Sargon of Akkad (r. 2334 – 2279 BCE) was the king of the Akkadian Empire of Mesopotamia, the first multi-national empire in history, who united the disparate kingdoms of the region under a central authority. He is equally famous today as the father of the great poet-priestess Enheduanna (l. 2285-2250 BCE), the first author known by name in history.
Sargon (also known as Sargon the Great, Shar-Gani-Sharri, and Sarru-Kan, meaning “True King” or “Legitimate King”) was born an illegitimate son of a “changeling”, which could refer to a temple priestess of the goddess Innana (whose clergy were androgynous) and, according to the Sargon Legend (a cuneiform clay tablet purporting to be his biography) never knew his father. His mother could not reveal her pregnancy or keep the child, and so he was set adrift by her in a basket on the Euphrates River where he was later found by a man named Akki who was a gardener for Ur-Zababa, the King of the Sumerian city of Kish. From this very humble beginning, Sargon would rise to conquer all Mesopotamia.
The photos below show a reproduction that I created of the Sargon bust. I was very pleased with how it turned out. The bust is actual size and resides in my own little collection of antiquities.
