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Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author
The complete poems of the priestess Enheduana, the world’s first known author, newly translated from the original Sumerian
“Helle’s translation feels urgent, incandescent, stripped of academic cladding. . . . The growing popularity of Enheduana gives all of us readers a chance to discover another lineage—and to bring this poet and her imagination flashing back to life again.”—Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times
Enheduana was a high priestess and royal princess who lived in Ur, in what is now southern Iraq, about 2300 BCE. Not only does Enheduana have the distinction of being the first author whose name we know, but the poems attributed to her are hymns of great power. They are a rare flash of the female voice in the often male-dominated ancient world, treating themes that are as relevant today as they were four thousand years exile, social disruption, the power of storytelling, gender-bending identities, the devastation of war, and the terrifying forces of nature.
This book is the first complete translation of her poems from the original Sumerian. Sophus Helle’s translations replicate the intensity and imagery of the original hymns—literary time bombs that have lain buried for millennia. In addition to his translations, Helle provides background on the historical context in which Enheduana’s poems were composed and circulated, the works’ literary structure and themes, and their reception in both the ancient and the modern world.
Unjustly forgotten for millennia, Enheduana’s poems are essential reading for anyone interested in the literary history of women, religion, the environment, gender, motherhood, authorship, and empire.
“Helle’s translation feels urgent, incandescent, stripped of academic cladding. . . . The growing popularity of Enheduana gives all of us readers a chance to discover another lineage—and to bring this poet and her imagination flashing back to life again.”—Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times
Enheduana was a high priestess and royal princess who lived in Ur, in what is now southern Iraq, about 2300 BCE. Not only does Enheduana have the distinction of being the first author whose name we know, but the poems attributed to her are hymns of great power. They are a rare flash of the female voice in the often male-dominated ancient world, treating themes that are as relevant today as they were four thousand years exile, social disruption, the power of storytelling, gender-bending identities, the devastation of war, and the terrifying forces of nature.
This book is the first complete translation of her poems from the original Sumerian. Sophus Helle’s translations replicate the intensity and imagery of the original hymns—literary time bombs that have lain buried for millennia. In addition to his translations, Helle provides background on the historical context in which Enheduana’s poems were composed and circulated, the works’ literary structure and themes, and their reception in both the ancient and the modern world.
Unjustly forgotten for millennia, Enheduana’s poems are essential reading for anyone interested in the literary history of women, religion, the environment, gender, motherhood, authorship, and empire.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published March 28, 2023
70 people are currently reading
916 people want to read
About the author
Sophus Helle
7 books48 followersSophus Helle is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. He has translated the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh and the works of Enheduana, the first known author, into both Danish and English.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 17, 2024
Enheduana is the earliest known named author in world history. There are poems and stories much older than hers, but those are all written by anonymous authors. Enheduana is the first author whose name we actually know. She lived around 2300 BCE. She was a high priestess in Ur. And she was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad. Her father was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, which is one of the first empires in world history.
Now, what Enheduana wrote were hymns. And as the author of this book and the translator of the originals texts says: “to read Enheduana’s poems is to enter a world ruled by the violent whims of reckless gods.” This means that her poems aren’t exactly written for entertainment purposes. But as the author explains, that doesn’t mean they should be forgotten. Quite the contrary in fact, as the history of authorship begins with her. It also gives us a fascinating little glimpse at the language, local politics, gender roles and religion of those ancient times. In the first hymn for example, Enheduana basically feels powerless in the face of a revolt and desperately prays to Inana (also known as Ishtar) to regain her power. And she even designates Inana as the queen of the gods.
This book translates the original hymns to English but also provides us with some more context and explains what we can learn from them in the forms of essays. The essays are also like a reconstruction of the past. They put together all the different puzzle pieces that we’ve found and, while there are many pieces missing, they try to fill in the blanks to make us see the bigger picture.
An interesting anecdote from these essays is that a big part of why we still know so much about Enheduana is because, long after her death, Old Babylonion schools still read and studied her work. And this is actually very similar to how we still study Latin in our schools today. Because the Sumerian language had by then fallen out of favor with the general public but it still held a great cultural prestige. It was basically part of their cultural heritage.
At times a bit too academical for me. But the content of this book is incredibly fascinating as it shines a spotlight on a part of history that is not that well-known nowadays. And the author is clearly overflowing with passion for the subject. As the author so beautifully states: “becoming an author is to surrender one’s words to the care and craft of others.” So it’s up to us now to take care of Enheduana’s words.
Now, what Enheduana wrote were hymns. And as the author of this book and the translator of the originals texts says: “to read Enheduana’s poems is to enter a world ruled by the violent whims of reckless gods.” This means that her poems aren’t exactly written for entertainment purposes. But as the author explains, that doesn’t mean they should be forgotten. Quite the contrary in fact, as the history of authorship begins with her. It also gives us a fascinating little glimpse at the language, local politics, gender roles and religion of those ancient times. In the first hymn for example, Enheduana basically feels powerless in the face of a revolt and desperately prays to Inana (also known as Ishtar) to regain her power. And she even designates Inana as the queen of the gods.
This book translates the original hymns to English but also provides us with some more context and explains what we can learn from them in the forms of essays. The essays are also like a reconstruction of the past. They put together all the different puzzle pieces that we’ve found and, while there are many pieces missing, they try to fill in the blanks to make us see the bigger picture.
An interesting anecdote from these essays is that a big part of why we still know so much about Enheduana is because, long after her death, Old Babylonion schools still read and studied her work. And this is actually very similar to how we still study Latin in our schools today. Because the Sumerian language had by then fallen out of favor with the general public but it still held a great cultural prestige. It was basically part of their cultural heritage.
At times a bit too academical for me. But the content of this book is incredibly fascinating as it shines a spotlight on a part of history that is not that well-known nowadays. And the author is clearly overflowing with passion for the subject. As the author so beautifully states: “becoming an author is to surrender one’s words to the care and craft of others.” So it’s up to us now to take care of Enheduana’s words.
November 18, 2024
The work of the young Danish Assyriologist Sophus Helle is solid. I previously read his Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic and that not only provided a very secure and readable translation, but above all an up-to-date elucidation that is also understandable for laymen. And that is what Helle now offers here, for the work attributed to Enheduana, the high priestess in Sumerian/Akkadian Ur, more than 2200 years ago. The main difference with Gilgamesh is that this is not an epic story, but a very limited sample of hymns, poems of praise addressed to one or more deities, and especially the Sumerian moon goddess Inana. The longest poem, the “Exaltation of Inana”, will resonate most because of its powerful, expressive lyricism, the Temple Hymns and the other work remain somewhat stranger to the modern reader. Helle's explanations make up for a lot, but the distance still is too great in my opinion. For Helle, that’s no problem: “What the poems attributed to Enheduana have in common is that they overwhelm the reader with a torrent of images. There is an intensity to her work, a condensed fervor which even today feels like an explosion, and which I have done my best to convey in translation. Line after line, the reader is bombarded with metaphors and similes, often focused on reversals and the destructive forces of war and nature.” And then of course there’s the question of authorship, which Helle addresses in great detail. More on that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
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November 8, 2024This book not only zooms in on the texts and the context of the Hymns of Enhedeuana, it also focuses on the issue of her authorship. How could it be otherwise? After all, we are talking about the very first author of literary works who is known by name. The Danish historian Sophus Helle wrote about it earlier (“The birth of the author: Co-creating authorship in Enheduana’s Exaltation,” Orbis Litterarum, vol. 75, no. 2 (February 2020), pp. 55–72). In that previous article he gave the impression that Enheduana’s authorship is very doubtful: based mainly on formal criteria, he considered it more likely that the works attributed to her were written in the 18th century BCE, by scribes in the city of Nippur. In the present book he's a bit more prudent, and indicates that there are also arguments for an actual authorship of the Sumerian high priestess, 4 centuries earlier. In a very interesting essay in this book he discusses the three lives of Enheduana: 1. as a historical figure, the high priestess from Ur, around 2250 BCE; 2. As a figure cultivated by Old Babylonian scribes who put all kinds of (existing or new?) poems in her name; 3. As a first, female, author from history, rediscovered in our time, appealing to various communities.
Helle now puts the question of authorship into perspective: “Philologists in general have been reluctant to proselytize her poems because they are dogged by the suspicion that they may not really be her poems. This must stop. The hymns are a stunning poetic achievement, and regardless of whether they are by or only about Enheduana, they are enough to make her a fascinating figure, one who deserves much greater fame than she currently enjoys.”
And with this, the attention shifts to what the work attributed to her can still mean today. Helle also discusses that in detail: “She does not have much to offer us in terms of reassurance, for she too lived through a time of upheaval, but for that very reason her poems appeal to us all the more strongly: her songs of chaos and flux, exile and climate change, war and violence today resonate with dark exactness. The mixture of distance and resemblance—the zoomed-out viewpoint of a long-ago past and its eerie similarity to our current situation—makes Enheduana an ideal sounding board for reflecting on future directions.” It is that reading key that still makes her (?) work, so far removed from us in time, worth reading.
Helle now puts the question of authorship into perspective: “Philologists in general have been reluctant to proselytize her poems because they are dogged by the suspicion that they may not really be her poems. This must stop. The hymns are a stunning poetic achievement, and regardless of whether they are by or only about Enheduana, they are enough to make her a fascinating figure, one who deserves much greater fame than she currently enjoys.”
And with this, the attention shifts to what the work attributed to her can still mean today. Helle also discusses that in detail: “She does not have much to offer us in terms of reassurance, for she too lived through a time of upheaval, but for that very reason her poems appeal to us all the more strongly: her songs of chaos and flux, exile and climate change, war and violence today resonate with dark exactness. The mixture of distance and resemblance—the zoomed-out viewpoint of a long-ago past and its eerie similarity to our current situation—makes Enheduana an ideal sounding board for reflecting on future directions.” It is that reading key that still makes her (?) work, so far removed from us in time, worth reading.
February 22, 2024
I was very nervous when I first saw this book: I feared that this was going to be a biased, slanted non-translation by someone who doesn't even read Sumerian, of the David Ferry, Stephen Mitchell-type of "translation" where you basically look at a bunch of translations of the same text and based on that come up with your own without reading a single word of the original, this process being compounded by a potential cringe-worthiness if it was to present Enheduanna in the second wave feminist ahistorical point of view that she almost always is outside of Sumerology.
Thankfully none of this is true: it is a proper translation, and the introduction and three essays that follow Enheduanna's poems are interesting, thoughtful and properly sourced.
Enheduanna is a fascinating figure less because of what she actually wrote (though that in itself is very interesting) but because her poems are the first literary works with not just a clear name but more importantly voice attached to them: which is to say, it's not just that we know these poems were by a lady called "Enheduanna", but that they come from such a lady's life experiences rather than simply being tradition copied down - namely, from the troublesome period of the late Old Akkadian period, where many rebellions against the rule of Akkad over the subjected city-states shook this first empire in human history.
The poetry is well translated, though I find some choices odd - translating the untranslatable concept of the Sumerian mes as "power" (though he does explain his reasoning in further essays), per example, is one, because I think just about everyone coming into this (short of the aforementioned feministas) would know enough about Sumerology to know what the mes are. Even more bizarre is how the lines are cut up in an inaccurate way, with each line being cut into two or three lines - the verse number markers remains accurate, so you can see 10-to-15 lines passing while only 5 verses go by. If this was for poetic meter reasons I'd entirely forgive it, but, it isn't in meter - although Helle actually does do his best to adapt things like rhymes where they do happen and so on - so it just struck me as an odd decision to have the verses cut into such short lines. It's only done for the Exaltation and the Hymn to Innana, whereas the Temple Hymns have the usual one verse per one line translation, i.e. it's only done for the poems people actually care about.
