Similarities Between Gilgamesh And The Code Of Hammurabi

In ancient times, when humans were in the infant stage of development of human history, humans’ understandings of nature were just based on their imagination. While facing the powerful forces of nature, people are aware that their own strength is pretty small, and their fate is controlled by an invisible power-- they called this unknown force “god”. With the passage of time, people seem to foresee the possibility of overcoming nature, and they begin to look forward to their own peers, a powerful figure, to complete the great cause of beating nature, which inspired the idea of religion. From The Epic of Gilgamesh and The code of Hammurabi, we could have an overview on how religion emerged, changed and worked in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia held

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, he “[sounded] the tocsin of this amusement, his arrogance [had] no bounds by day or night”, and by his power he forced city residents to build his walls and temples, leaving “no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of noble.”(4) He was described as an excessive brutal king, and thus aroused people’s anger. At that time, the social contradiction between social class and the strict domination aroused strong dissatisfaction. But citizens were not enough to fight against power, and they had nowhere to release and suppressed it year after year. It was because of this situation, people begged for the appearance of Enkidu, and were eager to look for the leadership of a wise and humane king. The code of Hammurabi provided an insight on the social structure of Babylon: the triangle structure with the top of the king, priests, and aristocrats, middle with free citizens and bottom with slaves. This code did not guarantee the basic right of slaves and the punishment for misbehavior was different from the social class. The social status of slaves was under the bottom of society, and they served as the labor machines (If someone broke your machine, what he or she need to do is pay for the cost.) For example, according to the code 221-223, the payment for healing broken bones was varied from social class, five shekels for top class, three for a freed man, and only two for slaves. But if someone killed a slave, then what she or he need to do was to pay one-third of mina. (Code