3 Writing Lessons to Learn from Enheduanna, the First Poet in History
What can ancient work teach modern writers?
Four thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, a high priestess of Sumer sat down to write the first piece of authored work in history. Enheduanna’s poetry was the first spark in a writing revolution that developed writing into the art form we know today, pulling it away from its practical beginning. Emotive, powerful, and passionate, Enheduanna’s voice still speaks to us from its distant origin in the Bronze Age.
But how did Endehduanna write such revolutionary words? And what can modern writers learn from her, sitting at their computers thousands of years in the future?
Below are three lessons writers can draw from Enheduanna’s work, and how her inspiring life birthed one of the most revolutionary pieces of writing ever written.
To be a better writer, be a rebel.
Enheduanna was a key player in the takeover and sustained rule of the Akkadian empire. As the daughter of King Sargon, she was tasked with unifying the people of Ur — a major strategic city— under one banner. It was no easy task. During her leadership, a Sumerian revolt overthrew her rule, and she was cast out of the city.
When she returned, her power reinstated through efforts by her brother, Enheduanna wrote the first published poems and hymns in an attempt to unite the original Sumerians and the new Arkadians. Her poetry shows power and determination; something fit for a woman who’s just reclaimed power over her city:
“He gave me a knife and dagger, and said to me, ‘These are appropriate ornaments for you.’ ”
— Enheduanna, The Exultation of Inanna
As writers, we write from experience in order to write emotively (source: The Book Machine). I can’t help but think the reason Enhedhuanna’s work had such impact on the Arkadians (and, indeed, now on modern writers) is because she wrote from a place of experience. The anger we see in the above quotation; the passion with which she wrote; the commanding tone she took in every poem— it resonates with readers.
If you want to write well, then write with passion. Draw from experiences that made you feel something, and put those emotions into your work: whether it be happiness, sadness or anger. Write about things other people are too afraid to discuss.
To be a better writer, be a rebel, and be proud of it.
Humanize your gods.
Enheduanna’s main objective was to show the Arkadians and the Sumerians that their gods were not all that different. But in trying to do that, she had to prove to people that the gods were beings who could be reasoned with; beings everyone could communicate with, regardless of their origin.
The same concept should be applied to your writing, just not in the sense of gods. Instead, you should humanize whatever problem you write about — namely, the difficulties we all share and need answers to. Break problems that seem impossible down into small, manageable pieces, and give clear, simple advice on how to do it.
Why? Because your readers need a reason to stay.
Statically, readers spend about ten seconds on a webpage before they decide whether or not to leave it (source: Nielsen Norman Group). This means that in those ten seconds, not only do you need to make the proposition of your writing clear, but you need to convince people that your writing is worth their time.
Humanise your gods — or, in other words, make your everyone else’s problems your problems. This will establish a common connection between you and your readers.
Write with purpose.
“With your strength, my lady, teeth can crush flint.” — Enheduanna, The Exultation of Inanna.
When Enheduanna returned to Ur having been banished, she did not come back humbly and quietly. On the contrary, she came back as a storm of anger violence. We see this a lot in the Exultation of Inanna: by looking at the quote above, we can see that anger seeping through. In the translation, she freely confesses to the goddess that her patience has run out.
“My honeyed mouth became venomous. My ability to soothe moods vanished.”
But why put such fierce emotions across in writing, when nobody had ever written anything except lexical lists before? What was the point?
That’s the question that every author must ask themselves before writing a piece. “What’s the point?”
Without a purpose or an intention, writing has no sustenance to stand on. Enheduanna knew this, and by reading the Exultation of Inanna, we can assume she had at least these two goals in mind:
- To reinstate power. Enheduanna’s tone is commanding and even furious in parts — it is not the voice of someone you’d wish to cross. This piece of writing was dispersed through Ur, so anybody who read it would’ve known how much inner strength Enheduanna had left after her exile.
- To unify. As with most of her writing, Enheduanna was always seeking to unify the Arkadians and Sumerians. The passion with which she writes; the beautiful imagery she uses; the length of the poem — all these things hyperbolise the gods in an attempt to make any reader agree with what she is saying. All great speeches are spoken with passion, and poems and hymns are no different.
But how can modern writers apply this to their writing? Most of us aren’t exiles who are angry at our subjects. We’re people with day jobs and otherwise ordinary lives.
Still, every piece of writing should have an intention behind it. Before you sit down to write a piece, consider the following:
- What audience are you writing this piece for? Why is it specifically for them?
- What message are you trying to convey? Are you trying to rally people to a cause? Inspire them? Or are you simply trying to advise them on a top you know a lot about?
- Why should writers care about what you have to say? What invaluable piece of advice do you have that other writers don't?
It’s impossible to write masterpieces time and time again. That’s the nature of being a writer, it’s often a hit and miss game. But if you have a purpose behind your writing, you will be able to establish a better connection with your reader. Everybody likes reading articles where the writer knows what they’re talking about.
Good writing is timeless: Enheduanna is proof of this. Today, it’s easy to view her as an almost mystical figure, but her strong writing voice proves otherwise: it’s crossed millennia and landed on your laptop screen. Enheduanna is perhaps the most ‘real’ writer to have ever lived because she understood that without purpose and feeling, writing has nothing to stand upon. Now that you know the same, what’s to stop you from writing something equally as powerful?
