Enheduana of Sumer

Sumer is a place located in Mesopotamia now-a-days known as Iraq. Sumer has had many leaders of which one of them, came to be King Sargon, a father of twin boys and a girl, Enheduana. Enheduana however was more known then her brothers, she was the first writer. At the time she could be considered the world’s first bestselling author. Of course in those times not many people knew how to read and write, she was one of the lucky ones. Writing in those days was made on soft clay with a tool called a stylus.  The hard thing about Sumerian writing (cuneiform), was that it was made up of symbols, and if one mistake was made it would mess up the whole sentence because erasing on clay was hard.  Enheduana’s brothers had a desire to be kings but they had no talent, however they did rule for a bit each once their father dad. While King Sargon was still alive, he awarded his daughter by putting her into the position of a high priestess to Nanna, moon-god of Sumer.  She was awarded with this position because she loved to write letter, stories and poems, so she would write important quotes and talk to the goddess. While serving the goddess, she loved in the ziggurat’s highest storey, nearest the heavens so she could communicate with the gods, she was the one who created rituals and conducted animal sacrifices to please the gods.  Being a high priestess, took 25 years of her whole life, she wrote a set of forty-two poems, many stories which were found on multiple clay plates meaning more people had them, and sung in celebrations/ceremonies. Both older brothers were killed while they were kings by enemy palaces who hated them, finally a nephew took over.  He kicked Enheduana out of the ziggurat, it is believed somewhere into the dessert however she was remember even after her disappearance and he wasn’t.  So after all, Enheduana was the earliest author male/female to be known by her name, in other ways the first creation credited to an individual person. She brought the idea of writing poems and stories, and thanks to her we can have writing now and compare it to old writings(the surviving clay plates).

Leon, Vicki. "Enhaduana of Sumer." Outrageous Women of Ancient Times. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 49-53. Print.