Hammurabi was a great Babylonian ruler who governed his country under strict laws.The Code of Hammurabi was the first written law of moral conduct to influence the way modern man rules over his domain until this very day.It included several crimes and their punishments.These punishments were very harsh, and Hammurabi would have no problem putting someone to death for the slightest offense.The Code is most known for “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, or the punishment is similar to the crime.Examples of the same social laws are included in the “Inferno”.
The “Inferno” consists of many allusions to Hammurabi’s Code.Throughout his journey through hell, Dante encountered different kinds of sinners for each level.Every person in hell is punished according to his or her sins, and the crimes and punishments increase as Dante goes further down.The best examples of the punishment fitting the crime are in Cantos thirty-three and thirty-four where the traitors of their country and traitors of guests and hosts are located.Dante looked at the sinners in an icy hole and found Count Ugolino “gnawing his companion’s [Archbishop Ruggieri] head”.This is because Ruggieri betrayed Ugolino and locked him and his sons in a cell to starve to death or eat each other (“Inferno” 761).
This scene is like Hammurabi’s Code because the punishment fits the crime.Nothing could be a more suitable punishment than to gnaw at the head of a person who starves people to death. This eternal damnation is the most extreme example of Hammurabi’s Code.
Alighieri,
Dante.“From the Inferno: from the
Divine Comedy.”World Literature,
Revised
Edition.Austin:
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1998.761-769.
The
textbook contains stories from different literatures from around the world
and throughout time.The “Inferno”
has pictures and footnotes.Questions
are located at the end.
Hammurabi.“Hammurabi’s
Code of Laws.”Readings of the
Ancient Near East.Exploring
Ancient
World Cultures.Trans.King,
L.W.1997.28
Feb.2000
<http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/hammurabi.htm>
The
site contains many documents and links about other cultures.The
“Hammurabi’s Code of Laws” has a brief long biography followed by the laws
themselves.