seems strange that Tarraco did not possess a bishop, but there is no evidence that such was the case. Of the conflict between oriental cults and Christianity we hear nothing directly during these centuries, but the paucity of our data from Bætica may be an indirect evidence of the struggle. CAMBRIDGE, February, 1911. THE CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE DAVID GORDON LYON Harvard University THE Hammurabi Code is devoted strictly to civil, secular affairs. Several of its laws make mention of the god, the temple, and the religious devotee, never, however, as prime objects of legislation. When religious characters and institutions are mentioned at all, it is on account of their relation to the civil, social topics considered by the legislator. Though Hammurabi was deeply devoted to religion, as appears in the prologue and the epilogue to the Code, no feature of the Code itself is clearer than that its material and aims are entirely secular. The religious characters named in the Code are certain classes of devotees, all of whom are women. The laws relating to this subject are not grouped together, as naturally would be the case, if the devotees had been thought of as one of the topics of legislation, but are scattered, singly or in small groups, through the Code. The list, with the 1 See an article on The Structure of the Hammurabi Code, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 25. 248 ff. (1904). * Various other subjects are similarly broken up and scattered. This has led some students to the conclusion that there is no sustained coherency or system in the Code. Others find system, indeed, but only of an artificial kind, arrived at by laying on the Code a framework of their own devising. I refer here in particular to Professor J. Kohler of Berlin, who has given much attention to the interpretation of the Code. In the article referred to under note1 I criticised the analysis of the Code given by him and Peiser. In a brief rejoinder, Hammurabi's Gesetz, 3. 221 f. (1909), the criticism is rejected. I can hardly think that the grounds of it were clearly understood. My analysis shows that the laws are very carefully arranged under the two heads Property and Person, that each of these has three subheads, and each subhead still smaller divisions, down to the individual laws. The proof of the correctness of this scheme is to read the Code with this analysis in hand. The analysis ascribed to me in the work just cited is something quite different. subject of the respective laws, is here appended. It shows that the devotees are introduced in sixteen laws, which appear in seven different connections in the Code. NUMBER AND SUBJECT OF THE LAWS 40. Sale of Real Estate. 110. Wine Shops. 137. Divorce.3 144-147. Rights of Women. 178-182. Inheritance. 187, 192, 193. Adoption of Children. The object of this paper is to inquire into the character and standing of these devotees, whom from other sources we know to have been numerous and in certain cases wealthy and influential. Regarding their religious functions, the Code, concerning itself entirely with matters of a secular nature, gives us no information. Several classes of these women appear in the Code, but the distinctions between them are not clearly understood. The class occurring most frequently is represented by a sign which seems to be composed of two others, SAL and ME or SAL and DINGIR. The first, SAL, is the regular sign for woman, sinništu. If the second be DINGIR, the compound would naturally mean the woman of a god, a consecrated woman. That the combination indicates such a woman is beyond question. It is often followed in the contemporary records by the name of the god to whom the SAL-ME is devoted. In the Code itself we find the SAL-ME of Marduk (182), and also the SAL-ME of the convent (180). Several students have translated the two signs by 'priestess,' but this seems to me too definite. The rendering, 'votary,' is * In 187 and 144-147 several scholars translate the sign which represents one of these classes of devotees as if it were the ordinary sign for woman, and seem, therefore, to consider that the laws in question are concerned with ordinary wives. But while the stonecutter has made an occasional mistake, it is in the highest degree improbable that he should have done this in regard to the same word in several successive laws. • §§ 40, 110, 137, 144, 145, 146, 178, 179, 181. here chosen as the vaguer term, but is meant to be only provisional. 5 Another class is represented by the signs NIN DINGIR, the second of which means a god, and the first, ‘lady' or 'sister.' In the syllabaries this combination is explained as entum. A third is written ZI IK RU UM.6 Whether this is to be pronounced zikrum, as written, or is to be taken as an ideogram, is, as Kohler and Ungnad have pointed out,' uncertain. Most students have taken the writing as syllabic, and have connected the word with a common Assyrian word meaning 'male.' It is in all the occurrences preceded by the sign SAL, i.e. sinništu, 'woman.' The combination may be read sinništu zikrum, which would mean 'woman who is a zikrum,' or the first word might be taken as construct, as has been almost universally done, and translated 'woman of the male.' Construing thus, it has been the rule to see in the zikrum a woman of low morals. Whether there is any ground for this view beyond an uncertain etymology and an uncertain translation of the laws in which the name zikrum occurs, will appear, I hope, as this inquiry proceeds. A fourth class, the NU GIG or kadištu, occurs but once (181), as does also a fifth, the NU BAR or zermašitum (181). As understood by most interpreters, the kadištu has shared the evil renown of the zikrum. This enumeration shows that there are five classes of these consecrated women mentioned in the Code, or seven if we reckon three varieties of votary, the votary in general (SAL ME), the votary of Marduk, and the votary of the convent. In the first half of the Code our subject is mentioned but twice, 40, 110. Paragraph 40 is in the section dealing with the alienation of one's ownership in State lands. In the paragraphs preceding we learn that certain classes of men (the redu and the ba'iru) could not sell field, orchard, or house, 36. These classes, together with the naši bilti, could not give real estate to wife or child, nor in payment * §§ 110, 127, 178, 179. • §§ 178, 179, 180, 187, 192, 198. for debt, 38, though they might so dispose of the property which they had bought with their own means, 39. Then 40 states that the votary, the tamkar, or any other ilku (except, of course, the classes named in 36-38) might sell his or her field, orchard, or house. This group of laws shows that certain classes of feudal tenants, as the redu and the ba'iru, were held to a stricter usage than other classes in regard to their tenure of State lands. The reason probably is that their relations to the State were more intimate and important. They rendered military service, and may have been required to live on inalienable State lands, that they might be always ready for such service. Greater freedom was enjoyed by the votary and other classes whose relation to the State was less intimate, and their functions less important. The second reference (110) is in a section of four laws regulating the sale of liquor. The liquor traffic seems to have been in the hands of women. In 108 it is decreed that the wineseller who deviates from the relative values of drink (šikari) and grain shall be thrown into the water (drowned). In 109 if criminals congregate at her house, and she does not seize them and lead them to the ekallim, 'palace, police station'(?), she shall be put to death. According to 110 the votary or sister of a god, "not living in the convent, who shall open a wine shop or shall enter one to drink, shall be burned." The last law in the series prescribes how much grain shall be paid at harvest time for wine sold on credit (111). This group of laws shows that the drinking places of the time stood in bad repute. The women engaged in the business seem to have been unscrupulous, and their shops were the resort of evil doers. No votary might engage in this business or even enter one of the resorts for the purchase of drink. The phrase of 110, "not living in the convent," shows The tamkar is a class of business men or merchants. Elsewhere in the Code they appear as making advances of money or goods to the small dealer (100–107), and as visiting foreign lands for purposes of trade (281). Ilku is the term for the feudal relation, or, as in the present instance, for the feudal tenant. This feudal relation included the redu, ba'iru, naši bilti, votary, tamkar, and other classes. |