Beyond that, footnotes, by no means excessive as far as translations of Near Eastern literature goes (quite the opposite, in fact), do note when Enheduanna works some sort of poetic magic, and it offers a glimpse into why her work was considered "peak Sumerian" back in the Old Babylonian days, much like Virgil was for Latin poetry. Keep in mind that this are entirely impossible to carry to translation, not just because Sumerian allows for a lot more punning, and a Sumerian single syllable and character always carries way more nuance than in any modern language, and not just that, but scribes used different signs with the same phonetic meaning but with slightly different ideogrammatic meaning. Not just that, due to the nature of cuneiform script as having ideographic elements and so on, sometimes puns just straight up rely not on phoneticism but on the specific "graphic" sign being used - impossible to translate to any language. In any case, while not extensive, Helle's footnotes allows you to glimpse into the fantastic poetic craft of Enheduanna, regrettably only visible in its original language as it is.
The three essays that follow are all very interesting, sober and well-argued: these deal with the matter of authorship - Helle, very convincingly in my eyes, argues that even if Enheduanna was not the one who wrote these works (a very real possibility is that while Enheduanna is undeniably a historical character, in these poems she is essentially a fictional character and persona made up by Old Babylonian-period scribes in a sort of bizarre example of historical fiction), she is nonetheless the first author and the (recorded) birth of authorship, since, as he puts it
These essays explore Enheduanna's historical world - one ravaged by an immense amount of rebellions against the Akkadian Empire, with nine in one year - and the world of the scribes that copied down her works, matters of authorship and what "makes" Enheduanna an author, how authorship was in its early days in Mesopotamia, how the fiction in the poem unravels in a dialogue between Innana and Enheduanna as two characters, matters of gender in the ancient Near East, how Enheduanna has resonated over the years, etc. Here Helle is very sober and scholarly, and appears as someone with a genuine interest in being accurate to the history and archeology related to the period. In fact, he even acknowledges the extremely flawed vision of Enheduanna had by second wave feminists behind Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart as being entirely baseless as far as archeology and text goes. Helle merely implies as he is to kind to outright say that the book, as is usual for such things, is in fact a projection of the authors' libidinal fantasies onto a history very unlike what they paint it as.
Overall - shockingly good, and probably the best translation of Enheduanna out there at the moment, with the usual commentary replaced here by three very interesting, engaging and sober essays. Due to bad "translations" of the Gilgamesh epic, indeed non-translations, I was extremely distrustful of Helle and his translation of it, but after reading this, I might actually give it a proper shot for this is a work of thorough quality, with the author clearly invested in getting the beauty of the original work across and giving the reader multiple resources on how they may learn some Sumerian and read the original poems in their beautiful original language.
Thankfully none of this is true: it is a proper translation, and the introduction and three essays that follow Enheduanna's poems are interesting, thoughtful and properly sourced.
Enheduanna is a fascinating figure less because of what she actually wrote (though that in itself is very interesting) but because her poems are the first literary works with not just a clear name but more importantly voice attached to them: which is to say, it's not just that we know these poems were by a lady called "Enheduanna", but that they come from such a lady's life experiences rather than simply being tradition copied down - namely, from the troublesome period of the late Old Akkadian period, where many rebellions against the rule of Akkad over the subjected city-states shook this first empire in human history.
The poetry is well translated, though I find some choices odd - translating the untranslatable concept of the Sumerian mes as "power" (though he does explain his reasoning in further essays), per example, is one, because I think just about everyone coming into this (short of the aforementioned feministas) would know enough about Sumerology to know what the mes are. Even more bizarre is how the lines are cut up in an inaccurate way, with each line being cut into two or three lines - the verse number markers remains accurate, so you can see 10-to-15 lines passing while only 5 verses go by. If this was for poetic meter reasons I'd entirely forgive it, but, it isn't in meter - although Helle actually does do his best to adapt things like rhymes where they do happen and so on - so it just struck me as an odd decision to have the verses cut into such short lines. It's only done for the Exaltation and the Hymn to Innana, whereas the Temple Hymns have the usual one verse per one line translation, i.e. it's only done for the poems people actually care about.
Beyond that, footnotes, by no means excessive as far as translations of Near Eastern literature goes (quite the opposite, in fact), do note when Enheduanna works some sort of poetic magic, and it offers a glimpse into why her work was considered "peak Sumerian" back in the Old Babylonian days, much like Virgil was for Latin poetry. Keep in mind that this are entirely impossible to carry to translation, not just because Sumerian allows for a lot more punning, and a Sumerian single syllable and character always carries way more nuance than in any modern language, and not just that, but scribes used different signs with the same phonetic meaning but with slightly different ideogrammatic meaning. Not just that, due to the nature of cuneiform script as having ideographic elements and so on, sometimes puns just straight up rely not on phoneticism but on the specific "graphic" sign being used - impossible to translate to any language. In any case, while not extensive, Helle's footnotes allows you to glimpse into the fantastic poetic craft of Enheduanna, regrettably only visible in its original language as it is.
The three essays that follow are all very interesting, sober and well-argued: these deal with the matter of authorship - Helle, very convincingly in my eyes, argues that even if Enheduanna was not the one who wrote these works (a very real possibility is that while Enheduanna is undeniably a historical character, in these poems she is essentially a fictional character and persona made up by Old Babylonian-period scribes in a sort of bizarre example of historical fiction), she is nonetheless the first author and the (recorded) birth of authorship, since, as he puts it
the fact that the ancient scribes saw Enheduana as the author of these poems is significant: in this case it really is the thought that counts. The idea of authorship, the notion that a poetic text could be traced back to a named and identifiable individual rather than to a collective and anonymous tradition was born when these hymns were ascribed to Enheduana, and that is true regardless of whether the attribution was correct.
These essays explore Enheduanna's historical world - one ravaged by an immense amount of rebellions against the Akkadian Empire, with nine in one year - and the world of the scribes that copied down her works, matters of authorship and what "makes" Enheduanna an author, how authorship was in its early days in Mesopotamia, how the fiction in the poem unravels in a dialogue between Innana and Enheduanna as two characters, matters of gender in the ancient Near East, how Enheduanna has resonated over the years, etc. Here Helle is very sober and scholarly, and appears as someone with a genuine interest in being accurate to the history and archeology related to the period. In fact, he even acknowledges the extremely flawed vision of Enheduanna had by second wave feminists behind Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart as being entirely baseless as far as archeology and text goes. Helle merely implies as he is to kind to outright say that the book, as is usual for such things, is in fact a projection of the authors' libidinal fantasies onto a history very unlike what they paint it as.
Overall - shockingly good, and probably the best translation of Enheduanna out there at the moment, with the usual commentary replaced here by three very interesting, engaging and sober essays. Due to bad "translations" of the Gilgamesh epic, indeed non-translations, I was extremely distrustful of Helle and his translation of it, but after reading this, I might actually give it a proper shot for this is a work of thorough quality, with the author clearly invested in getting the beauty of the original work across and giving the reader multiple resources on how they may learn some Sumerian and read the original poems in their beautiful original language.
August 21, 2024
Where do we draw the line between not man and myth but woman and wonder?
EXQUISITE. I LUV 2 LEARN!!!! might fuck around and make this my whole personality for a while
To turn men into
women, to turn
women into men
are yours, Inana.
miscellaneous bits:
- 'As noted by the philologist Louise Pryke, the first known story of a writer is also the first known story of a writer's block' hehe <3
- sumerian was a linguistic isolate but regardless there's something so beautiful about Abzu meaning Deep Sea :'))))
- THE BABYLONIAN STUDENTS STUDYING ENHEDUANA!!!!! I already shared the bit about the student biting the tablet (CLASSIC), but there's more: '(Not everyone was equally keen: one student erased the model letter he or she had been writing and drew a goat and a fish in its place.)'
- howwww did I never before know the etymology of 'text' ;___;
- when u think about it.....enheduana (poet) and inana (goddess) do literarily have sex...........when u think about it (it doesn't actually require thinking the metaphor is right there in the text and enheduana may also be presenting herself as inana’s literary spouse)
- the bit where inana steals all the me (powers, ish, kind of) from enki and this "trove of me" includes "joy and justice, honesty and lies, rebellion, kindness, awe and reverent silence, wisdom, the scribal arts, shepherdship, leadership, leathercraft and metalwork, the kindling and dousing of fire, the making of families, strife and triumph, old age, weapons, various priestly offices, sex and blowjobs ('the kissing of the penis'), singing and musical instruments"
- the idea of power as chaos, of control as disorder
- the critique of "imperial subjugation" (that is to say, helle's critique, not enheduana's; enheduana was all about that shit lol)
- combining historicist/traditionalist/presentist
- the high priestesses were allowed to choose anal as a form of birth control
April 24, 2023
This was so great. It contained everything I love about reading: the sense of discovery, connections to other books/history, and both the original text and descriptive essays to help in understanding what is happening. Enheduana is the first work we have attributed to an individual author. Enheduana was a female, a priestess from Ur in 2300BC. That’s where Abraham was from. It was fascinating reading about the gods from this time.
August 21, 2023
“What would the history of Western literature look like if it began not with Homer and his war-hungry heroes but with a woman from ancient Iraq, who sang her hymns to the goddess of chaos and change?”
The most bright essay on the life and work of Enheduana, the mythical high priestess of Nanna in Ur and most ancient known literary author.
In this new translation from cuneiform, danish assyriologist Sophus Helle brings back the echoes of Old Akkadian hymns, through which we’re invited to delve into the culture, religion and politics of the successive Mesopotamian empires and their surprisingly intricate relation with literature and poetry.
Songs of chaos, exile, climate change, war, violence, gender roles issues and much more, resonate today with dark exactness, eerily close to us almost 5000 years later, making “Enheduana an ideal sounding board for reflecting on future directions.”
This critical edition is carefully annotated and followed by several essays, chronology and glossary. Using a simple and approachable language (Helle made the effort of avoiding the most technical academic jargon or, when unavoidable, presenting the reader with clear definitions, quite easy to understand), this book is highlighted by the clear enthusiasm and passion for the topic, contagious for the reader.
The most bright essay on the life and work of Enheduana, the mythical high priestess of Nanna in Ur and most ancient known literary author.
In this new translation from cuneiform, danish assyriologist Sophus Helle brings back the echoes of Old Akkadian hymns, through which we’re invited to delve into the culture, religion and politics of the successive Mesopotamian empires and their surprisingly intricate relation with literature and poetry.
Songs of chaos, exile, climate change, war, violence, gender roles issues and much more, resonate today with dark exactness, eerily close to us almost 5000 years later, making “Enheduana an ideal sounding board for reflecting on future directions.”
This critical edition is carefully annotated and followed by several essays, chronology and glossary. Using a simple and approachable language (Helle made the effort of avoiding the most technical academic jargon or, when unavoidable, presenting the reader with clear definitions, quite easy to understand), this book is highlighted by the clear enthusiasm and passion for the topic, contagious for the reader.
June 27, 2024
If I could give this 6 stars, I would. Helle is doing what he loves and it shows. His passion for and knowledge on this subject thrilled me; the essays practically vibrate with his excitement to tell anyone and everyone about Enheduana's works. That kind of passion resonates.
