Examples Of Code Of Hammurabi
Take Home Exam #1
Discuss the legal concept of lex talionis (retributive justice) of which Hammurabi's code (among others) is an example. How does this differ from distributive (or corrective) justice? How does this compare to our system of justice in the U.S. today?
Lex Talionis follows the ideology of retributive justice, one of four types of justice that is mainly affixed on punishment. An example of this would be- the old phrase, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" which is a paraphrase derived from Hammurabi's code. Hammurabi's code is "a Babylonian legal code of the 18th century b.c. or earlier, instituted by Hammurabi and dealing with criminal and civil matters". [1] Detailed in the code were consequences for a number of scenarios ranging from assault, accusation, debt, family matters, farming and herding animals, and the ownership of slaves. This code was compiled for more than keeping order within his kingdom, in addition it was created to unify his expanding kingdom. Hammurabi foresaw that in order to maintain justice he would need a single set of laws to have all the diverse people in his land abide …show more content…
by. He sent his legal experts throughout the kingdom to gather existing laws so he could liquidate them into only the ones he saw fit. [2]
With the laws in writing no one could use an excuse of being ignorant and not knowing the law since they have been laid out in stone. This is also significant with modern day laws, just because you personally don't know a certain law doesn’t mean that you wont be tried for it to it's fullest extent in a court of law. There are also many vast differences between how it was back in the Mesopotamian days and current times, one being that accusers had to bring the accused into court by themselves. Which by today's standards would be a daunting request if the accused allegedly did harsh crimes such as murder. Also, unlike today's judicial culture, the gods played an immense role in certain cases. "A number of the laws refer to jumping in the Euphrates River as a method of demonstrating one's guilt or innocence. If the accused returned to shore safely, they were deemed innocent; if they drowned, they were guilty. This practice follows the Babylonians' belief that their fates were controlled by their gods." [2]
Another considerable difference between then and now depending on your point of view is that punishments were determined based on your lane of class, whether you were a noblemen, common folk or a lowly slave. For instance "If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they shall destroy his eye .... If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner ... he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman's slave ... he shall pay half the slave's price."[2] On a wide scale this simply doesn't fly in the U.S. but there are certain privileged few, such as celebrities and the rich who can afford exceptional lawyers, that receive a light slap on the wrist or completely get away with their crimes.
In contrast to retributive justice, there is also distributive justice which instead of punishment, focuses on fairness. "Some possible criteria of distribution are equity, equality, and need. Equity meaning that one's rewards should be equal to one's contributions to a society, while "equality" means that everyone gets the same amount, regardless of their input." [3] Normally after spurned attempts at distributive justice, people will turn to other forms of justice. Yet another form of justice is Restorative justice, which embodies the idea of compensation, or putting things back as they were. The simplest form of restorative justice is simply a straightforward apology. All these different types of justices makes me wonder about which going to prison would fall under. If the intent is to prevent criminals from committing the same crime then it appears to be restorative justice. On the other hand if it's to punish the offenders then it must be retributive. Regardless of which justice it is, both of those types fail to prevent crimes initially as well as distributive and procedural justices. Although the epic focuses on the "buddy-movie" relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, female characters (both human and divine) play important roles in expressing the sub-text of the story. Characters to consider: Shamhat, Ishtar, Siduri, Ninsun, Utnapishtim's Wife (address at least two)
Regardless of how you wish to depict the legendary "bro-venture" in the epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, you can't deny the important female roles, divine or not that progress the story with expressive subtext. To my understanding, the subtext implies that women represent the balance found and needed in life. The women in this tale embody power and wisdom, along with temptation and destruction. As interpreted by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, "Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. As he progresses in the slow initiation which is life, the form of the goddess undergoes for him a series of transfigurations: she can never be greater than himself, though she can always promise more than he is yet capable of comprehending. She lures, she guides, she bids him burst his fetters. And if he can match her import, the two, the knower and the known, will be released from every limitation."[4] Based on that quote it is a woman, then, who is the greatest aid to the hero since she can provide him with the information he requires to change himself and the world. It's the hero’s duty to recognize this condition of the fairer sex and treat it proportionally by either refuting their seductions or by harnessing the power that they impersonate.
