lets no one escape.

— About Inanna, Lines 29-38.

Enheduanna

saidundated

On the wide and silent plain, darkening the bright daylight, she turns midday into darkness. People look upon each other in anger, they look for combat.

— About Inanna, Lines 49-59.

Enheduanna

saidundated