I loved the essays on Enheduana and her world and learned something exciting from each of them. I repeatedly found myself marking passages, noting things to look up, starring other sources to read and facts that surprised or moved me. Found myself downloading PDFs of Sumerian grammars that I can't at all decipher because how do you even begin with cuneiform but are still great to pore over. His presentation of the history behind the hymns and fragments is a delight, particularly the ongoing magic of trying to work their music into a form that captures a sense of their original brilliance while making sure the reader knows that it's more clever/nuanced/sensational in Sumerian. What can be understood of it, anyway.
This is the epitome of a perfect introductory text. Loved it.
I loved the essays on Enheduana and her world and learned something exciting from each of them. I repeatedly found myself marking passages, noting things to look up, starring other sources to read and facts that surprised or moved me. Found myself downloading PDFs of Sumerian grammars that I can't at all decipher because how do you even begin with cuneiform but are still great to pore over. His presentation of the history behind the hymns and fragments is a delight, particularly the ongoing magic of trying to work their music into a form that captures a sense of their original brilliance while making sure the reader knows that it's more clever/nuanced/sensational in Sumerian. What can be understood of it, anyway.
This is the epitome of a perfect introductory text. Loved it.
June 8, 2024
Excellent. As a casual reader, Helle makes Sumerian utterly fascinating without attempting to gatekeep any part of this very arcane branch of study. This was genuinely the most interesting thing I have read in some time, and Helle’s approach to history—especially the branches of history about which we know so little that they are typically used as Rorschach test for whoever is speaking—is a model for mature, informed, and humble learning. What a fascinating read.
November 30, 2024
It seems strange to rate and review 4000-year-old poetry (or even to review a translation of it, since I’m no philologist), but I can at least reflect my enjoyment and fascination here.
This is a collection of ancient Sumerian poems by the High Priestess Enheduana, who lived in Ur in around 2300 BCE, translated into English by Sophus Helle. The original cuneiform versions were preserved on clay tablets, largely by students in the Old Babylonian period who learned and practiced them hundreds of years after her death. The book also contains Helle's essays and notes about the poems and about Enheduana.
I read this as inspiration and research for a novel I’m currently working on, and for that it was incredibly informative, but I also just generally found it a fascinating read. It’s amazing to get a window so far into the past, to read the words of someone who lived thousands of years ago and know their meaning, and to feel the passion, skill, and creativity in their writing. It’s especially amazing that they are the words of a woman. I also loved that many of the poems reveal a reverence for the written word and the act of creating. This was obvious both in Enheduana’s allusions to her own creative ‘birthing’ of the poem ‘The Exaltation’ but also in the fact that the hymn for the temple of the god of writing is clearly more beautiful and complex than all the other temple hymns.
Sophus Helle does a great job of putting the poems in historical context, making it clear that there is still a lot we don’t know about them, and cautioning against the temptation to interpret Enheduana’s poetry and her character solely through our modern lens (e.g. even our desire to see Enheduana as the ‘sole author’ of these poems is incompatible with ancient traditions of oral laments, passing on, adapting, writing, and rewriting). While I’m certainly no expert on Sumerian, I felt Helle captured the artistry and power of the poems very well, and I really enjoyed this dive into the ancient past.
This is a collection of ancient Sumerian poems by the High Priestess Enheduana, who lived in Ur in around 2300 BCE, translated into English by Sophus Helle. The original cuneiform versions were preserved on clay tablets, largely by students in the Old Babylonian period who learned and practiced them hundreds of years after her death. The book also contains Helle's essays and notes about the poems and about Enheduana.
I read this as inspiration and research for a novel I’m currently working on, and for that it was incredibly informative, but I also just generally found it a fascinating read. It’s amazing to get a window so far into the past, to read the words of someone who lived thousands of years ago and know their meaning, and to feel the passion, skill, and creativity in their writing. It’s especially amazing that they are the words of a woman. I also loved that many of the poems reveal a reverence for the written word and the act of creating. This was obvious both in Enheduana’s allusions to her own creative ‘birthing’ of the poem ‘The Exaltation’ but also in the fact that the hymn for the temple of the god of writing is clearly more beautiful and complex than all the other temple hymns.
Sophus Helle does a great job of putting the poems in historical context, making it clear that there is still a lot we don’t know about them, and cautioning against the temptation to interpret Enheduana’s poetry and her character solely through our modern lens (e.g. even our desire to see Enheduana as the ‘sole author’ of these poems is incompatible with ancient traditions of oral laments, passing on, adapting, writing, and rewriting). While I’m certainly no expert on Sumerian, I felt Helle captured the artistry and power of the poems very well, and I really enjoyed this dive into the ancient past.
March 9, 2025
The poems are just magnificent - there's so much power, so many images in them.
I truly and utterly enjoyed reading this book, the poetry and the accompanying essays.
I truly and utterly enjoyed reading this book, the poetry and the accompanying essays.
September 27, 2024
unfortunately i ran into the same issue i had with helle’s gilgamesh, which is that the translation does close to nothing for me. enheduana’s exaltation and hymns somehow read as hopelessly stodgy, i highlighted only twenty lines total. but also as with gilgamesh, the essays following her work make this book worthwhile: enheduana’s world, the honeyed mouth, and the priestess returns. helle’s passion in these persuaded me of her poetry’s intrinsic beauty, though it might take a separate translation to truly grasp it. i also loved his analysis on the feminist interpretation: firstly, that the hymns were not written to be so; secondly, that feminism is still applicable if we use a “threefold understanding” (1 rooted in her historical life 2 ancient reception of her work 3 modern world); and thirdly, that with 1 & 2 in mind, her brand of ‘feminism’ might not be so appealing. my final note (bc i complained last time) is that helle does mention dunya mikhail in this! and makes a very beautiful connection between exile, immigration, and the past and future.
November 9, 2024
Another superb work by Sophus Helle translated from the original languages. He has done a superb Gilgamesh and he has now done a superb Enheduana.
Helle, just as in his Gilgamesh edition, has excellent essays. He dwells on the riddle of authorship. That is, we know that a high priestess in Ur was named Enheduana. We know she was the daughter of Sargon the Great. We know that she was "deposed" or "exiled" by an upstart. But we do not know for sure that Enheduana wrote the poems in the edition. At this point, the question of authorship becomes more fascinating. Were the poems merely attributed to her? Did they survive and have cachet because of a connection with her? Is there an understanding of cumulative or cooperative authorship that is not our way of doing things now and that perhaps we don't really understand? That is, that the authorship is not as important as the work; that the significance of the work is signaled simply by naming Enheduana or another as an author? These are questions that remind me of the attribution of the Iliad and Odyssey, truly seminal western works, to a person we have decided to call Homer.
In any event, what is more interesting to me in the poems is not the authorship or even the complicated contexts and distant ways of Ur so long ago (though these do give us a lot of grounding and are fascinating in their own right). I am more interested in the lyricism of the poems. That is, they purport to be the voice of an individual talking about her troubles and praying for consolation and justice as she sees it. It is the fact that these poems are recognized as the voice of a person, whether fictional or not, that I suspect is so entirely revolutionary.
Of course, I don't want to neglect the portrait of the Goddess Inanna in all the terrifying unpredictable chaos of her nature. I think that many today, if they examine themselves, will conclude that they believe themselves to be living in an essentially anarchic universe. Inanna represents that anarchy, in its gentleness, its wrath, its destructiveness, its undoing of things. People, or at least thinkers, in Ur must have felt this anarchy deeply. As Helle notes, they were so often subjected to warfare and its indifferent ways. No wonder Enheduana and her religious contemporaries spent time sacrificing and flattering and lamenting in an effort to keep the gods on their side.
I want to give a shout-out to Marc on Goodreads who wrote to tell me this edition by Helle existed. This is something I didn't know. Thank you, Marc.
Helle, just as in his Gilgamesh edition, has excellent essays. He dwells on the riddle of authorship. That is, we know that a high priestess in Ur was named Enheduana. We know she was the daughter of Sargon the Great. We know that she was "deposed" or "exiled" by an upstart. But we do not know for sure that Enheduana wrote the poems in the edition. At this point, the question of authorship becomes more fascinating. Were the poems merely attributed to her? Did they survive and have cachet because of a connection with her? Is there an understanding of cumulative or cooperative authorship that is not our way of doing things now and that perhaps we don't really understand? That is, that the authorship is not as important as the work; that the significance of the work is signaled simply by naming Enheduana or another as an author? These are questions that remind me of the attribution of the Iliad and Odyssey, truly seminal western works, to a person we have decided to call Homer.
In any event, what is more interesting to me in the poems is not the authorship or even the complicated contexts and distant ways of Ur so long ago (though these do give us a lot of grounding and are fascinating in their own right). I am more interested in the lyricism of the poems. That is, they purport to be the voice of an individual talking about her troubles and praying for consolation and justice as she sees it. It is the fact that these poems are recognized as the voice of a person, whether fictional or not, that I suspect is so entirely revolutionary.
Of course, I don't want to neglect the portrait of the Goddess Inanna in all the terrifying unpredictable chaos of her nature. I think that many today, if they examine themselves, will conclude that they believe themselves to be living in an essentially anarchic universe. Inanna represents that anarchy, in its gentleness, its wrath, its destructiveness, its undoing of things. People, or at least thinkers, in Ur must have felt this anarchy deeply. As Helle notes, they were so often subjected to warfare and its indifferent ways. No wonder Enheduana and her religious contemporaries spent time sacrificing and flattering and lamenting in an effort to keep the gods on their side.
I want to give a shout-out to Marc on Goodreads who wrote to tell me this edition by Helle existed. This is something I didn't know. Thank you, Marc.
June 6, 2024
I will read any ancient Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian text Sophus Helle translates. As with his translation of GILGAMESH, Helle brings an ancient world to life—revealing an even more ancient world lying beneath it. Each mystery leads to new mysteries. Fascinating and beguiling.
Read
October 6, 2024It is 5 stars and I will do a review
June 10, 2025
Enheduana is considered to be the world’s first author. Her poems were lost for thousands of years, and have only been found in the last hundred years. However, they have not been widely read and are primarily read among the academic circles. Sophus Helle’s first translation of Enheduana’s complete poems makes them more accessible and more reader friendly to the modern audiences.
I have studied a little bit of Enheduana, and I even wrote a history article on her. However, I never really had the chance to read her complete poems. When I started to read about the myths of Inanna, I decided it was a good opportunity to read Enheduana’s poems. I have to say that I strongly admired the poems. My favorite of the poems were “The Exaltation of Inanna”. When reading the poem, I could feel Enheduana’s suffering as she appeals to the goddess to help her against King Lugal-Ane. As for the other poems, I liked them, but they were mostly lost through time. I could not help wondering if we will ever find the complete poems of Enheduana. I also liked Sophus Helle’s essays at the end. It broadened my knowledge of Enheduana and her writings. I also found it interesting that Sophus Helle believes that she did not compose the myth of “Inanna and Ebih” and did not include it in the book.
Overall, this was a very comprehensive and engaging look at Enheduana’s poems. I found the translation to be easy to read. It makes me want to read Sophus Helle’s translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh! The essays were also very interesting, and I liked how it discussed Enheduana’s place in ancient Mesopotamia. Enheduana’s poems have been lost for thousands of years and are recently being recovered. Hopefully, historians can still find some more of her poems and that they are not truly lost to time. I also hope that many general readers will also take the time to read her poems. This book proves that Enheduana’s poems need to be included in high school and college curriculum! Enheduana is an important literary figure and deserves a lot of attention! She should no longer be ignored or forgotten!
