B Mankind's earliest known religious hymnal prayer:
Hymnal Prayer of Enheduanna
(The first known High Priestess of a Goddess)
The Adoration of Inanna
[2320 Before Common Era]
Queen of all the divine powers, Radiant Light,
Life-giving Woman, beloved of An and Urash,
Hierodule of An, much bejewelled,
Who loves the life-giving tiara, fit for high-priestess -ship,
Who grasps in her hand, the seven divine powers,
My Queen, you who are the Guardian of All the Great divine powers,
You have lifted the divine powers, have tied the me to Your hands,
Have gathered the divine powers, pressed the divine powers to Your breast.
You have filled the land with venom, like a dragon.
Vegetation ceases, when You thunder like Ishkur,
You who bring down the Flood from the mountain,
Supreme One, who are the Inanna of Heaven and Earth,
Who rain flaming fire over the land,
Who have been given the divine powers by An,
Queen Who Rides the Beasts,
Who at the holy command of An, utters the divine words,
Who can fathom Your great rites!
Destroyer of the Foreign Lands,
You have given wings to the storm,
Beloved of Enlil - You made the storm blow over the land,
You carried out the instructions of An.
My Queen,
the foreign lands cower at Your cry,
In dread and fear of the South Wind, mankind
Brought You their anguished clamour,
Took before You their anguished outcry
Opened before You wailing and weeping,
Brought before You the "great" lamentations in the city streets.
In the van of battle, everything was struck down before You,
My Queen,
You are all devouring in Your power,
You kept on attacking like an attacking storm,
Kept on blowing louder than the howling storm,
Kept on thundering louder than Ishkur,
Kept on moaning louder than the evil winds,
Your feet grew not weary,
You caused wailing to be uttered on the "lyre of lament."
My Queen,
all the Anunna, the great gods,
Fled before You like fluttering bats,
Could not stand before Your awesome face,
Could not approach Your awesome forehead.
Who can soothe Your angry heart!
Your baleful heart is beyond soothing!
Queen, Happy of demeanour, Joyful of Heart,
But whose anger cannot be soothed, daughter of Sin,
Queen, Paramount in the Land,
Who has ever paid You enough homage!
The mountainous ones who kept the souls
from paying homage to You vegetation became "taboo" for it,
You burnt down its great gates,
Its rivers ran with blood because of You,
its people had nothing to drink,
Its troops were led off willingly into captivity before You,
Its forces disbanded themselves willingly before You,
Its strong men paraded willingly before You,
The amusement places of its cities were filled with turbulence,
Its adult males were driven off as captives before You.
Against the city that would not sat "Yours is the land,'
That said not "It belongs to the father An who begot you,"
You promised Your Holy Word, turned away from it,
Kept Your distance from its womb,
Its woman spoke not of love with her husband,
In the deep night she whispered not tenderly with him,
Revealed not to him the "Holiness" of Her heart.
Rampant Wild Cow, elder daughter of Sin,
Queen, greater than An,
who has ever paid You enough homage!
You who in accordance with the life giving divine powers,
Great Queen of Queens,
Have become greater than Your mother who gave birth to you,
as soon as you came forth from the Holy Womb,
Knowing, Wise, Queen of All the Lands,
Who multiplies all living creatures and peoples -I have uttered Your Holy song.
life-giving Goddess, fit for the divine powers,
whose acclamation is exalted,
Merciful, Live-Giving Woman, Radiant of Heart,
I have uttered it before You in accordance with the divine powers.
I have entered before You in my holy raiment,
I the High Priestess, Enheduanna,
Carrying the sacrificial-basket, I uttered a joyous chant,
But now I no longer dwell in the goodly place You established.
Came the day, the sun scorched me
Came the shade of night, the South Wind overwhelmed me,
My honey-sweet voice has become strident,
Whatever gave me pleasure has turned into dust.
Oh Sin, King of Heaven, my bitter fate,
To An declare, An will deliver me,
Pray declare it to An, he will deliver me.
The kingship of heaven has been seized by Inanna,
At whose feet lies the flood-land.
That woman Inanna so exalted,
who has made me tremble together the entire city,
Stay Her, let Her heart be soothed by me.
I, Enheduanna will offer supplications to Her,
My tears, like sweet drinks.
