This poem is a prayer to the Sumerian goddess Inanna by the poetess Enheduanna (late 2300s or early 2200s BCE). At four thousand two hundred years old, it must be the oldest transgender-related prayer anywhere:
To destroy, to build up, to tear out and to settle are yours, Inanna,
To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna,Desirability, libido, to have goods and property are yours, Inanna,...
Business, great winning, financial loss, deficit are yours, Inanna,
Information, instruction, inspection, to look closely, to approve are yours, Inanna,...
To build a house, to build a woman's chamber, to have implements, to kiss the lips of a small child are yours, Inanna,
Swiftness, foot race, to attain desire are your, Inanna,
To interchange the brute and strong and the weak and powerless is yours, Inanna,...
To give the crown, the chair and the scepter of kingship is yours, Inanna.
[ll.119-121, 123-124, 138-140, 142]
http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/enheduan.htmlBless Inanna. She gets my prayer for sure!
