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4,300 years ago 
in ancient Sumer,

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the most powerful person in the city of Ur
was banished to wander the vast desert.

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Her name was Enheduanna.

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She was the high priestess of the moon god
and history’s first known author.

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By the time of her exile, she had written 
42 hymns and three epic poems—

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and Sumer hadn’t heard the last of her.

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Enheduanna lived 1,700 years 
before Sappho,

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1,500 years before Homer,

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and about 500 years before 
the biblical patriarch Abraham.

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She was born in Mesopotamia, the land 
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,

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and the birthplace of the first cities 
and high cultures.

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Her father was King Sargon the Great, 
history’s first empire builder,

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who conquered the independent city-states 
of Mesopotamia under a unified banner.

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Sargon was a northern Semite 
who spoke Akkadian,

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and the older Sumerian cities in the south
viewed him as a foreign invader.

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They frequently revolted to regain 
their independence,

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fracturing his new dynasty.

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To bridge the gap between cultures,

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Sargon appointed his only daughter, 
Enheduanna, as high priestess

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in the empire’s most important temple.

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Female royalty traditionally 
served religious roles,

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and she was educated to read 
and write in both Sumerian and Akkadian,

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and make mathematical calculations.

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The world's first writing started in Sumer
as a system of accounting,

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allowing merchants to communicate 
over long distances with traders abroad.

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Their pictogram system of record keeping 
developed into a script

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about 300 years 
before Enheduanna’s birth.

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This early writing style, 
called cuneiform,

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was written with a reed stylus pressed 
into soft clay to make wedge-shaped marks.

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But until Enheduanna,

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this writing mostly took the form 
of record keeping and transcription,

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rather than original works attributable 
to individual writers.

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Enheduanna’s Ur was a city 
of 34,000 people with narrow streets,

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multi-storied brick homes, granaries, 
and irrigation.

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As high priestess, Enheduanna 
managed grain storage for the city,

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oversaw hundreds of temple workers, 
interpreted sacred dreams,

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and presided over the monthly 
new moon festival

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and rituals celebrating the equinoxes.

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Enheduanna set about unifying 
the older Sumerian culture

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with the newer Akkadian civilization.

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To accomplish this, 
she wrote 42 religious hymns

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that combined both mythologies.

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Each Mesopotamian city 
was ruled by a patron deity,

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so her hymns were dedicated 
to the ruling god of each major city.

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She praised the city’s temple, 
glorified the god’s attributes,

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and explained the god’s relationship 
to other deities within the pantheon.

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In her writing, 
she humanized the once aloof gods—

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now they suffered, fought, loved, 
and responded to human pleading.

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Enheduanna’s most valuable 
literary contribution

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was the poetry she wrote to Inanna, 
goddess of war and desire,

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the divinely chaotic energy 
that gives spark to the universe.

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Inanna delighted in all forms 
of sexual expression

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and was considered so powerful that 
she transcended gender boundaries,

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as did her earthly attendants, who could 
be prostitutes, eunuchs or cross-dressers.

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Enheduanna placed Inanna at the top of 
the pantheon as the most powerful deity.

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Her odes to Inanna mark the first time 
an author writes using the pronoun “I,”

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and the first time writing is used 
to explore deep, private emotions.

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After the death of Enheduanna’s father, 
King Sargon,

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a general took advantage 
of the power vacuum and staged a coup.

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As a powerful member of the ruling family,
Enheduanna was a target,

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and the general exiled her from Ur.

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Her nephew, 
the legendary Sumerian king Naram-Sin,

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ultimately crushed the uprising 
and restored his aunt as high priestess.

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In total, Enheduanna served 
as high priestess for 40 years.

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After her death, 
she became a minor deity,

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and her poetry was copied, studied, 
and performed throughout the empire

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for over 500 years.

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Her poems influenced 
the Hebrew Old Testament,

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the epics of Homer, and Christian hymns.

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Today, Enheduanna’s legacy still exists,

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on clay tablets that have 
stood the test of time.