Ancient literature gives the reader a glimpse into how each society viewed the role of women along with their relationships. With the Exaltation of Inanna which displays power and authority along with a known author the Shi Jing is a collection of poems that are anonymous but give a voice to all different levels of society along with relationships between men and women. This paper will compare and contrast the voice and presentation of woman during the Akkadian rule and the Zhou dynasty. Enheduanna was “the earliest known entum-priestess…the daughter of King Sargon” (Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea, 99-100). Her father had placed her as the high priestess in Ur but as her father got older revolts occurred throughout the land and one had removed her from her position in Ur. Enheduanna, in a high political status, used her sense of Inanna to reestablish her power within her town. Within her poem “Enkheduanna used her literary skills to describe how she was forced from office and escaped to Ur” (Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea, 109).
Enheduanna in herself can be compared to the woman’s voice in the Shi Jing. Within her own hymn…show more content… Within “She Bore the Folk” the woman is only given three stanzas until it changes to the Lord Millets view. She is described as the first parent were in comparison to Inanna who is described as a war goddess that is ready to defend her worshippers. Enheduanna goes on to describe Inanna as the “Destroyer of the foreign lands” (Enheduanna line 17). “But the Enheduanna poems generally concentrate on the warlike and fear_inspiring personality of Inanna” (Leick 62 )She also describes Inanna as higher than her own mother but also the giver of fertility. Within the “She Bore the Folk” fertility is also addressed since the mother new how to become with child. She as well represented the importance it meant to be a woman with a fertile
