Discuss the context and content of the Law Code of Hammurabi and what the text tells us about family relations and class division in Mesopotamian society.
What will be an ideal response?
The ideal answer should include:
- Hammurabi imposed order over a chaotic Mesopotamia in which various independent city-states had been thriving.
- Though not the first of its kind, the Law Code of Hammurabi is by far the most complete set of laws from the period and was intended to continue as law after the ruler's death.
- As it appears on the stele, the Law Code of Hammurabi is a record of decisions and decrees made by Hammurabi over the course of some 40 years of his reign.
- It introduced the principle of talion (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth).
- The code reinforced the legal interpretation of gender roles, in which women were subject to men, as though they were slaves.
- The greatest concern was the maintenance and protection of the family.
- It included a relief that depicts Hammurabi receiving the blessings of Shamash, the sun god.
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