Enkidu’s transformation into a civilized man begins with his sexual initiation by the divine whore Shamhat. Representing wisdom and temptation Shamhat tames Enkidu by getting him to lay with her. Thus destroying the life he knew as the animals no longer accepted him as one of them and he could no longer cohabitate with them. This signifies the onset of Enkidu becoming civilized, going on to eat human food, adorn himself in clothing, and to practice hygene as he personified civic duty with the nearby shepard village. I find this symbolic imparticular because Enkidu use to run wild, now no longer accepted by his animal community protects civilization against them. Consummating his union with the temple priestess has introduced Enkidu into domesticated life, Enkidu realizes “that his mind had somehow grown larger, / he knew things now that an animal can’t know” (79)[5] Enkidu loses a portion his animal attributes but the trade-off is that he gains self-consciousness and his humanity.This is just the first impact of how women affect the storyline throughout the epic.
Another prominent female in Gilgamesh is the alewife, Siduri. Gilgamesh encounters her after traversing the Mashu tunnels of darkness in search of Utnapishtim after Enkidu’s death looking for a means of immortality. When the King of Uruk explains himself and the nature of his journey, Siduri questions his judgment, and offers her knowledge. "Gilgamesh, whither are you wandering? Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands. Gilgamesh, fill your belly. Day and night make merry. Let days be full of joy, dance and make music day and night. And wear fresh clothes. And wash your head and bathe. Look at the child that is holding your hand, and let your wife delight in your embrace. These things alone are the concern of men." (168-9)[5] Siduri encourages Gilgamesh to put aside his bereavement and to get on with life sans his brother Enkidu. If he doesn't he is simply running away from death, which is very anticlimactic for the ultimate hero to be doing. Although Gilgamesh doesn't heed her advice, Siduri offers him logical wisdom.Inevitabbly, by rejecting her wisdom and assistance, Gilgamesh endures great suffering and eventually fails in his grand quest to become immortal. Possibly the most important female figure in the poem is the goddess Ishtar, who represents the destructive power of women's will. Ishtar guarantees Gilgamesh the world and everything in it in exchange for his love. When Gilgamesh denies Ishtar’s seduction, he unknowingly seals Enkidu's fate. "Your price is too high, / such riches are far beyond my means. / Tell me, how could I ever repay you [….] And what would happen to me / when your heart turns elsewhere and your lust burns out?” (132)[5]. “Fully to behold her would be a terrible accident for any person not spiritually prepared”(115)[4] It's up for debate if it was a wise decision to deny Ishtar, but this choice shows that Gilgamesh is mindful of his limitations and aware of his the goddesses intentions. He lists off her past lovers and their inevitable demise questioning, “And why would my fate be any different? / If I too became your lover, you would treat me / as cruelly as you treated them” (135).
The Christian Ideology of sublimation was entirely foreign to the Mesopotamians, who percoeved that this world is the only wolrd you get, as illustrated by Enkidu when he tells Gilgamesh his visions of the underworld. Christians encourage it's followers to save their bodies in their mortal life for it will provide many treasures in heaven.The Mesopotamians however see sex as a connection to life's power as seen in how Shamhat domesticates Enkidu and how Gilgamesh recreates the sexual acts of Ishtar and Tammuz. This is why it was such a big conflict when Gilgamesh spurned Ishtar, he was denying life itself. The sacred prostitues didn't demonstrate moral frailty or be casted in a negative light as the whores of today normally are, instead they were seen as embodiments of divineness.
In my personal opinion I feel that it is true that women naturally have a lot of power even though "It's a mans world"[6] as eloquently put by James Brown, It seems that men ultimately seek the things in life they want in order to find a considerable mate, bringing their life balance. Just like how it is in nature, essentially the most alpha male gets the desired women and gets to perserve their genetics. Regardless of how the individual sees it, the basic purpose of your existence is to keep your species going. The males hunt and gather, protecting their flock, while the women nurture the young. Sure today it's a little more sophisticated but it's not that different. Men get money because money impresses women and shows a sence of security, and in life the first necessity is safety. I feel like women provide balance to life in many different ways, but the most important woild be giving you a role to play opposite of so that you can share responsibilities. Page Break Bibliography
[1] "Code of Hammurabai." Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/code%2Bof%2Bhammurabi>.
[2] "Hammurabi's Code: An Eye for an Eye." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014. <http://www.ushistory.org/civ/4c.asp>.
[3] "Types of Justice | Beyond Intractability." Types of Justice | Beyond Intractability. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/types-of-justice>.
[4] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1949
[5] George, A. R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
[6] Brown, James. James Brown - It's a Man's World. Polydor/Universal Records, 1966. Vinyl
recording.
