An Eye for an Eye

An eye for an eye was a pretty common way to solve problems in the ancient world and many cultures adopted it. There are many similarities in laws about justice and social responsibility between the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Hebrews. For instance all three cultures have laws about not hurting ones own parents, but the consequences differ for each culture. The Mesopotamians say that if a son strikes his father his hand would be cut off, but in the Egyptian culture the son would be put to death.

The Egyptians ideas of social responsibility were numerous and included not scorning the gods, causing no pain, causing no hunger, having not killed any one, and having not stolen. Slaves were common in Egypt past the Old Kingdom, and there were provisions to make sure that they were not totally mistreated. A king or any one else could not have an after life if they oppressed or caused the harm of slaves. Homosexuality was also looked down upon in the Egyptian society; if a man had sexual relations with another man it could stop them from have an afterlife. Most of the peoples in Egypt were free people and were allowed to do as they wish for the most part, as long as they paid their taxes to the kings, they did mostly in the way of labor. Women generally had the same rights legal rights