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En-Hedu-Ana
The Akkadian poet En-Hedu-Ana (2285-2250 BCE) is the world’s first author we know by name and the daughter of king Sargon of Akkad (Sargon the Great, 2334-2279 BCE).
Her name means ‘Beautiful Priestess of heaven’, where ‘En’ means ‘Chief Priest or Priestess’, ‘hedu’ was the word for ‘ornament’ and ‘Ana’ means ‘of Heaven’.
From the records the historians found, it is clear that Sargon placed enormous trust in En-Hedu-Ana as he raised her to the title of the high priestess in the most important temple in Sumer (in the city of Ur). The king entrusted his daughter with the great responsibility of merging the Sumerian gods with the Akkadian ones, which created the stability his empire needed to thrive. She had an impressive influence on the ancient world of Sumer, and she left an extraordinary literary legacy.
Standing female worshiper - Limestone inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli
Southern Mesopotamia, excavated at Nippur, Innana Temple,
Early Dynastic IIIA, 2600-2500 BC, Metropolitan Museum
Tablets inscribed with “The Exaltation of Inanna” in three parts Mesopotamia, possibly Larsa (modern Tell Senkereh) Old Babylonian period (ca. 1,750 B.C.E.). Photo by Klaus Wagensonner, courtesy of the Yale Babylonian Collection.
En-hedu-anna,
Disk of the daughter of Sargon Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), gipar Akkadian period (ca. 2,300 B.C.E.).
Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
En-Hedu-Ana not only exceeded those expectations but changed the entire culture. Through her written works, she changed the very nature of the Mesopotamian gods and the people’s perception of the divine.
Part of the charm of En-Hedu-Ana’s work is her open sensuality and ardent devotion. She wrote three powerful hymns to the goddess Inanna. The most famous is ‘The Great-Hearted Mistress’ (sometimes simply translated as ‘A Hymn to Inanna’). In this, she tells the story of how her title as a high priestess was taken from her and cast into exile. She pleads for help to Inanna, requesting the goddess to petition the god An for help.
En-Hedu-Ana created the paradigms of poetry, psalms, and prayers used throughout the ancient world, and we can recognize them in the development of the genres even in the present days. “Her compositions, though only rediscovered in modern times, remained models of petitionary prayer for centuries. Through the Babylonians, they influenced and inspired the prayers and psalms of the Hebrew Bible and the Homeric hymns of Greece. Through them, faint echoes of En-Hedu-Ana, the first named literary author in history, can even be heard in the hymnody of the early Christian church.” - Scholar Paul Kriwaczek.
En-Hedu-Ana wrote forty-two poems, reflecting her frustrations, hopes, and religious devotion. She wrote beautifully about her opinion on war and her feelings about her world.
“We don’t have any texts from her own time, but Enheduanna’s work was considered so important that it was one of the 10 works that were taught in all scribal schools for hundreds of years after her lifetime,” Babcock said. “So, her writings survived in copies.”
Sidney Babcock, curator, head of the Morgan’s department for ancient Western Asian seals and tablets.
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Enlil
Akkadian cylinder seal dating to c. 2300 BC, depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud
Enlil, Mesopotamian god of Air
Enlil (also known as Ellil and Nunamnir) was the Sumerian god of the air in Mesopotamia. While he was more powerful than any other elemental deities, he eventually was worshipped as King of the Gods.
Although his name translates as ‘Lord of Air,’ he was considered much more than a sky god.
In some inscriptions, the Sumerians referred to him as ‘Father of the Black-headed People’ and ‘Father of the Gods’. But other ancient texts make clear that Enlil created human beings, and the gods were born of Anu and Uras (Heaven and Earth). According to the Babylonian Enuma Elish, the gods were born from Apsu and Tiamat (Fresh and Salt Water) or their children Anshar and Kishar (also Heaven and Earth).
​Enlil was depicted as a man with a long beard and a horned cap featuring seven ox horns. This headdress was a symbol of divinity in Mesopotamia as various gods wore it since the third millennium BC., and its form and meaning remained consistent throughout the Sumerian prehistory until the Persian Empire’s conquest.
Enlil, as the god of weather, was responsible for the Great Flood, destroying every human on Earth except for the family of Atrahasis. He frequently appeared on ancient Mesopotamian tablets of Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, and Canaanite origins.
Erakhtan
Erakhtan was a Babylonian mercenary soldier in the lines of the Dark Brotherhood at the times of Kadashaman Enlil I.
Ereshkigal
The "Queen of Night Relief", which dates to the Old Babylonian Period and might represent either Ereshkigal or Ishtar
Ereshkigal (also known as Irkalla and Allatu) is the Mesopotamian Queen of the Dead who rules the underworld. Her name translates as ‘Queen of the Great Below’ or ‘Lady of the Great Place’.
Inanna was Ereshkigal’s sister, and in the myths, mutual hatred was between the two goddesses. Ereshkigal ruled the dead, constantly on the watch for lawbreakers and murderers who broke her rule by taking a human’s life instead of her. Her servant was Namtar (Death), the evil demon. She was evoked in magical ceremonies, liberating the sick possessed of evil spirits.
Her cult extended to Asia Minor, Egypt, and southern Arabia. In Mesopotamia, the main temple dedicated to her was at Cuthah.
Eye of Ra
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The ‘Eye of Ra’ was a creature in ancient Egyptian mythology. It was the feminine counterpart to the sun god Ra and a violent force that conquered his enemies. Although the ‘Eye’ carries Ra’s power, equated with the sun disk, it still behaves as an independent entity, which was personified by a wide variety of Egyptian goddesses, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Wadjet, and Mut. The ‘Eye of Ra’ goddess in respective legends acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. The goddess’ violent aspect defends Ra against the enemies fighting for disorder and threatening his rule. This dangerous aspect of the goddess that bears the title of the ‘Eye of Ra’ is often represented by a lioness or the uraeus (a cobra), the ultimate symbol of protection and royal authority.
The life-giving power of the ‘Eye of Ra’ was celebrated in temple rituals, and its dangerous aspect was invoked in the protection of the pharaoh, sacred places, and ordinary people and their homes.
The ‘Eye’ represented in amulets could repel all negative energy and restore harmony. That’s why the pharaohs used them to defend themselves against any element or enemy that tried to destabilize their government.