Ancient priestesses

Enheduanna ( , also transliterated as , , or variants; ) was the (high) priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad ( BCE). She was likely appointed by her father as the leader of the religious group at Ur to cement ties between the Akkadian religion of her father and the native Sumerian religion. Enheduanna has been celebrated as the earliest known named author in world history.

sexual rite performed in the context of religious worship

Queen consort to Shang Dynasty emperor Wu Ding

Puduḫepa or Pudu-Kheba (fl. 13th century BC) was a Hittite queen, married to the King Hattusili III. She has been referred to as "one of the most influential women known from the Ancient Near East."

Shamhat (; also called Shamkat in the old Babylonian version of Gilgamesh") is a character who appears in Tablets I and II of the Epic of Gilgamesh and is mentioned in Tablet VII. She is often characterized as a sacred prostitute, though this identification has been contested, and she plays a significant role in bringing the wild man Enkidu into contact with civilization.

Ennigaldi-Nanna (Babylonian cuneiform: 120x120px En-nígaldi-Nanna), also known as Bel-Shalti-Nanna and commonly called just Ennigaldi, was a princess of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and high priestess (entu) of Ur. As the first entu in six centuries, serving as the "human wife" of the moon-god Sin, Ennigaldi held large religious and political power. She is most famous today for founding a museum in Ur 530 BC. Ennigaldi's museum showcased, cataloged, and labelled artifacts from the preceding 1,500 years of Mesopotamian history and is often considered to have been the first museum in world history.

thumb | right | alt=Hittite relief from Firaktin, copy in the Museum of Kayseri: Puduhepa and Hepat. | Hittite relief from Fıraktın relief|Firaktin, copy in the Museum of Kayseri: Puduhepa (right) and [[Ḫepat (left).]] Tawananna is the title for the queen of the Hittites, the king's consort, as long as she was living. Upon her death the title Tawananna passed to her daughter or the new king's consort, whichever was available to ascend. The Hittites were ruled by a theocratic monarchy, in which the king's heir's wife did not succeed as Tawananna until the death of the reigning Tawananna.

Amat-Mamu () was a Babylonian nadītu priestess. She lived in a closed nadītu community in Sippar, where she worked as a scribe.

Adad-guppi (; c. 648-544 BC), also known as Addagoppe, was a devotee of the moon god Sîn in the northern Assyrian city of Harran, and the mother of King Nabonidus (ruled 556–539 BC) of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Nadītu (; sometimes romanized as naditu, with the long vowel omitted) were a social class in ancient Mesopotamia, attested only in the Old Babylonian period. They were associated with the tutelary gods of specific cities, and are often considered to be priestesses by modern authors, though this conclusion is not universally accepted, and it is sometimes argued they should be treated as a fully separate class. The best documented community of nadītu resided in Sippar, where they were associated with the god Shamash. They were not allowed to marry or have biological children, though adoption was

ancient ruler of Olba

right|thumb|The poisoning of Camma and Synorix in the temple of Diana (Charles Poerson, 17th century).

politician

Teʾelḫunu (), also spelled Telkhunu, was a queen regnant of the Nomadic Arab tribes of Qedar who ruled in the 7th century BC, circa 690 BC. She succeeded Yatie and was succeeded by queen Tabua.

Ninšatapada (also romanized as Ninshatapada; active 1800 BCE) was a Mesopotamian princess from the Old Babylonian dynasty of Uruk. She is known from a letter addressed to Rim-Sîn I, in which she implores him to restore her to her former position as a high priestess of Meslamtaea. The letter was incorporated into the curriculum of Mesopotamian scribal schools.

Amoashtart ( *ʾAmīʿaštārt, "my mother is Astarte") was a Phoenician queen of Sidon during the Persian period. She was the daughter of Eshmunazar I, and the wife of her brother, Tabnit. When Tabnit died, Amoashtart became co-regent to her then-infant son, Eshmunazar II, but after the boy died "in his fourteenth year", she was succeeded by her nephew Bodashtart, possibly in a palace coup. Modern historians have characterized her as an "energetic, responsible [woman], and endowed with immense political acumen, [who] exercised royal functions for many years".