Mesopotamia - Hammurabi’s Code - Epic of Gilgamesh

Hammurabi’s Code

King Hammurabi conquered all of Mesopotamia by 1750 BCE. The law code he created tells us a great deal about what was happening in Mesopotamian society. As you read the text, pay attention to what the people of Mesopotamia thought about fairness and justice. What did they think was the correct punishment for the offenses people committed? How did the people in ancient Babylon view social class and gender roles?

Hammurabi receives the rod and ring (symbols of authority) from the god Shamash. Shamash was the supreme sun god and judge in the Mesopotamian religion.

Theft

Selections from Hammurabi’s Code T HINK ABOUT : • Why do societies create law codes? • What do laws tell us about the concerns of the societies that created them? • How is Hammurabi’s Code similar to the laws we live by? How is it different?

6. If a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be put to death; and he that has received the stolen property from him shall be put to death. 8. If a patrician has stolen ox, sheep, pig, or goat, whether from a temple, or a house, he shall pay thirty-fold. If he be a plebeian, he shall return tenfold. If the thief cannot pay, he shall be put to death. 14. If a man has stolen a child, he shall be put to death. 22. If a man has committed highway robbery and has been caught, he shall be put to death. Family 129. If a man’s wife be caught lying with another, they shall be strangled and cast into the water. 131. If a man’s wife has been accused by her husband, and has not been caught lying with another, she shall swear her innocence, and return to her house. 138. If a man has divorced his wife, who has not borne him children, he shall pay over to her as much money as was given for her bride-price and the marriage-portion which she brought from her father’s house, and so shall divorce her.

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139. If there was no bride-price, he shall give her one mina of silver, as a price of divorce.

201. If he has knocked out the tooth of a plebeian, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver.

140. If he be a plebeian, he shall give her one-third of a mina of silver.

Liability

148. If a man is married to a wife and a disease has seized her, if he is determined to marry a second wife, he shall marry her. He shall not divorce the wife whom the disease has seized. In the home as they made together she shall dwell, and he shall maintain her as long as she lives.

209. If a man strikes the daughter of a free man and causes her fetus to abort, he shall pay 10 shekels of silver. 210. If that woman dies, his daughter shall be slain. 211. If he has caused the daughter of a peasant to let her fetus abort… he shall pay 5 shekels.

Assault

212. If that woman dies, he shall pay half a mina of silver.

195. If a son has struck his father, his hands shall be cut off.

229. If a builder has built a house for a man, and has not made his work sound, and the house he built has fallen, and caused the death of its owner, that builder shall be put to death.

196. If a man has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be knocked out. 197. If he has broken the limb of a patrician, his limb shall be broken.

230. If it is the owner’s son that is killed, the builder’s son shall be put to death.

198. If he has knocked out the eye of a plebeian or has broken the limb of a plebeian’s servant, he shall pay one mina of silver. 199. If he has knocked out the eye of a patrician’s servant, or broken the limb of a patrician’s servant, he shall pay half his value. 200. If a patrician has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth shall be knocked out.

Selections from Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader by Kevin Reilly. © 2004 Bedford St. Martins, Boston. Pages 5154; #209-212 from The Human Record by Andrea and Overfield. © 2005 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 51-54.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest written story (in the form of an epic poem) in any language. We can examine it to study Mesopotamian culture. According to Sumerian history, Gilgamesh was an ancient king. He lived around 2700 BCE. The Epic was written about a thousand years later; something about the Gilgamesh story was compelling enough to be retold for a thousand years before it was recorded. This part of the story is about a flood. It is told by a man named Utnapishtim, who explains his experiences with the Mesopotamian gods.

Selections from The Epic of Gilgamesh

T HINK ABOUT : • Why was this story told? • What lessons would people learn from this story? • What does the flood story show about life in Mesopotamia?