I have studied a little bit of Enheduana, and I even wrote a history article on her. However, I never really had the chance to read her complete poems. When I started to read about the myths of Inanna, I decided it was a good opportunity to read Enheduana’s poems. I have to say that I strongly admired the poems. My favorite of the poems were “The Exaltation of Inanna”. When reading the poem, I could feel Enheduana’s suffering as she appeals to the goddess to help her against King Lugal-Ane. As for the other poems, I liked them, but they were mostly lost through time. I could not help wondering if we will ever find the complete poems of Enheduana. I also liked Sophus Helle’s essays at the end. It broadened my knowledge of Enheduana and her writings. I also found it interesting that Sophus Helle believes that she did not compose the myth of “Inanna and Ebih” and did not include it in the book.
Overall, this was a very comprehensive and engaging look at Enheduana’s poems. I found the translation to be easy to read. It makes me want to read Sophus Helle’s translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh! The essays were also very interesting, and I liked how it discussed Enheduana’s place in ancient Mesopotamia. Enheduana’s poems have been lost for thousands of years and are recently being recovered. Hopefully, historians can still find some more of her poems and that they are not truly lost to time. I also hope that many general readers will also take the time to read her poems. This book proves that Enheduana’s poems need to be included in high school and college curriculum! Enheduana is an important literary figure and deserves a lot of attention! She should no longer be ignored or forgotten!
September 17, 2024
This book is everything a translation of an ancient (or even non-ancient) text by a scholar should be. First and foremost, it gets into the text quickly and with a minimum of background, letting the reader enjoy a work free from the necessary but constraining reality of context. Then, we get the translator's opinions, which Helle has brilliantly laid out in the form of three distinct essays rather than the traditional interminable monograph. Only after that do we get the technical notes and bibliography, which make wonderfully few inroads on the layout of the text or of Helle's critical work. It is the version of format that I wish I had had for nearly every book I've ever read in translation, and Helle and/or the editor of this work deserve adulation for it.
Why do I believe this? I believe it because it is the duty of the academy, and more specifically those in the academy that study and provide critique of the works of others, to enable those conversations to happen more broadly. The typical reader does not necessarily care about the intricacies of disagreement among Assyriologists regarding the exact wordplay on display in these texts. What they do and should care about is the text itself, the implications about worship, authorship, and literature contained therein, and what it means to us. This requires at least three things - a translator, a critic, and a cultural program of engagement. Helle has the power to do the first two brilliantly (and has done so) and the rest is up to us.
Because reviews of books like this so often seem to focus on the scholarship or the translation rather than the text, a few words about the actual poems are in order. Because I have read just enough about ancient Mesopotamia to have the belief that Enheduana being a woman is not as great a deviation from gender norms as we might believe in the modern day, these hymns alternately resound and whimper with the fury of an empire temporarily displaced. I think it would be a mistake to apply current notions of anti-imperialism to an empire set four thousand plus years ago, but this for me is the primary driving force behind Enheduana's poetry. A flawed but instructive counterfactual would be to imagine the discovery that we'd been reading everything all wrong and that Enheduana in fact was a man - in my opinion these hymns would remain essentially unchanged.
The real value of these works in a literary sense, which I came to with an assist from Helle's essay on poetry, is their depiction of divine adoration and, more precisely, prayer. As is mentioned, these are not poems in the sense of Angelou, Keats, or Byron, but are specifically hymns, written to gods to incur their favor. I would go even further and compare them to prayer. Though placing the Christian idea of direct communion with divinity over a culture as stratified as this one is probably foolhardy, I'd support this idea in part with the winding nature of some of these poems, especially the longer ones. It calls to mind some of the longer prayers I've made in my personal faith, and it was giddying to see a reflection of that in the mind of an ancient priestess.
I mentioned earlier that Helle has provided translation and criticism. Both are important, but because he might get a ton of credit elsewhere for the translation among people that know much more about it and might from those same people get detailed lists of reasons he's wrong, I want to praise the criticism. Criticism of a text like this provides the general public with a notch, a starting point, a place of beginning in the face of something that is unfamiliar. It is the second most valuable part of this work, but hopefully as the translation becomes commonplace it will provide the greater long-term value of allowing us to find actual meaning in the language. Starting the conversation is always the hardest part, and Helle does so admirably. This is not to say that I don't disagree strongly with some of his analysis. I think it matters if Enheduana is the actual author or was attributed authorship centuries later, just as it matters if the Iliad or Odyssey came from a guy named Homer or from centuries of oral tradition. I think his analysis of the pilpili does not jive with his assertion about the purposes of lamentation in the ancient Near East. I think pointing out the fact that some refugees have found parallels between their emigration and Enheduana's exile does little except expose the gaps in reasoning that support those parallels (if Kipling had ever been forced to flee a city in India due to an uprising, THAT would be a parallel). And despite all those disagreements (and more) I think his criticism is worthy, not due only to his extensive study of the region and history and language but because it provides a sturdy point for normal people to push off of and into a shared cultural understanding of this author and work.
One of Helle's major ideas throughout the work, more implied than fleshed out, is that reacclimatizing ourselves to the reality of Enheduana is fundamentally a change in the history of literature. I would reply that this is not true... yet. The idea that literature really starts getting going when Homer comes on the scene is the product of centuries of educational practice starting in British public schools, and a single unconnected work by an author of older date does not undo that and could not undo that even if there was as much material from their hand as Homer's (or whoever actually wrote these things). Here we find the third leg that is missing from our engagement with Enheduana, and more broadly with the texts studied in Assyriology: the program of cultural engagement. Until literature students at college, and hopefully even high schoolers and middle schoolers, are consistently reading this poetry, we will not have a chance of rewriting anything. And the broader culture will not react to a single book, or even a series of books. For institutional consumption, the only thing that will do is institutional packaging. Enheduana cannot stand alone, or even just in conjunction with Hammurabi's code and Gilgamesh and the earlier temple hymns. There needs to be a corpus of Assyriology, much in the same way the Loeb series created an enduring corpus for Rome. One hopes that Helle will be able to add to this corpus piece by piece - maybe in another hundred years the story can really start to change.
Why do I believe this? I believe it because it is the duty of the academy, and more specifically those in the academy that study and provide critique of the works of others, to enable those conversations to happen more broadly. The typical reader does not necessarily care about the intricacies of disagreement among Assyriologists regarding the exact wordplay on display in these texts. What they do and should care about is the text itself, the implications about worship, authorship, and literature contained therein, and what it means to us. This requires at least three things - a translator, a critic, and a cultural program of engagement. Helle has the power to do the first two brilliantly (and has done so) and the rest is up to us.
Because reviews of books like this so often seem to focus on the scholarship or the translation rather than the text, a few words about the actual poems are in order. Because I have read just enough about ancient Mesopotamia to have the belief that Enheduana being a woman is not as great a deviation from gender norms as we might believe in the modern day, these hymns alternately resound and whimper with the fury of an empire temporarily displaced. I think it would be a mistake to apply current notions of anti-imperialism to an empire set four thousand plus years ago, but this for me is the primary driving force behind Enheduana's poetry. A flawed but instructive counterfactual would be to imagine the discovery that we'd been reading everything all wrong and that Enheduana in fact was a man - in my opinion these hymns would remain essentially unchanged.
The real value of these works in a literary sense, which I came to with an assist from Helle's essay on poetry, is their depiction of divine adoration and, more precisely, prayer. As is mentioned, these are not poems in the sense of Angelou, Keats, or Byron, but are specifically hymns, written to gods to incur their favor. I would go even further and compare them to prayer. Though placing the Christian idea of direct communion with divinity over a culture as stratified as this one is probably foolhardy, I'd support this idea in part with the winding nature of some of these poems, especially the longer ones. It calls to mind some of the longer prayers I've made in my personal faith, and it was giddying to see a reflection of that in the mind of an ancient priestess.
I mentioned earlier that Helle has provided translation and criticism. Both are important, but because he might get a ton of credit elsewhere for the translation among people that know much more about it and might from those same people get detailed lists of reasons he's wrong, I want to praise the criticism. Criticism of a text like this provides the general public with a notch, a starting point, a place of beginning in the face of something that is unfamiliar. It is the second most valuable part of this work, but hopefully as the translation becomes commonplace it will provide the greater long-term value of allowing us to find actual meaning in the language. Starting the conversation is always the hardest part, and Helle does so admirably. This is not to say that I don't disagree strongly with some of his analysis. I think it matters if Enheduana is the actual author or was attributed authorship centuries later, just as it matters if the Iliad or Odyssey came from a guy named Homer or from centuries of oral tradition. I think his analysis of the pilpili does not jive with his assertion about the purposes of lamentation in the ancient Near East. I think pointing out the fact that some refugees have found parallels between their emigration and Enheduana's exile does little except expose the gaps in reasoning that support those parallels (if Kipling had ever been forced to flee a city in India due to an uprising, THAT would be a parallel). And despite all those disagreements (and more) I think his criticism is worthy, not due only to his extensive study of the region and history and language but because it provides a sturdy point for normal people to push off of and into a shared cultural understanding of this author and work.
One of Helle's major ideas throughout the work, more implied than fleshed out, is that reacclimatizing ourselves to the reality of Enheduana is fundamentally a change in the history of literature. I would reply that this is not true... yet. The idea that literature really starts getting going when Homer comes on the scene is the product of centuries of educational practice starting in British public schools, and a single unconnected work by an author of older date does not undo that and could not undo that even if there was as much material from their hand as Homer's (or whoever actually wrote these things). Here we find the third leg that is missing from our engagement with Enheduana, and more broadly with the texts studied in Assyriology: the program of cultural engagement. Until literature students at college, and hopefully even high schoolers and middle schoolers, are consistently reading this poetry, we will not have a chance of rewriting anything. And the broader culture will not react to a single book, or even a series of books. For institutional consumption, the only thing that will do is institutional packaging. Enheduana cannot stand alone, or even just in conjunction with Hammurabi's code and Gilgamesh and the earlier temple hymns. There needs to be a corpus of Assyriology, much in the same way the Loeb series created an enduring corpus for Rome. One hopes that Helle will be able to add to this corpus piece by piece - maybe in another hundred years the story can really start to change.
November 17, 2023
Illuminates the many possible understandings not only of Enheduana but of authorship itself. I was delighted to see the line drawn between the poetry of Lal Ded and Enheduana. To see texts as living and worked by many hands, opens many posssibilities in understanding the past and how we create written art now.
I appreciated the balanced, reasoned approach of Sophus Helle in addressing the limits of what we know today. I hope there will be more discoveries of Enheduana's work to expand her known corpus.
I appreciated the balanced, reasoned approach of Sophus Helle in addressing the limits of what we know today. I hope there will be more discoveries of Enheduana's work to expand her known corpus.
October 15, 2023
Le poesie complete della sacerdotessa Enheduana, la prima autrice conosciuta al mondo, recentemente tradotte dall’originale sumerico. Enheduana fu un’alta sacerdotessa e principessa reale che visse a Ur, nell’attuale Iraq meridionale, intorno al 2300 a.C. Non solo Enheduana ha la particolarità di essere la prima autrice di cui conosciamo il nome, ma le poesie a lei attribuite sono inni di grande potenza. Sono un raro lampo della voce femminile nel mondo antico spesso dominato dagli uomini, trattando temi che sono rilevanti oggi come lo erano quattromila anni di esilio, disgregazione sociale, il potere della narrazione, identità di genere, la devastazione della guerra e le terrificanti forze della natura. Questo libro è la prima traduzione completa (in inglese) delle sue poesie dall’originale sumerico. Le traduzioni di Sophus Helle replicano l’intensità e le immagini degli inni originali, bombe a orologeria letterarie che sono rimaste sepolte per millenni. Oltre alle sue traduzioni, Helle fornisce informazioni sul contesto storico in cui le poesie di Enheduana furono composte e diffuse, la struttura letteraria ei temi delle opere e la loro ricezione sia nel mondo antico che in quello moderno. Ingiustamente dimenticate per millenni, le poesie di Enheduana sono una lettura essenziale per chiunque sia interessato alla storia letteraria delle donne, della religione, dell’ambiente, del genere, della maternità, della paternità e dell’impero. (Il libro)
Enheduana è la prima autrice conosciuta della storia. Fu una sacerdotessa sumera e i suoi componimenti poetici affrontano temi di conflitto e instabilità che risuonano anche nei nostri tempi incerti. Le sue opere includono inni e preghiere rivolte ai templi di Sumer e Akkad, come Eridu, Sippar ed Esnunna. Alcuni dei suoi componimenti più noti sono “L’inno a Inanna” e “Inninsagura”.
