Sappho & Enheduanna
Throughout history we have shown praise to many well-known poets who of most turn out to be men. while there is nothing wrong with this praise to male poets, it is important to give homage and focus on the contributions that women poets have made in society, particularly ancient female poets not just 1800s to present day female poets. Female poets are often attributed with themes of love and sorrow and while they are one many roles, they aren’t the only ones represented by female poets. Enheduanna and Sappho are two examples who have not only contributed to the world’s movement of poetry but have not necessarily been celebrated by the majority of the society. The two things I found that both Enheduanna and Sappho seem to have had in common was their high social standing and their exploration of aspects either not known or not accepted in their eras …show more content…
The advantage to her poetry becoming known was through her high social standing. She was the daughter of Akkad king Sargon which inherently made her a high priestess, eventually of Ur (Black 37). This advantage allowed her to write poetry honoring her personal goddess Inanna, the goddess of love, fertility and warfare and ultimately making Enheduanna the first named historical author (Binkley 47). Enheduanna’s respect for Inanna was shown throughout three of her poems, her most famous one being The Exhalation of Inanna. Many people could argue that while she did write poetry in ode to her, her intentions were deeper than that. A possible motive could be to introduce the image and power of Inanna to other parts of the world other than the Sumerian culture where Inanna was originally praised as an important goddess (Meador 7). No one can really say why she dedicated three of her poems to Inanna but one can guess it may have been because of the similar connection she had with her in terms of
Throughout history we have shown praise to many well-known poets who of most turn out to be men. while there is nothing wrong with this praise to male poets, it is important to give homage and focus on the contributions that women poets have made in society, particularly ancient female poets not just 1800s to present day female poets. Female poets are often attributed with themes of love and sorrow and while they are one many roles, they aren’t the only ones represented by female poets. Enheduanna and Sappho are two examples who have not only contributed to the world’s movement of poetry but have not necessarily been celebrated by the majority of the society. The two things I found that both Enheduanna and Sappho seem to have had in common was their high social standing and their exploration of aspects either not known or not accepted in their eras …show more content…
The advantage to her poetry becoming known was through her high social standing. She was the daughter of Akkad king Sargon which inherently made her a high priestess, eventually of Ur (Black 37). This advantage allowed her to write poetry honoring her personal goddess Inanna, the goddess of love, fertility and warfare and ultimately making Enheduanna the first named historical author (Binkley 47). Enheduanna’s respect for Inanna was shown throughout three of her poems, her most famous one being The Exhalation of Inanna. Many people could argue that while she did write poetry in ode to her, her intentions were deeper than that. A possible motive could be to introduce the image and power of Inanna to other parts of the world other than the Sumerian culture where Inanna was originally praised as an important goddess (Meador 7). No one can really say why she dedicated three of her poems to Inanna but one can guess it may have been because of the similar connection she had with her in terms of