Dynastic king, Gˆisˇa-kidu of Umma, who bears the religious title enamong his other
royal titles: en zà késˇ dNin-ur 4 –ke 4 ‘en-priest attached to the side of the goddess Nin-
ur 4 ’ (Frayne RIME 1. 12. 6. 2 line 11 ). Of the limited written documentation of the office
of religious enin pre-Sargonic period, the most informative is the KesˇTemple Hymn.
The Hymn is known from both an Early Dynastic and an Old Babylonian recension.
In the following, the fragmentary archaic sections are indicated by underlining. The
staff of this unique temple are described in the following stanza:The holy house, which lets the pure enter (lit. pass), is the shrine/bedroom,
The holy house Kes ˇ, which lets the pure enter (lit. pass), is the shrine,
The house whose en-lords are the Anuna gods,
whose nueˇs-priests... Inana (ED) / are the ritual slaughterers (lit. dagger bearers)
of E-ana(OB)
In the house the king (of Kisˇ ED) places stone bowls in position;
The good en-priest(ess?) has on the robe of office.
The atu-[priestess] holds the staff;
The tu-[priestess] brings the gathered waters.
The lal-[priestess] takes her seat in the holy place.
The enkum-priests are casting spells on the ground.
The pasˇesˇ-priests beat the drum-skins; they recite powerfully, powerfully.
(KesˇTemple Hymn 104 – 115 , ETCSL 4. 80. 2 )^2Both divine and human clerics of the temple are described in this stanza. The mention
of the divine ensas the Anunnagods reflects the use of the title en‘lord’ for the gods.
On the other hand, according to an earlier line in the later recension, the spouse of
the goddess, the god Sˇulpae, is given the secular title ensi(k) but is credited with the
performance of the en-ship for his wife Nintur and this type of singular en-ship is more
probably the priestly sort undertaken by the human en in line 109. Thus, the divine
and human en-priests are linked as mirror images and if the reference to Sˇulpae existed
in the Early Dynastic recension, it would demonstrate cross-gender relations between
the enand the deity at this early period.
Sumerian political centres had individually distinct royal and religious officialdom.
The occupants of the highest echelon of the temple hierarchies of the most ancient
gods of Sumer had unique and discrete titles (see Table 12. 2 ). There is one exception
to this statement – the title of the high priest of Enlil had no ancient title besides en.^3
As can be seen in Table 12. 2 , each deity was served by particular high priest/priestess
whose titles were exclusive to them. It is evident that the term enwas added in the early
second millennium (Old Babylonian) references to these cultic designations.^4 In the
first row appears the zirru,^5 the high priestess of the moon-god Nanna of the city of
Ur and the embodiment of the goddess Ningal, his spouse. The two titles first appear
beside each other in the titulary of En-men-ana, daughter of the Old Akkadian
king Nara ̄m-Sîn: MUNUS.NUNUZ.ZI.dN[ANNA] DAM.dN[ANNA] EN dEN.ZU
inURI 5 .K[I] ‘zirru-priestess, spouse of the god Nanna, en-priestess of the god Sîn
in Ur’ (Frayne RIME 2. 1. 4. 33 ). Under the Second Dynasty of Lagasˇ, the order of the
titles changes. The titulary of En-ane-pada, daughter of Ur-BaU, is: en-dNanna
[MUNUS.NUNUZ].ZI.dN[ANNA] [da]m?-dNanna ‘en-priestess of the god Nanna,
zirru-priestess, spouse of the god Nanna’ (Edzard RIME 3 / 1. 1. 6. 12 ). In the titulary of
–– The ministering clergy ––