FIRST NAMED FEMALE AUTHOR: ENHEDU'ANNA

MS MS 2367/1
MS Short Title FIRST NAMED FEMALE AUTHOR: ENHEDU'ANNA
Text
  1. ENHEDU' ANNA: HYMN C TO INANNA 1 - 16: "INANNA, STOUT-HEARTED, AGGRESSIVE LADY, MOST NOBle OF THE ANUNNA-GODS, - SHE IS A BIG NECK-STOCK CLAMPING DOWN ON THE GODS OF THE LAND, - ONCE SHE HAS SPOKEN, CITIES BECOME RUIN-HEAPS, A HOUSE OF DEVILS"
  2. PROVERB
Description MS in Sumerian on clay, Babylonia, 20th-17th c. BC, 1 tablet, 21x17x4 cm, 3 columns, 16+16+16+4 lines in cuneiform script by a teacher of a scribal school
  in column 1, with 2 students repeating the hymn in columns 2 and 3.
Commentary

Enhedu’anna was daughter of King Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC), founder of the first documented empire in Asia. Enhedu’anna emerges as a genuine creative talent, a poetess as well as a princess, a priestess and a prophetess. She is, in fact, the first named and non-legendary author in history. As such she has found her way into contemporary anthologies, especially of women's literature.

See also

MS 2085, Abélarde et Héloise; epistolae, Abélard's autobiography and the letters between Abélard and Heloise. France, ca. 1350; and MS 586, text 2: Sappho: Ille mi par esse deo videtur. Italy, ca. 1475.
MS 586, text 2: Sappho: Ille mi par esse deo videtur. Italy, ca. 1475.

Place of origin Babylonia
Dates 20c - 17c BC