Enheduana è considerata una figura importante nella storia della letteratura e della poesia, e le sue opere sono state recentemente tradotte dall’originale sumero. La sua eredità poetica è un prezioso tesoro che ci permette di apprezzare la bellezza e la profondità delle sue parole anche oggi.
L’articolo che segue è stato scritto da uno studioso della Free University of Berlin e pubblicato sulla autorevole rivista digitale AEON, liberamente tradotta con l’aiuto di Google, in attesa di leggere il libro. Le traduzioni di Sophus Helle replicano l'intensità e l'immaginario delle poesie originali.
Il libro è stato pubblicato dalla Yale University Press ed è accompagnato da un sito Web, che include una traduzione letterale e un’analisi riga per riga del poema più noto di Enheduana, nonché collegamenti a ulteriori letture e risorse per saperne di più sul suo mondo.
Circa 4.200 anni fa, l’area che oggi chiamiamo Iraq meridionale fu scossa da rivolte. Le città stato sumere un tempo indipendenti erano state sottoposte a un unico governo dal leggendario re Sargon di Akkad.
Nel corso di quello che gli storici moderni chiamano il periodo antico accadico, il regno di Sargon e dei suoi successori rimodellò le città appena conquistate in innumerevoli modi: i vecchi nobili furono retrocessi e nuovi uomini portati al potere, i vecchi nemici furono sconfitti e nuovi standard di governo furono imposti.
Il mondo sumerico divenne molto più grande e ricco, ma anche più instabile. Il malcontento per il nuovo impero aumentò, provocando un flusso costante di rivolte mentre le città tentavano di riconquistare la loro indipendenza.
Una di queste rivolte è rappresentata in un affascinante poema noto come “L’esaltazione di Inana”. Oltre ad essere un capolavoro poetico a sé stante, “L’esaltazione” si distingue per essere la prima opera letteraria conosciuta che è stata attribuita a un autore che possiamo identificare nella documentazione storica, piuttosto che a una tradizione anonima o a un narratore immaginario . La narratrice del poema è Enheduana, l’alta sacerdotessa della città di Ur e figlia di Sargon. Secondo “The Exaltation”, fu gettata in esilio da una delle tante rivolte che afflissero l’antico impero accadico.
Non sappiamo con certezza se il poema sia stato scritto dalla stessa Enheduana storica, come rivisitazione letteraria di un evento reale, o da un poeta successivo che scrive a suo nome, nella versione antica di un romanzo storico che doveva celebrare il famosa alta sacerdotessa. Quello che sappiamo è che la poesia trasmette il senso di come sarebbe stato vivere un periodo di profonda turbolenza, sia come racconto personale che come eco conservata nella memoria culturale di epoche successive.
Questo è uno dei motivi per cui le opere attribuite a Enheduana — che, oltre a ‘L’Esaltazione’, comprendono altri quattro poemi, continuano a parlarci, millenni dopo la loro composizione. Mentre il mondo diventa sempre più instabile, abbiamo molto da imparare da questa antica sacerdotessa. Le poesie non si limitano a registrare la realtà di uno sconvolgimento storico, vanno un ulteriore passo avanti trasformando quell’instabilità in un’intuizione cosmica, un’occasione per riflettere su com’è veramente il mondo. Contengono, compresso nei loro versi spesso criptici, il germe di un’antica filosofia del cambiamento.
Se le poesie cercano di trasformare il cambiamento radicale da un fenomeno politico transitorio in un principio universale, lo fanno principalmente esaltando la dea Inana, meglio conosciuta con il suo nome babilonese e assiro Ishtar. Due dei poemi attribuiti a Enheduana, “L’esaltazione” e “L’inno a Inana”, cercano di elevare Inana al vertice del pantheon sumerico, eclissando gli antichi dei maschi, Enlil e An, che governano il cosmo secondo la maggior parte degli altri Testi sumerici.
Inana è spesso descritta come la divinità protettrice della guerra e dell’amore, e questo è probabilmente vero. Ma nelle poesie di Enheduana appare più precisamente come la dea del cambiamento. La distruzione della guerra e la passione dell’amore sono simili in quanto sono entrambe forze potenti che travolgono e trasformano le vite umane, ed è questo senso di spiazzamento che definisce Inana in tutte le sue manifestazioni. Per descrivere la forza di questo scuotimento, le poesie di Enheduana spesso richiamano metafore dal mondo naturale, come tempeste e animali selvatici. In “The Exaltation”, le viene detto:
Tu sei come
un’alluvione improvvisa che
sgorga lungo le
montagne …
Nel frattempo, “The Hymn” la descrive come un falco che piomba per nutrirsi di altri dei. Un’altra fonte comune di metafore in queste poesie è la guerra, ma questa non è la guerra come il parco giochi degli eroi che conosciamo dal genere epico. Per Enheduana, il campo di battaglia non è un luogo in cui gli uomini possono dimostrare la loro forza: gli umani appaiono nelle sue poesie non come agenti ma solo come vittime della guerra, come quando il poeta canta dei soldati che vengono portati via in catene
Mentre
il vento riempie il
piazze dove loro
hanno ballato…
La guerra è raffigurata come una forza impersonale alimentata dalla
spietata volontà di Inana:
i portelli schiacciano le teste,
le lance mangiano carne, e
gli assi sono inzuppati
di sangue …
Ma il selvaggio guerriero che riduce in polvere i teschi dei suoi nemici è solo uno dei personaggi di Inana. In altri testi, appare come una giovane ragazza innocente che si strugge per il suo amante, il dio pastore Dumuzi. Un’altra delle poesie attribuite a Enheduana si chiama “The Temple Hymns”, ed è una raccolta di 42 brevi odi agli dei, ai templi e alle città sumere. Qui troviamo due inni a Inana nella sua veste sensuale, come la dea del desiderio e del piacere corporeo, così come un inno a Inana nella sua veste di terrificante guerriera che “lava le sue armi per la battaglia”.
Questa scissione nella persona di Inana è chiaramente catturata nel pianeta che fungeva da suo segno nei cieli: Venere. Poiché è così vicino al Sole, Venere può essere vista dall’occhio umano solo poco prima dell’alba, quando sorge prima del Sole sull’orizzonte orientale, e al tramonto, quando indugia dietro al Sole sull’orizzonte occidentale. Non si può seguire il percorso del pianeta attraverso i cieli, solo osservarlo in queste due posizioni opposte: est e ovest, alba e tramonto. Quel senso di totale contraddizione è una perfetta metafora astronomica del carattere di Inana.
L’elogio inno di Inana è stato un luogo per riflettere sull’instabilità del periodo antico accadico per due motivi. Uno era politico. Inana era la divinità protettrice dell’impero di Sargon, quindi la devozione di Enheduana alla dea ha una chiara sfumatura politica: nell’elevare Inana, le poesie elevano anche implicitamente il regime imperiale che Inana si pensava sostenesse. L’altro ha a che fare con il carattere della dea. Proprio come Inana, il periodo antico accadico finì per essere associato nella cultura sumera e babilonese a continui sconvolgimenti e cambiamenti.
Non solo nelle poesie di Enheduana, ma attraverso una serie di altre fonti storiche, il periodo antico accadico è descritto come un periodo di leggende e drammi straordinari, non diversamente dal posto speciale occupato dalle incursioni vichinghe o dall’età d’oro della pirateria. nell’immaginario storico occidentale. Sargon e suo nipote Naram-Sîn, che salì al trono nel 2254 a.C. e portò l’impero al suo apice, furono ricordati per millenni come figure quasi mitiche: Sargon come esempio di potere, Naram-Sîn come despota arrogante che portò disastro sul suo popolo.
Queste raffigurazioni sono spesso respinte dagli storici moderni come la creazione di miti di periodi successivi, ma nessuno dubiterebbe che il periodo antico accadico sia stato un periodo di grandi cambiamenti. Dall’inizio del III millennio a.C., l’area che oggi è l’Iraq meridionale era stata punteggiata da dozzine di città-stato, ciascuna con la propria divinità locale, dialetto e amministrazione, e, sebbene le città facessero parte di una più ampia rete di commerci, conflitti e scambio culturale, sono rimasti staterelli separati.
Il re ha dovuto sopprimere nove rivolte in un solo anno. L’esercito di Sargon invase le città: Kish, Uruk, Eridu, Nippur, Larsa, Umma, Lagash, Girsu, Isin, Eshnunna, Sippar, Eresh e molte altre ancora. Nel secolo successivo, gli antichi re accadici lavorarono duramente per allineare le città, sopprimendo le differenze locali per stabilire uno standard amministrativo imperiale. I nobili che avevano governato le città per secoli furono sostituiti da nuove élite, tratte dall’esercito e spinte verso vette di potere precedentemente sconosciute.
Il mondo deve essersi sentito più grande che mai. I soldati delle pianure dell’Iraq si sono fatti strada nelle montagne della Turchia e dell’Iran, i commercianti hanno viaggiato fino all’Afghanistan per andare a prendere pietre preziose e l’arte del tempo mostra l’influenza degli stili egiziani. I porti di Ur avrebbero assistito all’arrivo di eccitanti merci esotiche come lapislazzuli, avorio, corniola, occhio di gatto, diaspro, diorite e serpentino.
E questi sono solo gli oggetti che sopravvivono nell’arca documentazione geologica. C’erano anche cibi, bevande, vestiti e profumi stranieri che i cittadini di Ur non avevano mai visto prima. L’afflusso di ricchezza e materiali a sua volta ha consentito importanti progressi nella tecnologia e nell’arte. L’esempio più noto di entrambi questi sviluppi è una statua in bronzo, tradizionalmente ritenuta raffigurante Sargon, che mostra vividamente la raffinatezza degli artisti di corte e l’abilità tecnica dei suoi fabbri.
Ai nuovi poteri piaceva particolarmente commissionare sigilli cilindrici, che erano usati come forma di identificazione personale, proprio come una firma oggi: si farebbe rotolare il proprio sigillo su un documento per firmarlo. Ma i sigilli divennero anche segni di prestigio, poiché i loro intricati motivi riflettevano lo status dei loro proprietari. Gli antichi scalpellini accadici furono spinti a soddisfare i loro nuovi mecenati: i sigilli di questo periodo sono minuscole, splendide opere di scultura.
Ma tutto questo potere, ricchezza ed espressione artistica era strettamente concentrato intorno alla corte del re. L’insoddisfazione tra le vecchie élite era enorme, come dimostrano le continue rivolte del periodo. Questa resistenza raggiunse il culmine sotto Naram-Sîn, in quella che è conosciuta come la Grande Rivolta, quando il re dovette sopprimere nove rivolte in un solo anno. Facendolo con successo, Naram-Sîn si dichiarò un dio vivente — il primo re nell’antica storia del Vicino Oriente a farlo. Non c’è da stupirsi, quindi, che si sia guadagnato una reputazione di arroganza. I poeti successivi capovolgeranno la sua affermazione: la storia delle sue nove vittorie divenne la storia delle sue nove sconfitte.
