En-hedu-anna
En-ḫedu-ana (also En-hedu-anna, En-chedu-ana ; Sumerian En-he 2 -du 7 -an-na , also Enḫeduanna / Encheduanna / Enheduanna ) was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad , 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 is translated from Sumerian: "High priestess, ornament of heaven (god) An". She is considered the first historically known author whose works have come down to us in writing. En-ḫedu-ana, which in the 23rd century BC BC, is still considered to be the most important female figure of her millennium.
Your life
Appointment as Entu priestess
As the daughter of Sargon of Akkad, was En-ḫedu-anna Nadītum -priestess of the sky god Anu in Uruk , the Inanna in Uruk and the Nanna in Ur . After the death of the old Entu priestess , her father called her around 2270 BC. To the new high priestess in Egipar in Ur. She was thus automatically the “wife” of the moon god Nanna ( Akkadian Su'en , Babylonian-Assyrian Sîn ).
The epithet en stands for (priest) lord and pontifical supremacy. The exact meaning is unclear, but its rank was higher than ensi ( city prince , later also for governor). The Sumerians made a distinction between “en-tum” (nam-en), “ ensi -tum” (nam-ensi) and “lugal-tum” (nam-lugal). The title lugal was the title of ruler par excellence.
In order to secure rule and probably in the service of the integration policy (of the subjugated Sumerian population), it remained a custom among the successors of Sargon to occupy the highest priesthood with the daughters of the rulers. En-men-ana , daughter of Naram-Sin , accordingly took over the office of Entu priestess as En-hedu-anna's successor.
The 40 temple hymns
In keeping with her father's policy, En-hedu-anna put together a collection of forty temple hymns , which in their arrangement follow the geographical principle from the south, starting with Eridu , to the north with Akkade , Sippar and Ešnunna . The collection of hymns thus includes all the important cities of Sumer and Akkad at the time of Sargon.
In a hymn to Inanna von Uruk ("Heavenly Lady") she goes beyond traditional salutations and tells in the story of the expulsion of En-hedu-anna from her position and her later return through the mercy of Inanna. In another very personal text she praises Inanna as “the generous mistress”. En-hedu-anna expresses her feelings with great passion, including gloomy thoughts about suffering and fate, about human activity and divine retribution.
She was well aware of her literary “pioneering role”: she is the first writer to mention herself by name and to write something personal in her works. In the final part of the text she mentions her name like in a colophon .
In the hymns to Inanna, En-hedu-anna mentions her name in the places where the name of the ruler was usually found in the royal hymns or inscriptions. It thus impressively documents its royal authorship. This pronounced self-confidence of a writer remained unique in Mesopotamia for a long time.
literature
- Josef Bauer, RK Englund, Manfred Krebernik: Mesopotamia - Approaches 1: Late Uruk Period and Early Dynastic Period. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-53797-2 .
- Horst Klengel : Cultural History of the Ancient Near East (= publications of the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . Volume 18). Academy, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000577-7 .
- Betty De Shong Meador: Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: poems of the Sumerian high priestess Enheduanna. University of Texas Press, Austin 2000 (English; full text on lib.umich.edu).
- Johannes Renger : Investigations into the priesthood in the ancient Babylonian period. In: Journal of Assyriology . de Gruyter, Berlin 1967, pp. 110-188 ( ISSN 0084-5299 ).
- Edmond Sollberger: Sur la chronologie des rois d'Ur et quelquesproblemèmes connexes. In: Archive for Orient Research . Weidner, Graz 1954/1956 ( ISSN 0066-6440 ).
- Annette Zgoll : En-hedu-Ana: daughter of Sargon - wife of the moon god: testimonies to the dramatic life of the earliest author (23rd century BC). In: J. Kügler, L. Bormann (Hrsg.): Daughters (God): Studies on the relationship between culture, religion and gender. 8th Bayreuth Forum. Lit, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1185-3 , pp. 7-21.
- Annette Zgoll: The legal case of the En-hedu-Ana (= Old Orient and Old Testament . Volume 246, also ZA 87). Ugarit, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-927120-50-2 .
Web links
- Annette Zgoll in an interview: Female literature in Mesopotamia: The word as a key to world experience. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . March 11, 2020 (about En-hedu-anna's artistic use of language).
- Janet Roberts: Enheduanna: Bibliography. In: transoxiana.com.ar. March 1, 2005 (English; articles, images, books and poems).
- The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: The temple hymns: translation. In: orinst.ox.ac.uk. December 6, 2016 (English; temple hymns by En-hedu-anna in transcription and translation).
- Forum thread: Sumer & Akkad: En-hedu-anna. ( Memento from June 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Forum Religionskritik. 2011 (German prose translations).
Notes and evidence
- ↑ Annette Zgoll : En-hedu-Ana: Sargon's daughter - wife of the moon god: testimonies to the dramatic life of the earliest author (23rd century BC). In: J. Kügler, L. Bormann (Hrsg.): Daughters (God): Studies on the relationship between culture, religion and gender. 8th Bayreuth Forum. Lit, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-1185-3 , pp. 7-21, here p. 9.
- ↑ Gebhard J. Selz : Sumerians and Akkadians: History - Society - Culture. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-50874-X , p. 67.
- ↑ 2334 BC According to middle chronology.
personal data | |
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SURNAME | En-hedu-anna |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | En-ḫedu-anna; En-ḫedu-ana; En-chedu-ana; Enḫeduanna; Encheduanna; Enheduanna |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | oldest poet of mankind, whose works have been handed down in writing |
DATE OF BIRTH | around 2300 BC Chr. |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Mesopotamia |
DATE OF DEATH | 23rd century BC Chr. |