Death penalty for the Hittites

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The death penalty for the Hittites was subject to the royal court and was less common in relation to contemporary states such as Mesopotamia and Egypt . The death penalty was regulated in decrees and in the Hittite laws . Also anecdotes tell of criminal killings.

Capital offenses

The capital offenses in the Hittite crimes involve insubordination, magic , theft of certain objects, and fornication .

Crimes against the king

In order to stop the intrigues at his court, King uattušili I ordered that whoever mentioned the name of the Tawananna should have the throat cut and the corpse hung in the door. Narrated is the story of a baker who placed a pebble in the king's bread. He was mistreated in the baking trough and then allowed to "disappear". A cupbearer who delivered inferior wine was "processed" and then executed . After the king found a hair in the drinking water, the responsible water carrier was killed.

There is a case in the Telipinu decree where the council sentenced a conspirator against the king to death. This pardoned him, but ordered his emasculation and had him made a slave .

Insubordination

Whoever rebels against the royal court will be killed and his house will be broken to rubble (§ 173). Insubordination towards a dignitary results in beheading . If the perpetrator is not free, "he goes into the pot."

Defilement of the temple

A temple servant who enters the temple unwashed after sexual intercourse receives the death penalty; this also applies to a stranger who illegally enters a temple together with his Hittite companion.

magic

As harmful magic ( alwanzatar ) was who an image of a human clay anfertigte, to harm this or kill him even what the death sentence had (§ 111). Also appropriating part of a person, be it only his name or his shadow, in order to take possession of it, was punishable by death. A non-free person who casts analogy magic with a snake also incurs the death penalty (§ 170), while a free person was punished by a silver mine . If a cleansing ritual was not carried out correctly, this was also considered magic and came before the royal court, which could result in the death penalty (Section 44b).

theft

Anyone who steals a bronze spear at the gate of the palace "dies" (§ 126). The plowing and re-sowing of an already cultivated field was also considered theft and was brought before the royal court. As a punishment, the perpetrator was torn from the team of cattle , after which the cattle were also killed (§ 166, 167). Later the sentence was lessened and a sheep stepped in place of the human . Finally, someone came before the royal court who stole more than three loads of wood from a pond (§ 102). These relatively harsh punishments suggest that this is a sacrilege .

Fornication

Sodomy with a cow or sheep came before the royal court and could result in the death penalty (§ 188, 189). If the perpetrator was pardoned, he was humiliated. If the animal was a pig or a dog, it was also killed (§ 199). If, on the other hand, a cow jumps at a man, the cow is killed and a sheep is killed in place of the man. A pig that jumps at a man goes out with impunity.

Incest with one's own mother, daughter or son could possibly also be punished with death (Section 189); this also applied to sexual intercourse with the stepmother or stepdaughter (Section 195) or the wife of one's own brother (Section 195). If a man catches his wife in bed with another man, he can kill both of them with impunity. If, instead, he takes her to court, the adulterer remains alive if the betrayed husband does not want his wife to be killed (§ 198).

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