Anche il regno di Naram-Sîn dovette fare i conti con una minaccia più lenta, ma alla fine più mortale. Il clima stava cambiando. Per ragioni che rimangono poco chiare ai geologi, gran parte del mondo ha attraversato una grave siccità in questo periodo, in quello che è noto come “evento di 4,2 chilometri” (ovvero un evento di natura incerta che si è verificato 4.200 anni fa). Qualunque sia la sua causa esatta, la siccità colpì particolarmente duramente l’antico impero accadico, causando carestie e ondate migratorie.
Alla fine, lo stato in difficoltà non ce la fece più: sotto il figlio di Naram-Sîn, Shar-kali-sharri, l’antico impero accadico crollò, lasciando dietro di sé una complessa eredità di leggende e cambiamenti. È una metafora perfetta per il posto del periodo nella storia che, durante questo periodo, i segni della scrittura cuneiforme ruotassero di 90 gradi in senso antiorario, diventando più astratti e più facili da scrivere. Anche la scrittura ha subito la sua rivoluzione letterale.
Possiamo solo immaginare cosa provasse un fabbro medio di Ur o un pastore di Akkad riguardo all’ascesa e alla caduta dell’Antico Impero accadico. Anche per le élite, le loro vite sono il più delle volte catturate solo da brevi istantanee, come i sigilli cilindrici che attestano la loro esistenza e poco altro. Questo fa parte dell’intrigo che si aggrappa alle poesie di Enheduana. “L’esaltazione” sembra offrire un resoconto personale del dramma politico del periodo antico accadico, raccontato dalla stessa figlia dell’imperatore. Enheduana non fu tanto un testimone oculare dell’insurrezione quanto l’occhio del suo ciclone.
Tuttavia, dobbiamo tenere presente che la poesia è, nella migliore delle ipotesi, una rielaborazione letteraria di un’esperienza reale (se è stata scritta dalla stessa Enheduana), e nella peggiore una ricostruzione da parte di scrittori molto successivi di come potrebbe essere stata la ribellione ( se è stato scritto da altri a suo nome). La storia delle nove vittorie di Naram-Sîn che furono trasformate in nove sconfitte dai poeti successivi dovrebbe ricordarci che la memoria culturale non è una guida affidabile per ciò che è realmente accaduto.
Tuttavia, le poesie sono chiaramente una risposta letteraria al periodo antico accadico, scritte nel bel mezzo di esso o come una successiva meditazione sulla sua eredità e, come notato, quell’eredità è durata per secoli. Sargon e Naram-Sîn erano ancora molto vivi nella memoria babilonese quando la cultura cuneiforme si estinse negli ultimi secoli a.C. Sarebbe sufficiente per renderli una fonte affascinante per comprendere questo periodo turbolento, ma direi che “The Exaltation” e “The Hymn” continuano a fare della turbolenza che stanno descrivendo il fondamento di un tipo specifico di intuizione cosmica.
Il cambiamento, anche catastrofico, è stata un’occasione per vedere il mondo più chiaramente. Di fronte a un disturbo sociale, si può scegliere di sopprimerlo intellettualmente, spiegandolo come una momentanea aberrazione di un ordine mondiale stabile, oppure trasformarlo nel fondamento di una nuova visione del mondo. Credo che, nelle poesie di Enheduana, si veda la strategia successiva perseguita con sorprendente insistenza: “L’esaltazione” e “L’inno” sono dedicati a una dea che lei ritrae come:
… un furioso,
inondare precipitosamente
cje attraversa la
terra e lascia
niente dietro.
Nel fare questa affermazione, mi ispiro al mito della creazione dei Maya K’iche’, che fu messo per iscritto intorno all’anno 1550, sulla scia dell’arrivo dei colonizzatori europei che portarono le popolazioni indigene nel sull’orlo dell’annientamento. In Emergency (2022), il suo affascinante studio sul Popol Vuh, il poeta e critico letterario Edgar Garcia mostra che, piuttosto che offrire una resistenza o una condanna della violenza occidentale, il testo sembra fare qualcosa di molto più sottile: ripiega l’esperienza del colonialismo in un ritmo cosmico di crisi e creazione, di emergenze che portano all’emergere di nuove possibilità.
La cataclismica trasformazione che i popoli maya subirono durante il XVI secolo è quindi inserita in un principio universale di ripetizioni e interruzioni che, per quanto possiamo dedurre dal Popol Vuh, già strutturava la visione del mondo K’iche’. Il cambiamento, anche quello catastrofico, non era visto come una minaccia concettuale da superare, ma come un’occasione per vedere il mondo più chiaramente. E lo stesso vale per le poesie di Enheduana.
Nell’elevare Inana, “The Hymn” fa due punti. Il primo è che Inana controlla tutto ciò che la circonda. Ciò è trasmesso da tre miti che il poema trasmette in un formato in miniatura. Racconta di come Inana abbia distrutto Ebih, una montagna che non ha rispettato; di come ha terrorizzato il dio An facendogli condividere il suo tempio; e di come ha cambiato il genere dei suoi devoti rituali, trasformando gli uomini in donne e le donne in uomini. Le persone, gli dei, persino il paesaggio: tutti sono soggetti ai poteri di trasformazione di Inana.
Il secondo punto è che Inana non è soggetta ad alcun controllo se non il suo. Come sottolinea ripetutamente la poesia, nessun ordine può essere imposto alle sue azioni:
Lei capovolge ciò che
Lei ha finito; nessuno
può conoscere il suo corso. (cont.)
https://angallo.medium.com/enheduana-...
Enheduana è la prima autrice conosciuta della storia. Fu una sacerdotessa sumera e i suoi componimenti poetici affrontano temi di conflitto e instabilità che risuonano anche nei nostri tempi incerti. Le sue opere includono inni e preghiere rivolte ai templi di Sumer e Akkad, come Eridu, Sippar ed Esnunna. Alcuni dei suoi componimenti più noti sono “L’inno a Inanna” e “Inninsagura”.
Enheduana è considerata una figura importante nella storia della letteratura e della poesia, e le sue opere sono state recentemente tradotte dall’originale sumero. La sua eredità poetica è un prezioso tesoro che ci permette di apprezzare la bellezza e la profondità delle sue parole anche oggi.
L’articolo che segue è stato scritto da uno studioso della Free University of Berlin e pubblicato sulla autorevole rivista digitale AEON, liberamente tradotta con l’aiuto di Google, in attesa di leggere il libro. Le traduzioni di Sophus Helle replicano l'intensità e l'immaginario delle poesie originali.
Il libro è stato pubblicato dalla Yale University Press ed è accompagnato da un sito Web, che include una traduzione letterale e un’analisi riga per riga del poema più noto di Enheduana, nonché collegamenti a ulteriori letture e risorse per saperne di più sul suo mondo.
Circa 4.200 anni fa, l’area che oggi chiamiamo Iraq meridionale fu scossa da rivolte. Le città stato sumere un tempo indipendenti erano state sottoposte a un unico governo dal leggendario re Sargon di Akkad.
Nel corso di quello che gli storici moderni chiamano il periodo antico accadico, il regno di Sargon e dei suoi successori rimodellò le città appena conquistate in innumerevoli modi: i vecchi nobili furono retrocessi e nuovi uomini portati al potere, i vecchi nemici furono sconfitti e nuovi standard di governo furono imposti.
Il mondo sumerico divenne molto più grande e ricco, ma anche più instabile. Il malcontento per il nuovo impero aumentò, provocando un flusso costante di rivolte mentre le città tentavano di riconquistare la loro indipendenza.
Una di queste rivolte è rappresentata in un affascinante poema noto come “L’esaltazione di Inana”. Oltre ad essere un capolavoro poetico a sé stante, “L’esaltazione” si distingue per essere la prima opera letteraria conosciuta che è stata attribuita a un autore che possiamo identificare nella documentazione storica, piuttosto che a una tradizione anonima o a un narratore immaginario . La narratrice del poema è Enheduana, l’alta sacerdotessa della città di Ur e figlia di Sargon. Secondo “The Exaltation”, fu gettata in esilio da una delle tante rivolte che afflissero l’antico impero accadico.
Non sappiamo con certezza se il poema sia stato scritto dalla stessa Enheduana storica, come rivisitazione letteraria di un evento reale, o da un poeta successivo che scrive a suo nome, nella versione antica di un romanzo storico che doveva celebrare il famosa alta sacerdotessa. Quello che sappiamo è che la poesia trasmette il senso di come sarebbe stato vivere un periodo di profonda turbolenza, sia come racconto personale che come eco conservata nella memoria culturale di epoche successive.
Questo è uno dei motivi per cui le opere attribuite a Enheduana — che, oltre a ‘L’Esaltazione’, comprendono altri quattro poemi, continuano a parlarci, millenni dopo la loro composizione. Mentre il mondo diventa sempre più instabile, abbiamo molto da imparare da questa antica sacerdotessa. Le poesie non si limitano a registrare la realtà di uno sconvolgimento storico, vanno un ulteriore passo avanti trasformando quell’instabilità in un’intuizione cosmica, un’occasione per riflettere su com’è veramente il mondo. Contengono, compresso nei loro versi spesso criptici, il germe di un’antica filosofia del cambiamento.
Se le poesie cercano di trasformare il cambiamento radicale da un fenomeno politico transitorio in un principio universale, lo fanno principalmente esaltando la dea Inana, meglio conosciuta con il suo nome babilonese e assiro Ishtar. Due dei poemi attribuiti a Enheduana, “L’esaltazione” e “L’inno a Inana”, cercano di elevare Inana al vertice del pantheon sumerico, eclissando gli antichi dei maschi, Enlil e An, che governano il cosmo secondo la maggior parte degli altri Testi sumerici.
Inana è spesso descritta come la divinità protettrice della guerra e dell’amore, e questo è probabilmente vero. Ma nelle poesie di Enheduana appare più precisamente come la dea del cambiamento. La distruzione della guerra e la passione dell’amore sono simili in quanto sono entrambe forze potenti che travolgono e trasformano le vite umane, ed è questo senso di spiazzamento che definisce Inana in tutte le sue manifestazioni. Per descrivere la forza di questo scuotimento, le poesie di Enheduana spesso richiamano metafore dal mondo naturale, come tempeste e animali selvatici. In “The Exaltation”, le viene detto:
Tu sei come
un’alluvione improvvisa che
sgorga lungo le
montagne …
Nel frattempo, “The Hymn” la descrive come un falco che piomba per nutrirsi di altri dei. Un’altra fonte comune di metafore in queste poesie è la guerra, ma questa non è la guerra come il parco giochi degli eroi che conosciamo dal genere epico. Per Enheduana, il campo di battaglia non è un luogo in cui gli uomini possono dimostrare la loro forza: gli umani appaiono nelle sue poesie non come agenti ma solo come vittime della guerra, come quando il poeta canta dei soldati che vengono portati via in catene
Mentre
il vento riempie il
piazze dove loro
hanno ballato…
La guerra è raffigurata come una forza impersonale alimentata dalla
spietata volontà di Inana:
i portelli schiacciano le teste,
le lance mangiano carne, e
gli assi sono inzuppati
di sangue …
Ma il selvaggio guerriero che riduce in polvere i teschi dei suoi nemici è solo uno dei personaggi di Inana. In altri testi, appare come una giovane ragazza innocente che si strugge per il suo amante, il dio pastore Dumuzi. Un’altra delle poesie attribuite a Enheduana si chiama “The Temple Hymns”, ed è una raccolta di 42 brevi odi agli dei, ai templi e alle città sumere. Qui troviamo due inni a Inana nella sua veste sensuale, come la dea del desiderio e del piacere corporeo, così come un inno a Inana nella sua veste di terrificante guerriera che “lava le sue armi per la battaglia”.
