#129 If a man’s wife be surprised (adultery) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves.
#130 If a man violate the wife (betrothed or child-wife) of another man, who has never known a man and still lives in her father’s house, and sleep with her and be surprised, this man shall be put to death, but the wife is blameless.
#131 If a man bring a charge against one’s wife, but she is not surprised with another man, she must take an oath and then may return to her house.
#133 through #135 deal with the man taken as prisoner in war: If there is enough food and the wife leaves, she is drowned; if there is not enough food, she may leave; if he returns and she has left, she may return (or may not, is implied) but the children follow the father.
#136 If any one leave his house, run away and then his wife go to another house, if then he return and wishes to take his wife back: because he fled from his home and ran away, the wife of this runaway shall not return to her husband (desertion).
#137 If a man wish to separate from a woman who has born him children, or from his wife who has borne him children: then he shall give that wife her dowry, and a part of the usufruct of field, garden, and property so that she can rear her children. When she has brought them up, a portion of all that is given to the children, equal as that of one son, shall be given to her. She may then marry the man of her heart.
#138 If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father’s house, and let her go.
….HOWEVER.…
#141 If a man’s wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted, if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release (keeping her dowry). If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband’s house.
#142 If a woman quarrel with her husband and say “You are not congenial to me”, the reasons for her prejudice must be presented. If she is guiltless, and there is no fault on her part, but he leaves and neglects her, then no guilt attaches to the woman, she shall take her dowry and go back to the father’s house.
#143 If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water (drowned).
#148 and #149 consider the wife who has become ill. She must be kept in the house unless she wishes to leave, in which case, her dowry is returned to her.
#153 If the wife of one man on account of another man has their mates (her husband and the other man’s wife) murdered, both of them shall be impaled. (This must have happened sufficient number of times to be included in the code.)
#154 If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place (exiled).
#157 If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned.
(#158 through #164 refer to goods and “chattels” brought to pay for wife.)
#178 If a “devoted woman” (holy woman) or a prostitute to whom her father has given dowry and a deed, therefore, but if in this deed (tithing to the Temple) it is not stated that she may bequeath it as she pleases, and has not explicitly stated that she has the right of disposal, if then her father die, then her brothers shall hold her field and Garden and give her corn, oil and milk according to her portion and satisfy her. If her brothers do not give her corn, oil and milk according to her share, then her field and garden shall support her so long as she lives, but she can not sell or assign it to others. Her position of inheritance belongs to her brothers.
#179 If a “sister of god” (temple woman) or a prostitute, receive a gift from her father, and a deed in which it has been explicitly stated that she may dispose of it as she pleases, and give her complete disposition thereof, if then her father dies, then she may leave her property to whomsoever she pleases. Her brothers can raise no claim thereto.
#180 If a father give a present to his daughter – either marriageable or a prostitute (unmarriageable) and then die, then she is to receive a portion as a child from the paternal estate, and enjoy it usufruct so long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers.
#181 If a father devote a temple-maid or temple virgin to god and give her no present: if then the father die she shall receive the third of a child’s portion from the inheritance of her father’s house and enjoy its usufruct so long as she lives. Her estate belongs to her brothers.
#182 If a father devote his daughter as wife of Mardi of Babylon (as in 181) and give her no present, nor a deed: if then her father dies, then shall she receive one-third of her portion as a child of her father’s house from her brothers, but Marduk may leave her estate to whomsoever she wishes.
#183 If a man give his daughter by a concubine a dowry, and a husband, and a deed, if then her father dies, she shall receive no portion from the paternal estate.
#184 If a man do not give a dowry to his daughter by a concubine, and no husband, then if her father die, her brother shall give her a dowry according to her father’s wealth and secure a husband for her.
#194 If a man give his child to a nurse and the child die in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurse another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off. (This is a practice of giving the infant to another woman who recently birthed a child and paying her to breastfeed your child along with her own. It was a practice of the wealthy giving children to the poorer classes to care for and breastfeed which will be continued into the Middle Ages among the nobility. Wetnurses did not have much choice in their profession, because they were an underclass.)
#209 If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten sheckels for her loss.
#210 If the woman dies, his daughter shall be put to death.
Epilogue excerpts
With the mighty weapons which Zamama and Ishtar entrusted to me.… I am the salvation-bearing sheperd.… May Belit, the great Mother, whose command is potent in E Kur (the Babylonian Olympus), the Mistress, who harkens graciously to my petitions … May Ishtar, the goddess of fighting and war, who unfetters my weapons, my gracious protecting spirit, who loveth my dominion, curse his kingdom in her angry heart: in her great wrath, change his grace into evil, and shatter his weapons on the place of fighting and war … May Nin-tu, the sublime mistress of the lands, the fruitful mother, deny him a son, vouchsafe him no name, give him no successor among men. May Ninkarak, the daughter of Anu, who adjudges grace to me, cause to come upon his members an E-kur high fever, severe wounds, than can not be healed, whose nature the physician does not understand, which he can not treat with dressing, which, like the bite of death can not be removed until they have sapped away his life.66
For Hammurabi to pray to the Great Goddess Ishtar, even in her transformed warrior status, for protection and vengeance over his enemies which are Her people, seems ingenuous at best. However, despite proclamations of peaceful intent, the king could not enforce his laws without force and coercion.
