Itzel Nava

Marsha payne
Humanities Pd 2
9/26/19

Heroes Speech

Hammurabi has impacted his society's religion, government, writing, social

structure, and also played a role in art with his well-known rules, Hammurabi's code.
Hammurabi's civilization was like a monarchy, religion and government were the
same thing, that's where Hammurabi's code comes in. The code of Hammurabi's was
one of the earliest sets of rules it contained 282 rules. Hammurabi establishes these
rules and tells his people that he got them from the god Samash and that he demanded
them to follow them. This was kind of like a religion because it involved the divine and
this was their way to get closer to their gods. However, if these rules were not followed
punishments were to be aware. These punishments were also harsh, cruel, and not fair
for me to say. These are some examples of these rules and their punishments “if a son
strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off." another example can be “if a man builds
a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be killed. If the owner’s
son was killed, then the builder’s son is to be killed." in either case, these punishments
were created to meet the requirements of justice because it would make the people to
be more aware and not to make bad decisions. To follow these commands was the
peoples' way to live a good life.
The social structure definitely played a major role in Hammurabi's code. There
were three different types of classes, the upper class, the free man, and the slaves.
There is a freeman class because in the code it said that slaves could buy their
freedom. Hammurabi did not reflect on each of the social structures to be equal yet he
treated them fairly and gave them the rights they deserved. Another reason why the
social structure was important was because some of the laws were discrete by each
class. These laws were dissimilar because the people that were higher- ranking and
have done more and helped the society deserved a greater recompense than the
people that had not done anything. Social structure was important to Hammurabi's code
because of the different classes and discrete laws for each class.
Hammurabi's code was carved into a substantial, finger-shaped like a thumb,
black stone stele, pillar. Hammurabi's code was written in cuneiform. This impacted the
civilization because it meant that everybody that was part of the empire I guess they
had to have known how to read cuneiform in order to read the commands in the temple.
Hammurabi's code the stele was also known because of the picture on top of all the
commands in how the god Shamash hands Hammurabi the scrolls. This is how
Hammurabi convinced his people that the scrolls or the rules that were were given by
the divine for them to follow. The code of Hammurabi played a part in art and writing.
In conclusion, Hammurabi's code influenced many features in the civilization
were how people connected with the divine and how if they did not obey they would
face harsh consequences, the different levels of social structure, and how art and
writing played a role in Hammurabi's code.