Questa scissione nella persona di Inana è chiaramente catturata nel pianeta che fungeva da suo segno nei cieli: Venere. Poiché è così vicino al Sole, Venere può essere vista dall’occhio umano solo poco prima dell’alba, quando sorge prima del Sole sull’orizzonte orientale, e al tramonto, quando indugia dietro al Sole sull’orizzonte occidentale. Non si può seguire il percorso del pianeta attraverso i cieli, solo osservarlo in queste due posizioni opposte: est e ovest, alba e tramonto. Quel senso di totale contraddizione è una perfetta metafora astronomica del carattere di Inana.
L’elogio inno di Inana è stato un luogo per riflettere sull’instabilità del periodo antico accadico per due motivi. Uno era politico. Inana era la divinità protettrice dell’impero di Sargon, quindi la devozione di Enheduana alla dea ha una chiara sfumatura politica: nell’elevare Inana, le poesie elevano anche implicitamente il regime imperiale che Inana si pensava sostenesse. L’altro ha a che fare con il carattere della dea. Proprio come Inana, il periodo antico accadico finì per essere associato nella cultura sumera e babilonese a continui sconvolgimenti e cambiamenti.
Non solo nelle poesie di Enheduana, ma attraverso una serie di altre fonti storiche, il periodo antico accadico è descritto come un periodo di leggende e drammi straordinari, non diversamente dal posto speciale occupato dalle incursioni vichinghe o dall’età d’oro della pirateria. nell’immaginario storico occidentale. Sargon e suo nipote Naram-Sîn, che salì al trono nel 2254 a.C. e portò l’impero al suo apice, furono ricordati per millenni come figure quasi mitiche: Sargon come esempio di potere, Naram-Sîn come despota arrogante che portò disastro sul suo popolo.
Queste raffigurazioni sono spesso respinte dagli storici moderni come la creazione di miti di periodi successivi, ma nessuno dubiterebbe che il periodo antico accadico sia stato un periodo di grandi cambiamenti. Dall’inizio del III millennio a.C., l’area che oggi è l’Iraq meridionale era stata punteggiata da dozzine di città-stato, ciascuna con la propria divinità locale, dialetto e amministrazione, e, sebbene le città facessero parte di una più ampia rete di commerci, conflitti e scambio culturale, sono rimasti staterelli separati.
Il re ha dovuto sopprimere nove rivolte in un solo anno. L’esercito di Sargon invase le città: Kish, Uruk, Eridu, Nippur, Larsa, Umma, Lagash, Girsu, Isin, Eshnunna, Sippar, Eresh e molte altre ancora. Nel secolo successivo, gli antichi re accadici lavorarono duramente per allineare le città, sopprimendo le differenze locali per stabilire uno standard amministrativo imperiale. I nobili che avevano governato le città per secoli furono sostituiti da nuove élite, tratte dall’esercito e spinte verso vette di potere precedentemente sconosciute.
Il mondo deve essersi sentito più grande che mai. I soldati delle pianure dell’Iraq si sono fatti strada nelle montagne della Turchia e dell’Iran, i commercianti hanno viaggiato fino all’Afghanistan per andare a prendere pietre preziose e l’arte del tempo mostra l’influenza degli stili egiziani. I porti di Ur avrebbero assistito all’arrivo di eccitanti merci esotiche come lapislazzuli, avorio, corniola, occhio di gatto, diaspro, diorite e serpentino.
E questi sono solo gli oggetti che sopravvivono nell’arca documentazione geologica. C’erano anche cibi, bevande, vestiti e profumi stranieri che i cittadini di Ur non avevano mai visto prima. L’afflusso di ricchezza e materiali a sua volta ha consentito importanti progressi nella tecnologia e nell’arte. L’esempio più noto di entrambi questi sviluppi è una statua in bronzo, tradizionalmente ritenuta raffigurante Sargon, che mostra vividamente la raffinatezza degli artisti di corte e l’abilità tecnica dei suoi fabbri.
Ai nuovi poteri piaceva particolarmente commissionare sigilli cilindrici, che erano usati come forma di identificazione personale, proprio come una firma oggi: si farebbe rotolare il proprio sigillo su un documento per firmarlo. Ma i sigilli divennero anche segni di prestigio, poiché i loro intricati motivi riflettevano lo status dei loro proprietari. Gli antichi scalpellini accadici furono spinti a soddisfare i loro nuovi mecenati: i sigilli di questo periodo sono minuscole, splendide opere di scultura.
Ma tutto questo potere, ricchezza ed espressione artistica era strettamente concentrato intorno alla corte del re. L’insoddisfazione tra le vecchie élite era enorme, come dimostrano le continue rivolte del periodo. Questa resistenza raggiunse il culmine sotto Naram-Sîn, in quella che è conosciuta come la Grande Rivolta, quando il re dovette sopprimere nove rivolte in un solo anno. Facendolo con successo, Naram-Sîn si dichiarò un dio vivente — il primo re nell’antica storia del Vicino Oriente a farlo. Non c’è da stupirsi, quindi, che si sia guadagnato una reputazione di arroganza. I poeti successivi capovolgeranno la sua affermazione: la storia delle sue nove vittorie divenne la storia delle sue nove sconfitte.
Anche il regno di Naram-Sîn dovette fare i conti con una minaccia più lenta, ma alla fine più mortale. Il clima stava cambiando. Per ragioni che rimangono poco chiare ai geologi, gran parte del mondo ha attraversato una grave siccità in questo periodo, in quello che è noto come “evento di 4,2 chilometri” (ovvero un evento di natura incerta che si è verificato 4.200 anni fa). Qualunque sia la sua causa esatta, la siccità colpì particolarmente duramente l’antico impero accadico, causando carestie e ondate migratorie.
Alla fine, lo stato in difficoltà non ce la fece più: sotto il figlio di Naram-Sîn, Shar-kali-sharri, l’antico impero accadico crollò, lasciando dietro di sé una complessa eredità di leggende e cambiamenti. È una metafora perfetta per il posto del periodo nella storia che, durante questo periodo, i segni della scrittura cuneiforme ruotassero di 90 gradi in senso antiorario, diventando più astratti e più facili da scrivere. Anche la scrittura ha subito la sua rivoluzione letterale.
Possiamo solo immaginare cosa provasse un fabbro medio di Ur o un pastore di Akkad riguardo all’ascesa e alla caduta dell’Antico Impero accadico. Anche per le élite, le loro vite sono il più delle volte catturate solo da brevi istantanee, come i sigilli cilindrici che attestano la loro esistenza e poco altro. Questo fa parte dell’intrigo che si aggrappa alle poesie di Enheduana. “L’esaltazione” sembra offrire un resoconto personale del dramma politico del periodo antico accadico, raccontato dalla stessa figlia dell’imperatore. Enheduana non fu tanto un testimone oculare dell’insurrezione quanto l’occhio del suo ciclone.
Tuttavia, dobbiamo tenere presente che la poesia è, nella migliore delle ipotesi, una rielaborazione letteraria di un’esperienza reale (se è stata scritta dalla stessa Enheduana), e nella peggiore una ricostruzione da parte di scrittori molto successivi di come potrebbe essere stata la ribellione ( se è stato scritto da altri a suo nome). La storia delle nove vittorie di Naram-Sîn che furono trasformate in nove sconfitte dai poeti successivi dovrebbe ricordarci che la memoria culturale non è una guida affidabile per ciò che è realmente accaduto.
Tuttavia, le poesie sono chiaramente una risposta letteraria al periodo antico accadico, scritte nel bel mezzo di esso o come una successiva meditazione sulla sua eredità e, come notato, quell’eredità è durata per secoli. Sargon e Naram-Sîn erano ancora molto vivi nella memoria babilonese quando la cultura cuneiforme si estinse negli ultimi secoli a.C. Sarebbe sufficiente per renderli una fonte affascinante per comprendere questo periodo turbolento, ma direi che “The Exaltation” e “The Hymn” continuano a fare della turbolenza che stanno descrivendo il fondamento di un tipo specifico di intuizione cosmica.
Il cambiamento, anche catastrofico, è stata un’occasione per vedere il mondo più chiaramente. Di fronte a un disturbo sociale, si può scegliere di sopprimerlo intellettualmente, spiegandolo come una momentanea aberrazione di un ordine mondiale stabile, oppure trasformarlo nel fondamento di una nuova visione del mondo. Credo che, nelle poesie di Enheduana, si veda la strategia successiva perseguita con sorprendente insistenza: “L’esaltazione” e “L’inno” sono dedicati a una dea che lei ritrae come:
… un furioso,
inondare precipitosamente
cje attraversa la
terra e lascia
niente dietro.
Nel fare questa affermazione, mi ispiro al mito della creazione dei Maya K’iche’, che fu messo per iscritto intorno all’anno 1550, sulla scia dell’arrivo dei colonizzatori europei che portarono le popolazioni indigene nel sull’orlo dell’annientamento. In Emergency (2022), il suo affascinante studio sul Popol Vuh, il poeta e critico letterario Edgar Garcia mostra che, piuttosto che offrire una resistenza o una condanna della violenza occidentale, il testo sembra fare qualcosa di molto più sottile: ripiega l’esperienza del colonialismo in un ritmo cosmico di crisi e creazione, di emergenze che portano all’emergere di nuove possibilità.
La cataclismica trasformazione che i popoli maya subirono durante il XVI secolo è quindi inserita in un principio universale di ripetizioni e interruzioni che, per quanto possiamo dedurre dal Popol Vuh, già strutturava la visione del mondo K’iche’. Il cambiamento, anche quello catastrofico, non era visto come una minaccia concettuale da superare, ma come un’occasione per vedere il mondo più chiaramente. E lo stesso vale per le poesie di Enheduana.
Nell’elevare Inana, “The Hymn” fa due punti. Il primo è che Inana controlla tutto ciò che la circonda. Ciò è trasmesso da tre miti che il poema trasmette in un formato in miniatura. Racconta di come Inana abbia distrutto Ebih, una montagna che non ha rispettato; di come ha terrorizzato il dio An facendogli condividere il suo tempio; e di come ha cambiato il genere dei suoi devoti rituali, trasformando gli uomini in donne e le donne in uomini. Le persone, gli dei, persino il paesaggio: tutti sono soggetti ai poteri di trasformazione di Inana.
Il secondo punto è che Inana non è soggetta ad alcun controllo se non il suo. Come sottolinea ripetutamente la poesia, nessun ordine può essere imposto alle sue azioni:
Lei capovolge ciò che
Lei ha finito; nessuno
può conoscere il suo corso. (cont.)
https://angallo.medium.com/enheduana-...
December 22, 2024
Interesting in theory, and interesting essays, but religious poetry just isn't my thing.
January 1, 2025
It is hard to explain, perhaps awe would suffice, to be able to read the work of the first known author. The whole process of translation is an art, especially when language is symbolic form, lost languages etc.
Want to read
February 10, 2024
May 5, 2023
Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author, translated by Sophus Helle, provides a fascinating glimpse into the poetry of Enheduana, a Sumerian princess in ancient Mesopotamia. This remarkable woman lived around 2300 BCE. She was the daughter of Sargon of Akkad and served as the high priestess in the temple at Ur in southern Iraq. Included in this collection are Enheduana’s The Exaltation of Inanna, The Hymn to Inanna, The Temple Hymns, and a series of fragmentary hymns.
