An Eye for a Eye

An eye for an eye was a pretty common way to solve problems in the ancient world and many cultures adopted it. There are many similarities in laws about justice and social responsibility between the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Hebrews. For instance all three cultures have laws about not hurting ones own parents, but the consequences differ for each culture. The Mesopotamians say that if a son strikes his father his hand would be cut off, but in the Egyptian culture the son would be put to death.

The Egyptians ideas of social responsibility were numerous and included not scorning the gods, causing no pain, causing no hunger, having not killed any one, and having not stolen. Slaves were common in Egypt past the Old Kingdom, and there were provisions to make sure that they were not totally mistreated. A king or any one else could not have an after life if they oppressed or caused the harm of slaves. Homosexuality was also looked down upon in the Egyptian society; if a man had sexual relations with another man it could stop them from have an afterlife. Most of the peoples in Egypt were free people and were allowed to do as they wish for the most part, as long as they paid their taxes to the kings, they did mostly in the way of labor. Women generally had the same rights legal rights as men; women devoted themselves mainly to private life, managing their households and property where as the males dominated public life. The Egyptians sought spells and charms to ward off demons, smooth the course of love, exact revenge on enemies and find relief from disease. The most important thing to the Egyptians was their devotion to the many gods that they worshipped; they invented a calendar for administrative and fiscal purposes which had 365 days in it. In an attempt to reform religion a pharaoh named Akhenaten created a cult that excluded all other gods and their supporters. This was close to the Hebrews religion of monotheism but not quite because it did not revoke the divine status of the king.

Although the Egyptians had many rules that they had to follow in order to have a favorable after life, they didnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t always follow the rules and not commit sins. For this reason they had the book of the dead, which had spells in it to cover any shortcomings that the person had. This book ensured a successful verdict in the divine judgment that every soul had to pass. Both the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians believed in magic and relied on it for everyday use because they believed that many illnesses were cause by evil spirits and the only way to protect them was the use of magic.

Unlike the Egyptians the Mesopotamians didnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t believe in an afterlife. They believed that what ever fortune they were going to get was going to be in this life and depended solely on how they respected the gods. If the peoples didnÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦t worship the gods they believed that their lives would become miserable. The expansion of commerce created a high demand for fairness and reliability in contracts and other business arrangements. It was the kingÐ'ÐŽÐ'¦s sacred duty to render justice to his subjects in all sorts of cases, from commercial disputes to crime; it is for this reason that the Mesopotamians had many laws. Many of the laws were the same as the Egyptians but the punishments for the breaking of these laws were perhaps a little more severe than in Egypt. In Mesopotamia if a man breaks into a house, he shall be killed before the breach and walled in. If a man weaves a spell and causes another the death of another man, then the spell caster shall be put to death. This way of law is called an eye for an eye because if a commoner causes another commoners tooth to fall out then his shall also be knocked out.

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