Léon, Vicki. "Enheduana of Sumer." Outrageous Women of Ancient Times. New York: Wiley, 1998. 49-53. Print.
Enheduana of Sumer was very important in human history.
She was the first author, male or female, to write a book using her own name
(the first non-anonymous author)! She wrote them almost 4,300 years ago.
She was the
daughter of King Sargon, who established a great Akkadian empire and who
appointed her High Priestess to Nanna, the moon-god of Sumer. She kept this
position for nearly twenty-five years before her evil nephew replaced her with
his own daughter.
She wrote her books on clay tablets with styli made out
of reeds, and she wrote them in cuneiform, an ancient alphabet made up of
triangles. She was also a poet, and wrote a set of forty-two poems or hymns to the
temples of Sumer and Akkad.
Her father, the King, was from a family of Mesopotamian
farmers, and was “a humble cup-bearer for the king of Kish.” Nobody knows how
he got the throne, but he made a huge empire. He had twin sons and his daughter
Enheduana, but his sons made terrible kings.
A lot of this we know thanks to Enheduana’s stories. We
owe her so much.