The world’s oldest known author lived in turbulent times. Enheduana’s father founded the first empire by uniting the neighboring city states under his rule. He installed his daughter as the high priestess of Ur, the largest city in the empire. Her position as high priestess of Ur’s largest temple endowed her with political and spiritual power. Opposition to Sargon from neighboring cities was immense. Leaders of the city states resented his rule and revolted at every opportunity. As part of the ruling family, Enheduana witnessed wars and tremendous upheaval.
Enheduana’s hymns are not hymns in the traditional sense. Their function was to enlist the help of fickle and unreliable gods in achieving specific goals. Enheduana focuses her hymns on the goddess Inanna. She lavishes Inanna with praise for her strength, acknowledges her ferocity, and pleads for her help in re-installing her in the temple at Ur after she had been unceremoniously ousted of her position by Lugul-Ane, a usurper who seized power in Ur.
Enheduana’s poetry is rich with imagery. She speaks in metaphors and similes, leaping from one image to the next. She is fluent and articulate. Her words are vibrant and pulsate with intensity and passion. The Exaltation to Inanna is particularly powerful as Enheduana bemoans her plight as an exile and tries to convince Inanna she has the power and the authority to come to her aid.
Just as he did in Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic, Sophus Helle has performed an outstanding service in translating, commenting, and interpreting the words of these very ancient poems of the world’s first known author. Helle breathes life into Enheduana’s words and times. He argues the concept of authorship was not as we know it today. Instead, it emerged from dialogue and collaboration as authors and singers created a text through an interplay of voices. He explores Enheduana’s influence and legacy. He delves into the discovery of the Enheduana tablets, attributing much of the credit of their discovery to Katherine Woolley and not to her husband, Leonard Woolley. Katherine was also instrumental in securing funding for the excavation that unearthed these treasures.
Helle’s insights are inspiring; his enthusiasm for the hymns and their author is infectious. He includes comprehensive notes on each of the hymns, an extensive bibliography, a glossary, and an index.
A remarkable piece of scholarship. Sophus Helle is to be applauded for providing an accessible translation and thought-provoking analysis of the eloquent and powerful poetry of the world’s first known author who just happens to be a woman. It is strangely wonderful to read her words coming to us from nearly 4,000 years ago.
Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
The world’s oldest known author lived in turbulent times. Enheduana’s father founded the first empire by uniting the neighboring city states under his rule. He installed his daughter as the high priestess of Ur, the largest city in the empire. Her position as high priestess of Ur’s largest temple endowed her with political and spiritual power. Opposition to Sargon from neighboring cities was immense. Leaders of the city states resented his rule and revolted at every opportunity. As part of the ruling family, Enheduana witnessed wars and tremendous upheaval.
Enheduana’s hymns are not hymns in the traditional sense. Their function was to enlist the help of fickle and unreliable gods in achieving specific goals. Enheduana focuses her hymns on the goddess Inanna. She lavishes Inanna with praise for her strength, acknowledges her ferocity, and pleads for her help in re-installing her in the temple at Ur after she had been unceremoniously ousted of her position by Lugul-Ane, a usurper who seized power in Ur.
Enheduana’s poetry is rich with imagery. She speaks in metaphors and similes, leaping from one image to the next. She is fluent and articulate. Her words are vibrant and pulsate with intensity and passion. The Exaltation to Inanna is particularly powerful as Enheduana bemoans her plight as an exile and tries to convince Inanna she has the power and the authority to come to her aid.
Just as he did in Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic, Sophus Helle has performed an outstanding service in translating, commenting, and interpreting the words of these very ancient poems of the world’s first known author. Helle breathes life into Enheduana’s words and times. He argues the concept of authorship was not as we know it today. Instead, it emerged from dialogue and collaboration as authors and singers created a text through an interplay of voices. He explores Enheduana’s influence and legacy. He delves into the discovery of the Enheduana tablets, attributing much of the credit of their discovery to Katherine Woolley and not to her husband, Leonard Woolley. Katherine was also instrumental in securing funding for the excavation that unearthed these treasures.
Helle’s insights are inspiring; his enthusiasm for the hymns and their author is infectious. He includes comprehensive notes on each of the hymns, an extensive bibliography, a glossary, and an index.
A remarkable piece of scholarship. Sophus Helle is to be applauded for providing an accessible translation and thought-provoking analysis of the eloquent and powerful poetry of the world’s first known author who just happens to be a woman. It is strangely wonderful to read her words coming to us from nearly 4,000 years ago.
Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
November 1, 2023
An enthusiastic and accessible work about the world's first named author, Enheduana, a high priestess in Ur during the reign of Sargon of Akkad. The translations of her poetry are vivid and clear, and the accompanying essays provide excellent context. That said, while this book isn't so scholarly as to render it a difficult read, it is scholarly enough that I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone without any familiarity with ancient Near Eastern history. (My couple of college classes in the subject gave me enough foundation to get by, but I still found a couple parts of the essays pretty boring.) It's a quick read though, engagingly written, and Helle is so damn excited about Enheduana that it's charming.
I also appreciated his three-pronged approach to the analysis of Enheduana's poetry and her place in the literary canon: her own contemporary milieu and the attendant sociopolitical context, how her work was preserved and received by later Babylonians, and how her work has been rediscovered and interpreted in contemporary times, by both scholars and Iraqi writers and poets.
As for Enheduana's poetry itself, there's something of the feel of literary pilgrimage in reading it. Like, the first known named author! And she's a woman! Reading her poetry in translation, thousands of years after she wrote it, feels like keeping her alive and respecting her place in the literary canon of humankind. (Of course, caveat that she may not have been the actual author, that authorship as a concept is actually complex, etc etc, all stuff that Helle discusses in his essays.)
Highly recommended if you have any interest in the subject!
[2023 READING CHALLENGE: CHAMPAGNE! because I think the first named author in history counts as the first person to do a thing.]
I also appreciated his three-pronged approach to the analysis of Enheduana's poetry and her place in the literary canon: her own contemporary milieu and the attendant sociopolitical context, how her work was preserved and received by later Babylonians, and how her work has been rediscovered and interpreted in contemporary times, by both scholars and Iraqi writers and poets.
As for Enheduana's poetry itself, there's something of the feel of literary pilgrimage in reading it. Like, the first known named author! And she's a woman! Reading her poetry in translation, thousands of years after she wrote it, feels like keeping her alive and respecting her place in the literary canon of humankind. (Of course, caveat that she may not have been the actual author, that authorship as a concept is actually complex, etc etc, all stuff that Helle discusses in his essays.)
Highly recommended if you have any interest in the subject!
[2023 READING CHALLENGE: CHAMPAGNE! because I think the first named author in history counts as the first person to do a thing.]
October 6, 2023
I am currently reading and rereading tracts about early Sumer and Babylon, trying to get a better understanding of and placement for the re-emergence of the goddess from Neolithic times (e.g. seated woman of Cataloyuk/woman of the mountain/woman seated w her hands atop the heads of lionesses) into the lore of the people.
It is my viewpoint that everything thereafter is a rehashing of the stories, this includes Egyptian gods and goddesses. I am looking for the priomordial goddess.
Who knew that there was poetess before Sappho? Here is another buried volume of history. Helle is not the first to write of Enheduana, but I wanted to read what a 'woke' man could write and hopefully by reading a translation of a modern-day man, words like "lord" would be avoided. I found this to be a satisfying introduction to Enheduana with depth and respect.
I will be following this up with Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess by Meador and Grahn, an analysis of Ianna from the perspective of Enheduana. These authors are women.
It is my viewpoint that everything thereafter is a rehashing of the stories, this includes Egyptian gods and goddesses. I am looking for the priomordial goddess.
Who knew that there was poetess before Sappho? Here is another buried volume of history. Helle is not the first to write of Enheduana, but I wanted to read what a 'woke' man could write and hopefully by reading a translation of a modern-day man, words like "lord" would be avoided. I found this to be a satisfying introduction to Enheduana with depth and respect.
I will be following this up with Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart : Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess by Meador and Grahn, an analysis of Ianna from the perspective of Enheduana. These authors are women.
January 12, 2024
4,5 stars
“What would the history of Western literature look like if it began not with Homer and his war-hungry heroes but with a woman from ancient Iraq, who sang her hymns to the goddess of chaos and change?”
There is something undeniably powerful about reading the words of a woman who lived over 4000 years ago.
Enheduana is the oldest known author whose name we know, and her poetry offers a glimpse into a world that feels genuinely alien.
Also, like... how could you possibly read something like this and not think it's the most metal thing you've ever seen?
"Let them know that you grind skulls to dust.
Let them know that you eat corpses like a lion."
I will say that the temple hymns are incredibly formulaic and repetitious, and with the exception of The Exaltation of Inana, most of the surviving work is fragmented, sometimes missing massive chunks of text, but I still think it's well worth a read, especially for anyone interested in ancient literature.
The hymns are accompanied by a collection of essays that provide some much needed context into Enheduana's world and the legacy of her work.
“What would the history of Western literature look like if it began not with Homer and his war-hungry heroes but with a woman from ancient Iraq, who sang her hymns to the goddess of chaos and change?”
There is something undeniably powerful about reading the words of a woman who lived over 4000 years ago.
Enheduana is the oldest known author whose name we know, and her poetry offers a glimpse into a world that feels genuinely alien.
Also, like... how could you possibly read something like this and not think it's the most metal thing you've ever seen?
"Let them know that you grind skulls to dust.
Let them know that you eat corpses like a lion."
I will say that the temple hymns are incredibly formulaic and repetitious, and with the exception of The Exaltation of Inana, most of the surviving work is fragmented, sometimes missing massive chunks of text, but I still think it's well worth a read, especially for anyone interested in ancient literature.
The hymns are accompanied by a collection of essays that provide some much needed context into Enheduana's world and the legacy of her work.
December 22, 2023
Now this was an excellent read! For me, a complete know-nothing regarding ancient Sumeria, the book was the perfect balance of engaging analysis, basic explanation, and historical context alongside the translations themselves. Those I cannot judge except to say that they worked wonderfully for me as poetry, and I appreciated Helle's careful, but not obtrusive, explanations of Enheduana's craft when it was inevitably diluted during the translation process. The full collection was engaging in all its parts, notably the essay about the concept of authorship and how it relates to the historical Enheduana and the "voice" of the poems. I also expect that if I had cared to do so, I could have derived a robust elementary reading list from Helle's references. A great surprise hit.
September 16, 2024
This is an excellent translation of what I can only imagine is a complicated text. The accompanying essays do a great job of describing the historical context; the nuances of the archaeology that allow us to understand that historical context; and later social contexts in which the book was read. Though there is some discussion of the poems' reception in the literary theory community, the author is careful to ensure these interpretations are not seen as prescriptive, but rather as one of many ways to read the poem that comes from a very different time and place, with much of its history shrouded in mystery.
Glad I read this book, and I know a little bit more about this woman who died a very long time ago.
Glad I read this book, and I know a little bit more about this woman who died a very long time ago.
August 25, 2024
Enheduana was the first named poet. I love how her writings describe a world that seems so impossibly distant from modern western culture yet the devotion with which she writes translates across language and culture. That is what makes her so interesting. I find it easier to connect to the poems knowing the author's name. It cuts through the centuries and brings the ancient to the modern. Sophus' translation smoothly facilitates this with explanation behind his choice in translation and giving relevant cultural context. Overall he brings a time so ancient that it might as well be alien accessible to a modern audience
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