The 1 Great Hammurabi of Babylon crafted the laws written in The Code of Hammurabi because he believed the gods wanted certain principles delivered and thus carried out by the people. The gods wanted the people of Babylon to display proper etiquette, but in reality never wanted some of these horrid regulations enforced on the population. The Code of Hammurabi contains actual rulings by Hammurabi himself in particular legal cases. Local governors and judges would be able to impose these rules without ever having to revert back to asking Hammurabi for the correct ruling. Hammurabi tried to make sure these laws would help all genders and ages of society. Parents and children had very special, close relationships in the Old Babylonian culture. More specifically, father-son relationships and father-children relationships were very important in the Babylonian culture as evident by the constant references in The Code of Hammuarbi. Fathers played a vital role in all his children's lives. Although a reader can probably infer that a law was meant for a son, the law states the word "children" so that includes any daughter as well. The only time The Code of Hammurabi ever refers to daughters is if the man would stoop to have sex with his own daughter. The result of incest would be the father's shipment out of the city (Code # 154). Babylonian society wanted to protect the children's money that they would receive whenever their mother would die. When a mother died, her children would receive her dowry not her husband (Code #162). With the children receiving the dowry instead of their father, it would prevent the father from taking the money and leaving the children behind with nothing. The mother's dowry would always go to her offspring never to the father because it would prevent a man from marrying women constantly and collecting their dowries whenever they died (Code #167).
2 In old Babylon, the father-son relationship was critical for a family's future generations. Everything the father knew would slowly and meticulously passed down to his son so one day he would be able to carry out the necessary procedures later to run the family. Certain laws were established in The Code of Hammurabi to certain make the boys of the family would grow up the proper way. Respect was a prime quality that every boy should grasp. All boys of the family would be coherent of this because if they ever hit their father, one of their hands would be sliced off (Code #154). The man of the family can always be seen as the "moneymaker". Therefore, he would be delegating inheritance to his sons. A father cannot simply just disinherit his son; he would have to go through a process of visiting a judge. If the father has no evidence of misconduct by his son, then the judge would not allow him to disinherit his son (Code #168). Hammurabi made sure that a boy, who is so valued in the old Babylonian culture, would not be just thrown out on the street with nothing. When a son came to proper age in Babylonian culture, it would be time for him to get married. In order to make sure the family's golden child had a proper spouse, old Babylonian culture had the father choose the bride for their son. After the son has had sex with his bride, if the father in turn has sex with the bride, according to old Babylonian law the father will be thrown into a river to drown (Code #155). A problem that old Babylonian society realized that a son would not only inherit funds but also characteristics from his father. In result, Hammuarbi established laws to keep the sons of the family in check. If a son has sex with his mother after his father has died, they will both be burned to death (Code #157). The civilization of Babylon wanted to prevent incest of son's with their mothers. Hammurabi instilled another law that stated if a son had sex with his foster mother after his foster father was dead, he would be sent away from the family (Code #158). Hammurabi wanted to make it clear that incest was not acceptable in the old Babylonian culture.
3 Many laws were developed in order to protect the children because parents were such a crucial factor in their children's young lives. Children were the succeeding generation of their parents and therefore were valued so much. Babylonian boys were more significant to society because The Code of Hammurabi refers to sons more time then not, while daughters are simply mentioned once.