Mesopotamian and Egyptian Civilizations



The rampant flood which no man can oppose, Which shakes the heavens and causes earth to tremble, In an appalling blanket folds mother and child, Beats down the canebrake's full luxuriant greenery, And drowns the harvest in its time of ripeness.

Rising waters, grievous to eyes of man, All-powerful flood, which forces the embankments And mows down mighty trees, Frenzied storm, tearing all things in massed confusion With it in hurtling speed.

(Mesopotamian poem)


What has he planned? . . . What is in my father's heart? What is in Enlil's holy mind? What has he planned against me in his holy mind? A net he spread: the net of an enemy; a snare he set: the snare of an enemy He has stirred up the waters and will catch the fishes, he has cast his net, and will bring down the birds too.

(Hymn to Enlil)


The bringer of food, rich in provisions, creator of all good, lord of majesty, sweet of fragrance. . . . He who . . . fills the magazines, makes the granaries wide, and gives things to the poor. He who makes every beloved tree to grow . . .

(Hymn to the Nile)


Excerpts from the Law Code of Hammurabi

seignior = any free man of the upper class

129. If the wife of a seignior has been caught while lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the water. If the husband of the woman wishes to spare his wife, then the king in turn may spare his subject.
196. If a seignior has destroyed the eye of a member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his eye.
198. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner . . ., he shall pay on mina of silver.
199. If he has destroyed the eye of a seignior's slave . . ., he shall pay one-half his value.
209. If a seignior struck another seignior's daughter and has caused her to have a miscarriage, he shall pay ten shekels of silver for her fetus.
211. If by a blow he has caused a commoner's daughter to have a miscarriage, he shall pay five shekels of silver.
213. If he struck a seignior's female slave and has caused her to have a miscarriage, he shall pay two shekels of silver.

If a male slave has said to his master, 'You are not my master,' his master shall prove him to be his slave and cut off his ear.
If a seignior has knocked out the tooth of a seignior of his own rank, they shall knock out his tooth. If he has knocked out a commoner's tooth, he shall pay one-third mina of silver.


More of the Code of Hammurabi