Can we today, even begin to fathom the outrage of free women who had guided Western humanity to this point in time, who are now considered the property of strangers as a consequence of some marks on a big black stone?
The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650–1500 BCE with archaic translation from the source.
This is a Hittite document: “Nesilim” is the name they call themselves. Much of the excepts available have to do with slaves and trading/borrowing. In most cases, the penalty is a fine, sometimes in money and sometimes in slaves, even in cases of murder! There are several more laws on workers and trade goods.
There is one extremely enigmatic law perhaps having to do with now forbidden div
ination, magic or sorcery because it involves the sacred serpent of the Goddess, a very steep monetary fine, and capital punishment for a slave offender. The slave is probably taken from the conquered peoples, no friend to the Hittites, and probably a follower of the Goddess Ishar or Innana. This law, which follows, may also refer to the prohibition against calling a curse down on another person:
#171 If a free man kill a serpent and speak the name of another, he shall give one pound of silver; if a slave, this one shall die.
It is now that we begin to witness the laws against sexual intercourse between human males and animals, because men were increasingly prevented from free and legal access to women, due to her ownership by father, brother or husband. From this time forward, male lawmakers seek to severely punish acts of bestiality by their brethren:
#187 If a man have intercourse with a cow, it is a capital crime, he shall die. They shall lead him to the king’s hall. But the king may kill him, the king may grant him life. But he shall not approach the king (the concept of a person being “unclean”).
#199 If anyone have intercourse with a pig or a dog, he shall die. If a man have intercourse with a horse or a mule, there is no punishment. But he shall not approach the king and shall not become a priest. If an ox spring upon a man for intercourse, the ox shall die but not the man. (That is, of course, assuming the man is still alive after a 1,000 pound animal “springs upon” him with such an intent!) One sheep shall be fetched as a substitute for the man, and they shall kill it. If a pig spring upon a man for intercourse, there is no punishment. If a man have intercourse with a foreign woman and pick up this one, now that one, there is no punishment.
All hilarity aside, and springing oxen or pigs notwithstanding, this a fascinatingly weird set of laws, but obviously ones that had enough human behavior evident to the lawmakers that they decided to codify punishment. The law distinguishes between a man soliciting sex with animals versus the animals (pigs, dogs and bovines) soliciting sex with men. If the man is the instigator, the punishment is death, unless the king pardons him or unless it is intercourse between men and horses or mules which is exempt from punishment for either the animal or the man. Why this exemption? One wonders if it is because the behavior is so frequent as to be thought “normal” or because it is so infrequent as to not be worth specific punishment? When, however, the issue is either pigs or oxen leaping about, intending to ambush the unsuspecting male and rape him, of course the offending beast rapidly becomes dead meat. It is virtually impossible to envision what these offenses must have looked like when human men and 400 lb pigs or 1,000 lb oxen tried to mate, but someone must have witnessed them, and more than once, for inclusion into these codes with such specificity.
The esteem in which “foreign” women (which means women of the Goddess cultures in surrounding areas not yet conquered) are held is obvious also, since they are included as an afterthought at the end of a law on Hittite males engaged in bestiality.
There are more laws on sexual intercourse, but these are between humans:
#188 If a man have intercourse with his own mother, he shall die. If a man have intercourse with a daughter, it is a capital crime, he shall die. If a man have intercourse with a son, it is a capital crime, he shall die.
#190 If a man and a woman come willingly, as men and women, and have intercourse, there shall be no punishment. And if a man have intercourse with his stepmother, there shall be no punishment; except if his father is living, it is a capital crime; the son shall die.
#191 If a free man pick up now this woman, now that one, now in this country, then in that country, there shall be no punishment if they come together sexually, willingly.
(This womanizing law is strange because the only women who would or could permit this behavior were equally free women and except for women of the Goddess, where were they? Other women were bound either to the house of their father or to the house of their husband, unless they were widows or divorced. Are we to understand this as being a law permitting womanizing with widows, divorcees, and Goddess women?)
#192 If the husband of a woman dies, his wife may take her husband’s patrimony.
(This means that the inheritance goes to her first.)
#194 If a free man pick up female slaves, now one, now another, there is no punishment for intercourse. If brothers sleep with a free woman, together, or one after the other, there is no punishment. If a father and son sleep with a female slave or harlot, together or one after the other, there is no punishment.
