Book Review:

Inanna Lady of the Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna

By: Betty De Shong Meador

Get it here on Amazon.

This book is listed as Poetry, Women’s Studies, Mythology, and Ancient History. I want to add that is part of the LGBT community as well, but won’t give anything away.

 This book covers the life and events of this the world’s first (at this time) writer who is female and her name/title is Enheduanna from Ancient Mesopotamia. This is just one of many enlightening works by Meador that I plan to read more by her. This text does a fantastic job of covering the little known life and work of the High Priestess and Poetess Enheduanna appointed by her father Sargon of Akkad.

The Akkadian Enheduanna had the task of High Priestess to the Moon God Sin but she was most devoted to the Goddess Inanna. This book covers the pertinent information on past religious cultures on Goddess, influenced the religion and culture of Mesopotamia. The evolution of symbols to pictographs to final the Cuneiform writing system and how it was used in the record keeping for this society.

The artistic evidence is very special as the alabaster disk found depicted the story of Edhunnaha in one object and enough of the text on the back survives to name her as the high priestess depicted on the front mid ritual.

Her poems capture not only the dramatic ups and downs of the Goddess Inanna’s journey, but that of Edhunnaha as well. The last poem in the book is about Enheduanna’s own life and her fight against the patriarchy. I will not spoil the ending. A must-read for men, women, LGBT and writers, poetess and poets alike.