Discuss the legal concept of lex talionis (retributive justice) of which Hammurabi's code (among others) is an example. How does this differ from distributive (or corrective) justice? How does this compare to our system of justice in the U.S. today?
Lex Talionis follows the ideology of retributive justice, one of four types of justice that is mainly affixed on punishment. An example of this would be- the old phrase, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" which is a paraphrase derived from Hammurabi's code. Hammurabi's code is "a Babylonian legal code of the 18th century b.c. or earlier, instituted by Hammurabi and dealing with criminal and civil matters". [1] Detailed in the code were consequences for a number of scenarios ranging from assault, accusation, debt, family matters, farming and herding animals, and the ownership of slaves. This code was compiled for more than keeping order within his kingdom, in addition it was created to unify his expanding kingdom. Hammurabi foresaw that in order to maintain justice he would need a single set of laws to have all the diverse people in his land abide …show more content…
by. He sent his legal experts throughout the kingdom to gather existing laws so he could liquidate them into only the ones he saw fit. [2]
With the laws in writing no one could use an excuse of being ignorant and not knowing the law since they have been laid out in stone. This is also significant with modern day laws, just because you personally don't know a certain law doesn’t mean that you wont be tried for it to it's fullest extent in a court of law. There are also many vast differences between how it was back in the Mesopotamian days and current times, one being that accusers had to bring the accused into court by themselves. Which by today's standards would be a daunting request if the accused allegedly did harsh crimes such as murder. Also, unlike today's judicial culture, the gods played an immense role in certain cases. "A number of the laws refer to jumping in the Euphrates River as a method of demonstrating one's guilt or innocence. If the accused returned to shore safely, they were deemed innocent; if they drowned, they were guilty. This practice follows the Babylonians' belief that their fates were controlled by their gods." [2]
Another considerable difference between then and now depending on your point of view is that punishments were determined based on your lane of class, whether you were a noblemen, common folk or a lowly slave. For instance "If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they shall destroy his eye .... If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner ... he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman's slave ... he shall pay half the slave's price."[2] On a wide scale this simply doesn't fly in the U.S. but there are certain privileged few, such as celebrities and the rich who can afford exceptional lawyers, that receive a light slap on the wrist or completely get away with their crimes.
In contrast to retributive justice, there is also distributive justice which instead of punishment, focuses on fairness. "Some possible criteria of distribution are equity, equality, and need. Equity meaning that one's rewards should be equal to one's contributions to a society, while "equality" means that everyone gets the same amount, regardless of their input." [3] Normally after spurned attempts at distributive justice, people will turn to other forms of justice. Yet another form of justice is Restorative justice, which embodies the idea of compensation, or putting things back as they were. The simplest form of restorative justice is simply a straightforward apology. All these different types of justices makes me wonder about which going to prison would fall under. If the intent is to prevent criminals from committing the same crime then it appears to be restorative justice. On the other hand if it's to punish the offenders then it must be retributive. Regardless of which justice it is, both of those types fail to prevent crimes initially as well as distributive and procedural justices. Although the epic focuses on the "buddy-movie" relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, female characters (both human and divine) play important roles in expressing the sub-text of the story. Characters to consider: Shamhat, Ishtar, Siduri, Ninsun, Utnapishtim's Wife (address at least two)
Regardless of how you wish to depict the legendary "bro-venture" in the epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, you can't deny the important female roles, divine or not that progress the story with expressive subtext. To my understanding, the subtext implies that women represent the balance found and needed in life. The women in this tale embody power and wisdom, along with temptation and destruction. As interpreted by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, "Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know. As he progresses in the slow initiation which is life, the form of the goddess undergoes for him a series of transfigurations: she can never be greater than himself, though she can always promise more than he is yet capable of comprehending. She lures, she guides, she bids him burst his fetters. And if he can match her import, the two, the knower and the known, will be released from every limitation."[4] Based on that quote it is a woman, then, who is the greatest aid to the hero since she can provide him with the information he requires to change himself and the world. It's the hero’s duty to recognize this condition of the fairer sex and treat it proportionally by either refuting their seductions or by harnessing the power that they impersonate.
