Awesome Stuff Women Did

-Enheduanna, an Akkadian Princess. Regarded by literary and historical scholars as the earliest known author and poet, she served as an En Priestess during the third millennium BC. (via fuckyeahladywriters)

Composed 42 hymns addressed to temples across Sumer and Akkad including Eridu, Sippar and Esnunna.  The temple hymns were the first collection of their kind, in them Enheduanna states: “My king, something has been created that no one has created before.” The copying of the hymns indicates the temple hymns were in use long after Enheduanna’s death and were held in high esteem. Her other famous work is ‘The Exaltation of Inanna’ or ‘Nin-Me-Sar-Ra’ which is a personal devotion to the goddess Inanna and also details Enheduanna’s expulsion from Ur. Enheduanna’s authorship raises the issue of female literacy in ancient Mesopotamia; in addition to Enheduanna royal wives are known to have commissioned or perhaps composed poetry and the goddess Nindaba acted as a scribe.