Review of Betty De Shong Meador's DEFINITIVE book on Enheduana!!
Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart :
Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess
Enheduanna(2001)
This is the book I had been waiting for since I first learned about Enheduana and was transfixed by her words: "But I am Enheduana, pure and shining high priestess of the moon God!" I couldn't believe that a real priestess, wrote about herself in the first person, 4,000 years ago, as if she was talking directly to me. Ever since, I had to trudge through dense, scholarly books and articles to learn any details I could about Enheduana. Then this book came along in 2001, 5 years after I had been trudging away through the stacks at UCLA. It is as good now as it was then. I don't think there is anything comparable out there! This book puts all the pieces, and I mean ALL the pieces together- and it far exceeds anything I was hoping for.
Meador has culled all the best information about Enheduanna and Inanna--from the overwhelming and hard-to-sift-through scholarly resources on Mesopotamia. She has hand-picked important quotes from women’s studies, Jungian psychology, the ancient near east, and comparative anthropology and synthesized it all here, accessibly and VERY thought- provokingly!
Meador has translated from the original Sumerian cuneiform three of Enheduana's poems and presented them in a modern, delicious, poetic style for maximum accessiblity to today's audience. Through Meador’s painstaking efforts and through her insightful and outstanding analysis Enheduana emerges as a literary genius and surprisingly, as a theological radical! The latter was completely unexpected so I won’t give away the details. This book is an incredible journey into a numinous, symbolic, mystical language, uncovering a new layer of the evolution of human consciousness, particularly from a female perspective.
There is so much in this book which is so beautifully written- the poems alone are worth it. I predict it will become a best selling classic as were Enheduanna's poems centuries after her death. Enjoy and revel in this very real, powerful priestess' writings dating back 4,000 years! Praise to Enheduana and Betty de Shong Meador!
Princess, Priestess, Poet: The Sumerian Temple Hymns of Enheduanna (2010)
Stay tuned for a review of Betty Meador's second book about Enheduana focusing on her poetry or go check it out yourself!! It is yet another phenomenal book, shedding deeper light onto Enheduana's incredible poetry, particularly on her strategic, Sumerian Temple Hymns- there is absolutely nothing like this on Enheduana.