Will I proffer to the Holy Inanna, I will greet Her in peace,
Let not Ashimbabbar (Sin) be troubled.
She Inanna has changed altogether the rites of Holy An,
Has seized the House of Heaven from An,
Feared not the great An,
That house the House of Heaven whose charm was irresistible,
whose allure was unending,
That house She has turned over to destruction,
Her anger that She brought there has destroyed it
My Wild Cow Inanna assaults there its men, makes them captive.
I, what am I among the living creatures!
May An give over to punishment
the rebellious lands that hate you Inanna,
May An split its cities asunder,
May Enlil curse it,
May not its tear-destined child be soothed by her mother,
Oh, Queen who established lamentations,
Your "boat of lamentations," has landed in an inimical land,
There will I die, while singing the holy song.
As for me, my Inanna watched not over me,
I have been attacked most cruelly.
Ashimbabbar has not spoken my verdict.
But what matter, whether he spoke it or not!
I, accustomed to triumph, have been driven forth from my house,
Was forced to flee the nest like a swallow, my life is devoured,
Was made to walk among the mountain thorns,
The life-giving tiara of Priestess -ship was taken from me,
Eunuchs were assigned to me "These are becoming to you," it was told me.
Dearest Queen, Beloved of An,
Let your Holy heart, the Noble, return to me,
Great Queen of the Horizon and the Zenith,
The Anunna have prostrated themselves before you.
Although at birth You were the younger sister,
How much greater You have become than the Anunna,
the Great Gods!
The Anunna kiss the ground before You.
It is not my verdict that has been completed,
it is a strange verdict that has been turned into my verdict,
The fruitful bed has been abolished,
So that I have not interpreted to man the commands of Ningal.
For me, the Radiant high-priestess of Inanna,
May your heart be soothed, You who are the Queen beloved of An.
"You are known, You are known" it is not of Nanna that I have recited it,
it is of You that I have recited it.
You are known by Your heaven-like height,
You are known by Your earth-like breadth,
You are known by Your destruction of rebel-lands,
You are known by Your massacre of their people,
You are known by Your devouring of their dead,
You are known by Your fierce countenance.
You are known by the raising of Your fierce countenance,
You are known by Your flashing eyes.
You are known by Your contentiousness and disobedience,
You are known by Your many triumphs" -It is not of Nanna that I have recited it,
it is of You that I have recited it.
My Queen, I have extolled You,
who alone are exalted,
Queen Beloved of An, I have erected your altars,
Have heaped up the coals, have conducted the rites,
Have set up the nuptial chamber for You,
may Your heart be soothed for me,
Enough, more than enough innovations,
Great Queen, have I made for You.
What I have recited to You in the deep night,
The temple-singer will repeat for You in midday.
It is because of Your captive spouse, your captive son,
That Your wrath is so great, Your heart so unappeased.
The foremost Queen, the prop of the assembly,
Accepted Her prayer.
The heart of Inanna was restored,
The day was favourable for Her,
She was clothed with beauty, was filled with joyous allure,
How she carried her beauty -- like the rising moonlight!
Nanna who came forth in wonder true,
and her Ningal, proffered prayers to Her,
Greeted her at the doors of the Temple.
To the Hierodule whose command is noble,
The destroyer of foreign lands, presented by An with the divine powers,
My Queen garbed in allure,
O Inanna, praise!
Comments:
“Ningal” being thought to be priestesses of Innana.
“Hierodule” being taken as the absolute ruler with “divine powers” ascribed to them.
“Nanna” being the affectionate term for the softer face of the Goddess.
“An” being the father of all the divine host.
“Sin” being the mother of all wars and An’s wife, Inanna’s mother.
“Anunna” being the foreign invaders in her land.
It is believed that it tells the tale by the HPS of Innana, of how the Goddess was denied power
by her father An and mother Sin. She descended from Heaven and took the king of all
Summeria to her bed where she produced a son and would rule through them. Her parents took
exception to this and Innana went to war both with her parents in heaven and her people in
Summeria. It was catastrophic and a very long drawn out affair. Near the end of it, as they were
rebuilding the temples this hymn was written in Cuneiform on tablets, packed away by time,
under the desert sand for thousands of years, only to be dug up by some archaeologist by
chance – or design?