Essay On The Difference Between Hammurabi And Gilgamesh

Kingship, as an institution, has existed for millennia and been the foundation of most of the world's greatest superpowers. From the British Empire to the Pharaohs, kings dominated nearly all of written history. Nowhere was this truer than in the cradle of civilization; Mesopotamia. These early peoples pioneered nearly every idea ever conceived regarding kingship, ever since the great Gilgamesh embarked on his adventures with Enkidu in one of the oldest stories still in circulation. However, Mesopotamian kingship had many facets and duties, and each kingdom and time period required different qualities from a king. By examining two of Mesopotamia's most successful kings: Hammurabi and Naram-Sin, the differences in how each of them embodied Mesopotamian

ideals based on their society and time period, become clear. In short, though both Naram-Sin and Hammurabi were successful and renowned long after their deaths, their differences illustrate the differences between their kingdoms and their approaches to governing the people.
When Naram-Sin inherited the throne, he had control over the ruler of the first empire in human history. His grandfather, Sargon the Great, began the empire when he conquered Sumer and lands as far west as the Mediterranean Sea.1 From then on, the empire continued to expand, with Naram-Sin's rule marking the empire's peak after conquering the city of Elba.2 Naram-Sin's kingship embodied the ideal of the "divine protector" king- one who defends his people and defeats his enemies soundly. This is most evident in a victory stele of him, depicting one of his greatest accomplishments: his defeat of the Lullubi people. In the stele, Naram-Sin depicts himself as a divine, towering figure, who tramples over the crushed bodies of his enemies to ascend to a godlike status.3 His divinity is further illustrated by the helmet he wears- a clothing item reserved for gods- and the sacred solar rays protecting him from above.4 This depiction harkens back to Gilgamesh, one of the most famous Mesopotamian kings. As the Akkadian Empire expanded, the Akkadians became exposed to Sumerian art and culture, and there's a possibility that Naram-Sin got inspiration from the portrayal of divine kingship in ancient Mesopotamia. In the inscription on the Basetki statue, his godliness spells itself out, which details his defeat of the "four regions" that rebelled against him, with the help of the goddess Ishtar.5 Not only that, but the story concludes with Naram-Sin becoming the god of Akkad and building his temple within the city.6 The meaning of the stele and inscription was clear to everyone: Naram-Sin is the god of his people, and all enemies of the empire will shatter beneath his heel. A perfect message for a great conqueror.
By contrast, Hammurabi's reign stands out, not because of conquest, but due to his concepts of law and enforcing justice.

One of the Mesopotamian king's duties to his people was to report and enforce divine justice, known as Shamash according to Hunt, and no one embodied this more than Hammurabi.7 He even states in the introduction to the codes that the god Marduk” commissioned me to guide the people aright, to direct the land."8 After drawing on the previous law codes, Hammurabi created the set of laws that would define western ideas of justice for years to come.9 The majority of his laws dealt with property and carrying out justice within the strict social hierarchy that Mesopotamian society revolved around. This was largely due to the amount of trade and commerce occurring between the Babylonians and the Assyrians at the time, with the Assyrians acting as “middle men” between themselves, Babylon, and Anatolia.10 For example, his most famous law "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" came from these law codes, as the philosophy when it came to punishment was for equality within classes.11 Hammurabi's reign was also distinct from Naram-Sin's in how he was depicted. He describes himself in the law codes as a "devout, god-fearing prince" and a messenger of the gods' will.12 Hammurabi sees himself not as an equal to the gods, but as their servant. This distinction separates him from the divine kings of the past, while still asserting his worthiness to rule. Because of these traits, though his kingdom was smaller in size than Naram-Sin's, his ideas and philosophy kept his legacy alive thousands of years after his

death.
Now, thousands of years after the Mesopotamian civilization collapsed, Naram-Sin and Hammurabi stand as two contrasting pillars of Mesopotamian kingship. Due to either expanding an empire or trading with other countries, each king ruled the best way possible for the period they lived and met specific needs within their domain. When one examines these diverse monarchs, one sees the differences in not only their mark on history, but their place in the history of kingship. They sit amongst figures like Ramses, Alexander, and Cyrus, as living legends and founders of Western civilization. Without these leaders paving the way for the empires of the modern era, the world would be a completely different landscape than what one sees today.