Hymns to Inanna
Also known as: Inana Hymns, Ishtar Hymns, Sumerian Hymns to Inana, Hymns of Enheduanna to Inanna, Praise Poems to Inana
A corpus of Sumerian hymns praising Inanna—goddess of love, war, and sovereignty—compiled across centuries and sanctuaries. The poems acclaim her cosmic authority, martial ferocity, erotic power, and role in legitimizing kingship and city cults.
Description
This collection gathers Sumerian hymns and praise poems to Inanna (later equated with Akkadian Ishtar), produced across the Early Dynastic, Ur III, and Old Babylonian eras. Some texts are linked to the high priestess Enheduanna, whose compositions articulate Inanna’s terrifying might, tender favor, and decisive judgments. The hymns celebrate the goddess as morning and evening star, mistress of the me (divine powers), patron of Uruk’s E-anna temple, and guarantor of royal authority. They blend martial and erotic imagery—lions, storm clouds, victory nets—with ritual invocations for protection, justice, and abundance. Manuscripts derive from scribal schools and temple archives at Nippur, Ur, Uruk, and elsewhere, reflecting both cultic performance and scholarly transmission.
Historiography
The hymnic corpus survives in multiple tablet copies with variant recensions from ED III to Old Babylonian periods, often with school colophons. Attribution to Enheduanna for several pieces is preserved in first-person signatures but remains philologically debated on a text-by-text basis. Sumerian originals were copied and studied alongside Akkadian parallels that praise Ishtar, indicating long reception and bilingual pedagogy. Modern editions rely on collations from museum tablets and ETCSL normalizations, with significant translational work by Hallo, Black, Cunningham, Meador, and others.
Date Notes
A corpus spanning Early Dynastic to Old Babylonian periods; notable compositions attributed to Enheduanna (Akkadian Empire, 23rd c. BCE). Individual hymns survive on tablets from multiple sites and centuries.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Inanna
- Dumuzi
- Ninshubur
- An (Anu)
Myths
- The Exaltation of Inanna
- Inanna as Queen of Heaven and Battle
Facts
- The corpus spans multiple periods and provenances; no single canonical arrangement exists.
- Several hymns are attributed to Enheduanna, a high priestess of Nanna in Ur under Sargon of Akkad.
- Inanna’s epithets emphasize both erotic allure and martial ferocity, a rare duality among major deities.
- Hymns invoke the me (divine ordinances) as tokens of cosmic and social order under Inanna’s authority.
- Uruk’s E-anna complex is the chief cult locus; Nippur and Ur tablets show wide liturgical circulation.
- Scribal copies from Old Babylonian schools preserve standardized Sumerian with didactic headings.
- Akkadian-language praise of Ishtar parallels later reception, indicating bilingual worship traditions.
- Iconography tied to these hymns centers on the eight-pointed star and lion-mounted goddess.
- Some pieces likely functioned in festival or temple rites, others served as scholastic exemplars.
- Modern editions synthesize dispersed tablets from museum collections in Europe and North America.