The Morgan Library and Museum has placed a brilliant spotlight on the first writer whose name is recorded in global history, Enheduanna.1 She was the daughter of Sargon the Great, the founder and leader of the Akkadian Empire from circa 2,334 to 2,279 B.C. in southern Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq. In addition to being the ancient culture’s high priestess and a political adviser to her father, Enheduanna was also a poet whose works were copied in scribal schools for hundreds of years, such as her exaltation of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and war and the Queen of Heaven.
