When there had been no
marriage portion, a sum was fixed which the husband was obliged to pay
to his divorced wife, according to his status. In cases where the wife
was proved to have wasted her household and to have entirely failed in
her duty, her husband could divorce her without paying any compensation,
or could make her a slave in his house, and the extreme penalty for
this offence was death. On the other hand, a woman could not be divorced
because she had contracted a permanent disease; and, if she desired to
divorce her husband and could prove that her past life had been seemly,
she could do so, returning to her father's house and taking her marriage
portion with her.
It is not necessary here to go very minutely into the regulations given
by the code with regard to marriage portions, the rights of widows,
the laws of inheritance, and the laws regulating the adoption and
maintenance of children. The customs that already have been described
with regard to marriage and divorce may serve to indicate the spirit
in which the code is drawn up and the recognized status occupied by the
wife in the Babylonian household. The extremely independent position
enjoyed by women in the early Babylonian days is illustrated by the
existence of a special class of women, to which constant reference is
made in the contracts and letters of the period.
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