Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna [Paperback]

A book of delightful discovery where the past meets the present in the writings of a Priestess who is the first published poet her work having been revealed through the remarkable translation of De Shong Meador. A book that takes you to an ancient mysterious world that is changing beyond recognition for those living within it and yet deals with issues that we all experience in our lives today. De Shong Meador reveals a divinity who spans all of human emotion and experience and who "smashes the mountain" of our prejudice to bare open the feminine in all of her aspects whether dark or light. In discovering Enheduanna's Goddess we can discover our full nature as women without the sanitised version that has been presented for the past milennium.

An interesting look at the works of the High Priestess to the moon god Nana, Enheduanna.

Some of the poems/hymns are quite stunning in there imagery, `Lady of the Largest Heart' itself for example, others not so. The book covers Enheduanna and her times in some depth and relates most strongly to Inanna (later known as Ishtar I believe), as you would expect. What grates is the constant pushing of a feminist agenda. I have no problem with that per se it's the way it's done that I find gets in the way of the poems to the extent that one stops looking at them and starts looking for the next `feminist dig'. Pity, because as I say the poems/hymns and the exploration of Enheduanna is very good indeed.

Enheduanna's poetry remains fantastic, however this book is let down greatly by De Shong Meador's shoddy interpretation of archaeological evidence. She is not an archaeologist and it shows. Some of her interpretations and assertions are directly contradicted by archaeological sources and textual evidence. For example she infers that Enheduanna's poetry was perhaps a rebellion against a male dominated society, and whilst I certainly agree Sumerian/Akkadian society was male dominated, her poetry was in fact commissioned by her father King Sargon (who appointed her to the position of En Priestess) and the only copies we have are much later copies found in official archives. All these things which indicate that her work was not seen as rebellious by the state (if anything, as a high ranking religious official and member of the royal family, she was the 'establishment') as anything deemed 'dangerous' in anyway would not have been preserved in archives for so long, indeed copies of her work was archived alongside the letters of kings indicating the high esteem in which her work was held by the establishment. It is when statement susch as this are presented as 'fact' in a book pertaining to be at least vaugely academic that I just cannot overlook them. Van Djik and Halo's translation of 'The Exaltation of Inanna' is a much better book with an academic translation of one of Enheduanna's finest works and a good summary of the evidence about her life.

These niggles would not be such a problem if a large section of the book was not devoted to an exploration of Enheduana's life and times. It is an interesting book and one of the few accessible, books containing English translations of her work, however I cannot overlook the bad scholarship and imposition of modern ideals of rebellion and feminist ideas on such ancient works. De Shong Meador treats these poems as if they were the inner confessions of Enheduanna, some sort of private heartfelt cries; and whilst her personality is undoubtedly imprinted upon them they were essentially public works, created in a society that did not have a tradition of poetry or the same conceptions of artistic expression as intimate soul bearing confession.

In asserting that Enheduanna's worship of Inanna was borne out of some sort of rebellion against her male superiors De Shong Meador ignores the fact that King Sargon, Enheduanna's father, also had a close relationship with the goddess Inanna and credited her with helping him rise to the throne, something which is mentioned in ancient sources. Additionally it was not uncommon or frowned upon for religious officials in the cult of one deity to worship another, this was a polytheistic society with room for a whole pantheon of gods.

A much as I love the idea of a rebel feminist heroine, this is a fiction of De Shong Meador's. I adore Enheduanna, she was a great mind and great poet but we cannot impose modern ideology onto her work and what little we know of her personality. I adore Inanna and find her a fascinating goddess and she offers insight into Sumerian views on femininity and womanhood, however she was a mainstream, establishment goddess worshipped by both genders. To impose our modern, somewhat romanticised, views upon a society so very distant culturally, linguistically and chronologically from our own is foolish.

It is a glaring oversights and omissions like this which spoil the book and leave it an unreliable account of Enheduanna's life and the religious position she held and helped shape into a powerful role that would last for centuries. This is a missed opportunity to explore, properly, the life of a fascinating woman and great poet.