Who was the world's first author? - Soraya Field Fiorio

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4,300 years ago in ancient Sumer, the most powerful person in the city of Ur was banished to wander the vast desert. Her name was Enheduanna, and by the time of her exile, she had written forty-two hymns and three epic poems— and Sumer hadn't heard the last of her. Who was this woman, and why was she exiled? Soraya Field Fiorio details the life of history's first author.

Lesson by Soraya Field Fiorio, directed by Laura White.

4,300 years ago
in ancient Sumer,

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

Her name was Enheduanna.

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

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

and Sumer hadn’t heard the last of her.

Enheduanna lived 1,700 years
before Sappho,

1,500 years before Homer,

and about 500 years before
the biblical patriarch Abraham.

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

and the birthplace of the first cities
and high cultures.

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

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

Sargon was a northern Semite
who spoke Akkadian,

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

They frequently revolted to regain
their independence,

fracturing his new dynasty.

To bridge the gap between cultures,

Sargon appointed his only daughter,
Enheduanna, as high priestess

in the empire’s most important temple.

Female royalty traditionally
served religious roles,

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

and make mathematical calculations.

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

allowing merchants to communicate
over long distances with traders abroad.

Their pictogram system of record keeping
developed into a script

about 300 years
before Enheduanna’s birth.

This early writing style,
called cuneiform,

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

But until Enheduanna,

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

rather than original works attributable
to individual writers.

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

multi-storied brick homes, granaries,
and irrigation.

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

oversaw hundreds of temple workers,
interpreted sacred dreams,

and presided over the monthly
new moon festival

and rituals celebrating the equinoxes.

Enheduanna set about unifying
the older Sumerian culture

with the newer Akkadian civilization.

To accomplish this,
she wrote 42 religious hymns

that combined both mythologies.

Each Mesopotamian city
was ruled by a patron deity,

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

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

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

In her writing,
she humanized the once aloof gods—

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

Enheduanna’s most valuable
literary contribution

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

the divinely chaotic energy
that gives spark to the universe.

Inanna delighted in all forms
of sexual expression

and was considered so powerful that
she transcended gender boundaries,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and the general exiled her from Ur.

Her nephew,
the legendary Sumerian king Naram-Sin,

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

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

After her death,
she became a minor deity,

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

for over 500 years.

Her poems influenced
the Hebrew Old Testament,

the epics of Homer, and Christian hymns.

Today, Enheduanna’s legacy still exists,

on clay tablets that have
stood the test of time.