In the city of ancient city of Shurrupak, the many gods grew frustrated with humans. Their chief god was Anu. Another important god was Enlil, the warrior. Another god they worshipped was Ea, the god of water and wisdom. In this story, the main character is a man named Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim was chosen by Ea to save some of mankind and tells his story to King Gilgamesh. In those days the world teemed, the people multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the clamor. Enlil heard the clamor and he said to the gods in council, ‘The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.’ So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in his dream. He whispered their words: ‘Man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon your possessions and look for life, despite worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I saw, and build a boat.’ Utnapishtim understands Ea’s commands and consents to bulid the boat. He asks Ea what he should tell the people. Ea answers: ‘Tell them this: that I have learnt that Enlil is wrathful against me, I dare no longer walk in his land nor live in his city; I will go down to the gulf with Ea my lord. But on you he will rain down abundance, rare fish and shy wild-fowl, a rich harvest-tide. In the evening the rider of the storm will bring you wheat in torrents.’ 5

The next morning, Utnapishtim begins building the boat; he finished it after seven days.

great gods of heaven and hell wept, they covered their mouths.

I loaded into the boat all that I had of gold and of living things, my family, my kin, the beast of the field both wild and tame, and all of the craftsmen...

For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled; I looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned to clay. The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top.

With the first light of dwan a black cloud came from teh horizon; it thundered within where Adad, the lord of the storm, was riding. In front over hill and plain Shullat and Hanish, heralds of the storm, led on. Then the gods of the abyss rose up; Nergal pulled out the dams of the nether waters, Ninurta the war-lord threw down the levee, and the seven judges of hell, the Annunaki, raise their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight to darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup. One whole day the tempest raged, gathering fury as it went. it poured over the people like the tides of battle; a man could not see his brother nor the people be seen from heaven. Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Anu; they crouched against the walls, cowering like curs. Then Ishtar the sweet-voiced Queen of Heaven cried out like a woman in travail: ‘Alas the days of old are turned to dust because I commanded evil; whey did I command this evil in the council of all the gods? I commanded wars to destroy the people, but are they not my people, for I brought them forth? Now like the spawn of fish they float in the ocean.’ The

Utnapishtim grounds the boat on a mountain. On the seventh day, he releases a dove. When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting place she returned. I loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountain top... When the gods smelled the sweet savor, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice. Then, at last, Ishtar also came, she lifted her necklace with the jewels of heaven that once Anu had made to please her... [she said] ‘Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice, except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for without reflection he brought the flood; he consigned my people to destruction.’ 6

When Enlil had come, when he saw the boat, he was wrath and swelled with anger at the gods, to host of heaven, ‘Has any of these mortals escaped? Not one was to have survived the destruction.’ Ea tries to calm Enlil’s anger. He criticized Enlil for bringing the flood without thinking about the consequences. Enlil was angry that the gods had warned Utnapishtim, but Ea responded: ‘It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the wise man learned in a dream. Now take your counsel what shall be done with him.’ Then Enlil went up into the boat, he took me by the hand and my wife and made us enter the boat... He touched our foreheads to bless us saying, ‘In time past Utnapishtim was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife shall live in the distance at the mouth of the rivers.’ Thus it was that all the gods took me and placed me here to live in the distance, at the mouth of the rivers.

Selections from Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader by Kevin Reilly. © 2004 Bedford St. Martins, Boston. Pages 5154; #209-212 from The Human Record by Andrea and Overfield. © 2005 Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 47-50.

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Bride-price Dowry

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Clamor Loud noise

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Curs Dogs

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Levee An embankment built to prevent the overflow of a river.

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Mina A unit of money. One mina equaled 60 shekels. Pictured below: a mina from Antioch.

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Patrician Aristocrat or nobleman; member of the upper class.

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Plebeian Commoner; member of the lower class.

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Shekels Monetary unit. Pictured below: a shekel from Carthage.

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Teemed Was full of; swarmed.

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Tempest Violent and windy storm.

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Thirty-fold Thirty times.

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