The Exaltation of Inanna is a hymn that was composed by high priestess Enheduanna in Ur around 2300 BCE and it is considered her most prominent written work. It was preserved in cuneiform tablets through the ages and has been reprinted many times in books, journals, and writings about the history of Enheduanna.
It features Enheduanna's devotion to the goddess, Inanna, as well her perception of Inanna as loving, powerful, and warlike. She also expresses a sense of anger and betrayal. In this hymn, she reveals a difficult period in which she is banished from the temples of Ur and Uruk, and she seeks to compel Inanna and the moon god, Nanna, to help return her to her temple position.
This work came many centuries before some of the most famous ancient written works and it is still widely read and studied.
Joe Janes, a professor at the University of Washington, notes that the Exaltation is 700 years older than the Egyptian Book of the Dead, more than 1,000 years older than the I Ching, and 1,500 years older than the "Odyssey," the "Iliad" and the Hebrew Bible.
It is a 153-line hymn and often had to be written on several cuneiform tablets.
It is sometimes referred to as the "Lady of All Divine Powers." It begins like this:
"Lady of all the divine powers, resplendent light, righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved of An and Urac! Mistress of heaven, with the great pectoral jewels, who loves the good headdress befitting the office of en priestess, who has seized all seven of its divine powers! My lady, you are the guardian of the great divine powers! You have taken up the divine powers, you have hung the divine powers from your hand. You have gathered up the divine powers, you have clasped the divine powers to your breast... "
Excerpts of this hymn have been shared through this exhibit. On the next few pages, you can view a line-by-line version of one translation of this work from, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. It is provided by The University of Oxford Library.
This database provides invaluable translations, including The Exaltation of Inanna, Enheduanna's most studied work. It offers an almost line-by-line look at this work and also offers different translations in one place. It may use one word and add that in another text it is expressed as a different word. It is a helpful guide to what Enheduanna was trying to express.