Enheduanna Hymns

The Epic of Gilgamesh

En-hedu-Ana is a title and means “The High Priestess [named] Ornament of the Sky”

'en'=High Priestess 'hedu'=Ornament 'Ana'=of the Sky/Heaven or of the God of the Sky/Heaven

The Akkadian/Sumerian poet Enheduanna (2285-2250 BC) is the world’s first author known by name and was the daugher of Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great).

Sargon placed her to the position of high priestess of the most important temple in Sumer.

Enheduanna composed 42 hymns addressed to temples across Sumer and Akkad including Eridu, Sippar and Esnunna. The texts are reconstructed from 37 tablets from Ur and Nippur. This collection is known generally as 'The Sumerian Temple Hymns'.

• Nin-me-šara, “The Exaltation of Inanna”, 153 lines, edited and translated first by Hallo and van Dijk (1968), later by Annette Zgoll (1997) in German. The first 65 lines address the goddess with a list of epithets, comparing her to An, the supreme god of the pantheon. Then, En-hedu-ana speaks in the first person to express her unhappiness at being exiled from the temple and the cities of Ur and Uruk. En-hedu-ana asks for intercession of Nanna. Lines 122–135 recite divine attributes of Inanna.
• In-nin sa-gur-ra (named by incipit), 274 lines (incomplete), edited by Sjöberg (1976) using 29 fragments.
• In-nin me-hus-a, “Inanna and Ebih”, first translated by Limet (1969)
• The Temple Hymns, edited by Sjöberg and Bergmann (1969): 42 hymns of varying length, addressed to temples.
• Hymn To Nanna, edited by Westenholz