Enkidu’s transformation into a civilized man begins with his sexual initiation by the divine whore Shamhat. Representing wisdom and temptation Shamhat tames Enkidu by getting him to lay with her. Thus destroying the life he knew as the animals no longer accepted him as one of them and he could no longer cohabitate with them. This signifies the onset of Enkidu becoming civilized, going on to eat human food, adorn himself in clothing, and to practice hygene as he personified civic duty with the nearby shepard village. I find this symbolic imparticular because Enkidu use to run wild, now no longer accepted by his animal community protects civilization against them. Consummating his union with the temple priestess has introduced Enkidu into domesticated life, Enkidu realizes “that his mind had somehow grown larger, / he knew things now that an animal can’t know” (79)[5] Enkidu loses a portion his animal attributes but the trade-off is that he gains self-consciousness and his humanity.This is just the first impact of how women affect the storyline throughout the epic.
Another prominent female in Gilgamesh is the alewife, Siduri. Gilgamesh encounters her after traversing the Mashu tunnels of darkness in search of Utnapishtim after Enkidu’s death looking for a means of immortality. When the King of Uruk explains himself and the nature of his journey, Siduri questions his judgment, and offers her knowledge. "Gilgamesh, whither are you wandering? Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands. Gilgamesh, fill your belly. Day and night make merry. Let days be full of joy, dance and make music day and night. And wear fresh clothes. And wash your head and bathe. Look at the child that is holding your hand, and let your wife delight in your embrace. These things alone are the concern of men." (168-9)[5] Siduri encourages Gilgamesh to put aside his bereavement and to get on with life sans his brother Enkidu. If he doesn't he is simply running away from death, which is very anticlimactic for the ultimate hero to be doing. Although Gilgamesh doesn't heed her advice, Siduri offers him logical wisdom.Inevitabbly, by rejecting her wisdom and assistance, Gilgamesh endures great suffering and eventually fails in his grand quest to become immortal. Possibly the most important female figure in the poem is the goddess Ishtar, who represents the destructive power of women's will. Ishtar guarantees Gilgamesh the world and everything in it in exchange for his love. When Gilgamesh denies Ishtar’s seduction, he unknowingly seals Enkidu's fate. "Your price is too high, / such riches are far beyond my means. / Tell me, how could I ever repay you [….] And what would happen to me / when your heart turns elsewhere and your lust burns out?” (132)[5]. “Fully to behold her would be a terrible accident for any person not spiritually prepared”(115)[4] It's up for debate if it was a wise decision to deny Ishtar, but this choice shows that Gilgamesh is mindful of his limitations and aware of his the goddesses intentions. He lists off her past lovers and their inevitable demise questioning, “And why would my fate be any different? / If I too became your lover, you would treat me / as cruelly as you treated them” (135).
The Christian Ideology of sublimation was entirely foreign to the Mesopotamians, who percoeved that this world is the only wolrd you get, as illustrated by Enkidu when he tells Gilgamesh his visions of the underworld. Christians encourage it's followers to save their bodies in their mortal life for it will provide many treasures in heaven.The Mesopotamians however see sex as a connection to life's power as seen in how Shamhat domesticates Enkidu and how Gilgamesh recreates the sexual acts of Ishtar and Tammuz. This is why it was such a big conflict when Gilgamesh spurned Ishtar, he was denying life itself. The sacred prostitues didn't demonstrate moral frailty or be casted in a negative light as the whores of today normally are, instead they were seen as embodiments of divineness.
In my personal opinion I feel that it is true that women naturally have a lot of power even though "It's a mans world"[6] as eloquently put by James Brown, It seems that men ultimately seek the things in life they want in order to find a considerable mate, bringing their life balance. Just like how it is in nature, essentially the most alpha male gets the desired women and gets to perserve their genetics. Regardless of how the individual sees it, the basic purpose of your existence is to keep your species going. The males hunt and gather, protecting their flock, while the women nurture the young. Sure today it's a little more sophisticated but it's not that different. Men get money because money impresses women and shows a sence of security, and in life the first necessity is safety. I feel like women provide balance to life in many different ways, but the most important woild be giving you a role to play opposite of so that you can share responsibilities. Page Break Bibliography
[1] "Code of Hammurabai." Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/code%2Bof%2Bhammurabi>.
[2] "Hammurabi's Code: An Eye for an Eye." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014. <http://www.ushistory.org/civ/4c.asp>.
[3] "Types of Justice | Beyond Intractability." Types of Justice | Beyond Intractability. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014. <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/types-of-justice>.
[4] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1949
[5] George, A. R. The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
[6] Brown, James. James Brown - It's a Man's World. Polydor/Universal Records, 1966. Vinyl
recording.