#195 If a man sleep with the wife of his brother, while the brother is living, it is a capital crime, he shall die. (Later, in some cultures, the brother is required to service his dead brother’s wife in order to keep her dowry in the family.) If a man have taken a free woman, then have intercourse also with her daughter, it is a capital crime, he shall die. If he have taken her daughter, then have intercourse with her mother or sister, it is a capital crime, he shall die. (Incest law.)
#197 If a man rape a woman in the mountain, it is the man’s wrong, he shall die. But if he rape her in the house, it is the woman’s fault, the woman shall die. If the husband find them and then kill them, there is no punishing the husband. (This law will be carried forward nearly intact well into modern times nearly everywhere in the Western world. The supposition is that no one could hear the woman if she screamed for help in the country, but help was more than available at the house in town. “Crime of passion” defense was used to justify the homicide by husband.)68
Moving forward in time brings us to the codes of the Assyrians. The reason all these codes or city laws are so important is that they create part of the foundation for Hebrew law when it comes into existence in Israel, the land of Canaan.
Hammurabi, the Hittites and the Assyrians were newcomers who did not share common language or customs with the people they invaded. So they had to create civil law codes in order to govern this amalgam of peoples. These sets of laws were in existence throughout the region during the time that the first books of the Old Testament are begun and they are quite distinct from later Greek and Roman secular laws, which are more accepting of various religions and customs dissimilar to their own.
The Code of the Assira c. 1075 BCE
In the Code of the Assyrians, c. 1075 BCE, the language is Akkadian, and these were people who had an empire established from Turkey through Northern Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf and down toward the Mediterranean Sea including Lebanon, Palestine, and into Egypt, from the seventh century BCE, and who influenced much of that area in the later dynasties. Some books of the New Testament were also written in Akkadian, then translated into Greek. Akkadian is a language that was widely spoken, as opposed to a language used for scholarship such as Latin and Hebrew, by virtue of the vast territorial empire under their control. These laws are especially brutal toward women.
1.20
“If a man have intercourse with his brother in arms; they shall turn him into a eunuch.” (Here castration is punishment to men by other men, applying to army life. It is not a law carried forward into Greco-Roman times, since that would have necessitated wholesale castration.)
1.40
“If the wives of a man, or the daughters of a man go out into the street, their heads are to veiled. The prostitute is not to be veiled. Maidservants are not to veil themselves. Veiled harlots and maidservants shall have their garments seized and 50 blows inflicted on them and bitumen (tar or asphalt used in cement or mortar in ancient Asia Minor) poured on their heads.” (Veiling of married women is now an easy way for men to tell who is already “owned” and who is not. This is heavy punishment for women, Temple women and servants. Why? Hair is believed to have magical qualities, over and above its ability to entice men. Married women were sometimes required to shave off their hair. Unmarried daughters were now required to be sexual virgins in order to be valued for marriage. Garments were clothing and had value also. Many people had only one or two sets of clothing, particularly servants, so the loss was su
bstantial. Beatings are beatings, but 50 blows is also substantial abuse. The worst punishment is having the tar poured on the woman. This would have mandated that her hair be sheared because there is no way to remove the tar. In order to pour the tar, it must be heated because otherwise it is too viscous to pour, so it would also be hot and probably scald her skin, likely scaring her. The sum total of the punishment is physical abuse, physical disfigurement, psychological terrorizing/shaming.)
1.47
“If a man or woman practices sorcery, and they be caught with it in their hands, they shall prosecute them; they shall convict them. The practice of magic they shall put to death.” (What is now called sorcery and magic are actually the divination and healing practices of the other culture, and part of their power. If the practitioners are killed, eventually it is assumed that the practice will disappear. It is important to note that the Old Testament takes this law and repeats it almost verbatim in Leviticus, laws which then are no longer secular but have been transformed into the sacred.)
1.52
“If a woman of her own accord drop that which is in her (miscarriage/abortion), they shall prosecute her, they shall convict her, they shall crucify her, they shall not bury her. If she die from dropping that which is in her, they shall crucify her (even dead); they shall not bury her.”
****This law is to become part of the horrors of the European Inquisition. Then they will bind women to the stake and burn them. If they died before the Inquisition got to them, their bodies would be exhumed and they would be burned. This law goes further than anything before it in assuming that the child in the womb is not the mother’s but belongs to the ruling patriarchy. Doubt it? Consider this: If the woman dies in the process of miscarriage, even if accidental and not intended, the penalty is the same! Crucifixion is a public act of terror and pain if one is alive; it is intended to shame relatives if the woman is dead. And, if her body is never buried, her spirit never rests. In many cultures, this practice would guarantee that her ghost would haunt the perpetrators forever.
Daughters of the Inquisition Page 14