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 \u201claws\u201d numbered #1 to #282 \u2014 except there is no #13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyhow, the story of King Hammurabi is interesting\u2026. he\u2019s 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 \u201cthe exalted prince\u201d and vows to \u201cdestroy the wicked and evil-doers.\u201d On the rest of the column is carved a list of laws from #1 to $282, called the Code of Hammurabi. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The laws are arranged in orderly groups \u2014 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\u2019ve heard about \u2014 like, and eye for an eye. It\u2019s specified in Law #196 this way \u2014 \u201cIf a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.\u201d Pretty basic \u2014 a tooth for a tooth is covered under Law #200. There\u2019s no mention of prison \u2014 the only alternatives were fines, a death sentence, or like the eye and tooth, the occasional \u201cpound of flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2014 often with their lives. A good example is Law #8 \u2014 it covers the theft of livestock. Say someone steals a goat. If the goat belonged to \u201ca god,\u201d 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 \u201cfree man.\u201d someone a step up from a regular citizen, the thief had to pay less \u2014 just 10 times the amount. If the thief was too poor to pay the fine, he was put to death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, there were a lot of opportunities for the average Babylonian to be sentenced to death. Here\u2019s some of the crimes that called for capital punishment\u2026.
You would be put to death for:
\u2022 Accusing someone of a crime without proof.
\u2022 Falsely accusing someone of a crime
\u2022 Stealing the property of a temple or a court.
\u2022 Receiving the stolen property of a temple or a court.
\u2022 Stealing a slave.
\u2022 Breaking and entering.
\u2022 Committing a robbery.
\u2022 Allowing conspirators to meet in your tavern.
\u2022 Violating a virgin who is promised in marriage to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s well-defined:
\u2022 If a wife and her lover had their mates (her husband and the other man\u2019s wife) murdered, both of them shall be impaled.
\u2022 If a robbery is committed during a fire, the criminal will be thrown into that \u201cself-same fire.\u201d I guess that doesn\u2019t leave much time for a trial\u2026.
\u2022 If you\u2019re a priestess and you own or enter a tavern, you\u2019ll be burned to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The punishments for minor offenses weren\u2019t as severe\u2026 but you could have your hands cut off if:
\u2022 You\u2019re a surgeon who kills someone during surgery.
\u2022 You hit your father.
\u2022 You steal plants from a farm owner you work for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could have your ear cut off if:
\u2022 You\u2019re a slave who says to his master, \u201cYou are not my master.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently the Babylonians weren\u2019t much for swimming, or even knew much about it. If a crime couldn\u2019t be proven, the accused would be thrown into the water. If she (it was usually a she) floated, she was innocent. If she didn\u2019t she drowned.
Crimes for which you would be thrown into the water:
\u2022 If your husband accused you of being unfaithful, but couldn\u2019t catch you in the act.
\u2022 If you quarreled with your husband for no reason, then left him or neglected him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was another level of punishment when you wouldn\u2019t be given the option of trying to stay afloat. You would be tied up and thrown into the water if:
\u2022 Your husband surprised you with another man, or if you were the other man with the wife when the husband surprised her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, these laws seem a little harsh \u2014 in fact it doesn\u2019t appear the Babylonians were doing anything that doesn\u2019t happen every day in our society. But \u2014 then there\u2019s the goddess Ishtar, a.k.a. \u201cThe Great Whore of Babylon.\u201d
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\u2019s prostitutes \u2014 in fact, it was considered a sacred means of attaining divine union between man and goddess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading