Back in January, I talked about Friday the 13th and that some people believe Fridays and the number 13 are related to bad luck. If you happened to read that entry, you may remember that I mentioned the Code of Hammurabi. I mentioned it because the Code of Hammurabi is famous for a list of “laws” numbered #1 to #282 — except there is no #13.
Anyhow, the story of King Hammurabi is interesting…. he’s one of the few characters that caught my attention and interested me during my ancient history college courses.
Hammurabi was the king of Babylon. Sometime around 1789 B.C. he decided to have his favorite laws carved into an eight-foot high stone column. At the top, his royal artists carved a picture of the great king on his throne. Below that carving is the text, that begins with a rambling message from Hammurabi, in which he calls himself “the exalted prince” and vows to “destroy the wicked and evil-doers.” On the rest of the column is carved a list of laws from #1 to $282, called the Code of Hammurabi. It’s thought that the code was displayed in a conspicuous place, like maybe the town square. That way, nobody had an excuse for breaking the law.
The laws are arranged in orderly groups — a cluster of laws governing slaves are grouped together, laws concerning marriage and inheritance are in another group, and so on. Some of the laws you’ve heard about — like, and eye for an eye. It’s specified in Law #196 this way — “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” Pretty basic — a tooth for a tooth is covered under Law #200. There’s no mention of prison — the only alternatives were fines, a death sentence, or like the eye and tooth, the occasional “pound of flesh.”
Crimes and their punishment had a direct correlation to social status. Unless the crime was serious, the higher up you were on the social ladder, the less severely you were punished. The poor slobs clustered around the bottom of the social ladder paid dearly — often with their lives. A good example is Law #8 — it covers the theft of livestock. Say someone steals a goat. If the goat belonged to “a god,” i.e., was stolen from a temple (the very top of the social scale) the thief had to pay 30 times the worth of the goat. If the goat belonged to a “free man.” someone a step up from a regular citizen, the thief had to pay less — just 10 times the amount. If the thief was too poor to pay the fine, he was put to death.
Actually, there were a lot of opportunities for the average Babylonian to be sentenced to death. Here’s some of the crimes that called for capital punishment….
You would be put to death for:
• Accusing someone of a crime without proof.
• Falsely accusing someone of a crime
• Stealing the property of a temple or a court.
• Receiving the stolen property of a temple or a court.
• Stealing a slave.
• Breaking and entering.
• Committing a robbery.
• Allowing conspirators to meet in your tavern.
• Violating a virgin who is promised in marriage to another.
Even innocent bystanders could be included in the death sentence. Law #229 states that a house builder will be put to death if the house he built falls in and kills the owner. The next Law #230, adds that if it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.
In most cases, the exact manner of death is not specified, but in some cases, it’s well-defined:
• If a wife and her lover had their mates (her husband and the other man’s wife) murdered, both of them shall be impaled.
• If a robbery is committed during a fire, the criminal will be thrown into that “self-same fire.” I guess that doesn’t leave much time for a trial….
• If you’re a priestess and you own or enter a tavern, you’ll be burned to death.
The punishments for minor offenses weren’t as severe… but you could have your hands cut off if:
• You’re a surgeon who kills someone during surgery.
• You hit your father.
• You steal plants from a farm owner you work for.
You could have your ear cut off if:
• You’re a slave who says to his master, “You are not my master.”
Apparently the Babylonians weren’t much for swimming, or even knew much about it. If a crime couldn’t be proven, the accused would be thrown into the water. If she (it was usually a she) floated, she was innocent. If she didn’t she drowned.
Crimes for which you would be thrown into the water:
• If your husband accused you of being unfaithful, but couldn’t catch you in the act.
• If you quarreled with your husband for no reason, then left him or neglected him.
There was another level of punishment when you wouldn’t be given the option of trying to stay afloat. You would be tied up and thrown into the water if:
• Your husband surprised you with another man, or if you were the other man with the wife when the husband surprised her.
At first, these laws seem a little harsh — in fact it doesn’t appear the Babylonians were doing anything that doesn’t happen every day in our society. But — then there’s the goddess Ishtar, a.k.a. “The Great Whore of Babylon.”
Ishtar was the goddess of war and sexual love, and the most powerful goddess in the Mesopotamian religion. If you wanted to be part of the cult (and everyone did) you had to participate. Every female citizen was expected to go at least once in her life to the temple of Ishtar and offer herself to any male worshiper who paid the required contribution. There was no shame attached to being one of Ishtar’s prostitutes — in fact, it was considered a sacred means of attaining divine union between man and goddess.
I read some time back, that in 1901 a team of archeologists, led by a French scholar, found the fairly well-preserved column we call the Code of Hammurabi, in Persia. Besides its importance as a historical find, it gives us a pretty good look into the customs of ancient Mesopotamia. The column is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. If you visit, you can verify that there is no Law #13. Apparently the Babylonians were superstitious, too.
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