The First Known Author Was a Woman

Way before Genesis was written down, or even orally told, and before the written word in the Orient and Egyptian hieroglyphs were created, there were the Sumerians. 

And guess what they did?  They invented writing and credited it to Nisaba, the Goddess of writing and knowledge.

Throughout Western history, we have a sort of silence as to the true origins of things, as “lost” anonymous knowledge.  So bet you didn’t know who the oldest recorded author in Western Civilization was. Her name was Enheduanna. Yup, you heard me right, “her” name…

The earliest author in the world was a woman. 

Also not surprising is that most of the pre-biblical religious myths attribute the art of writing to a female deity, such as the Goddess Seshat of Egypt, the Goddess Saraswati of India, and many others.

Enheduanna was a high priestess and wrote poems and hymns to the Goddess Inanna in ancient Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago.  All of our modern religious texts, like the bible, don’t even come into the picture for another 2,500 years!

Fast-forward 6,000 years later, Muhamed, an illiterate boy, learned to read with the help of his wealthy, caravan-owning future wife.

Interestingly, Enheduanna’s hymns praise the Goddess of Writing and are proud of the work that not even a king could do. 

Another cool aspect of this hymn is that she talks of peace and unity among nations through Nisaba’s creation of writing:

Temple Hymn 42

“The Eresh Temple of Nisaba”

this shining house of stars bright with lapis stones

has opened itself to all lands

a whole mix of people in the shrine every month

lift heads for you Eresh

all the primeval lords

soapwort the very young saba on your platform

great Nanibgal Nisaba Lady of Saba

brought powers down from heaven

added her measure to your powers

enlarged the shrine, set it up for praising

faithful woman exceeding in wisdom

opens [her] mouth [to recite] over cooled lined

tablets

always consults lapis tablets

[and] gives strong council to all lands

true woman of the pure soapwort

born of the sharpened reed

who measures the heavens by cubits

strikes the coiled measuring rod on the earth

praise be to Nisaba

the person who bound this tablet together

is Enheduanna

my king something never before created

did not this one give birth to it?”

Enheduanna, scribe, priestess, and politician who uses her feminine qualities, including writing, to bring unity and peace to their world. 

What’s missing in our society? Perhaps the wisdom of a forgotten Goddess named Nisaba that may be one of the first missing Silent Philosophers?

Joke of the day:

A Sunday school teacher asked her class, “What was Jesus’ mother’s name?”

Little Susan answered, “Mary.”

The teacher then asked, “And who knows what Jesus’ father’s name was?”

Little Burt called out, “The Verge.”

Confused, the teacher asked, “Where did you get that, Burt?”

The little boy smiled and responded, “Well, you know they are always talking about “the Verge ‘n Mary.'”