had only to kneel before him and you would have killed him
or at least frightened him. But as it is you have behaved like
women!^2Such demeaning references to women are a feature of many
societies in many ages.‘Frailty, thy name is woman!’declares
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And in hisJulius Caesar, Cassius compares
Caesar to‘a sick girl’, for his whimperings and cowardly behaviour
when he narrowly escapes drowning. Until quite recent times,
generic put-downs of women in expressions like‘the weaker sex’
were commonplace in Western society.
So how did women fare in the Hittite world? Like almost all
other societies, ancient and modern, this world was a strongly
patriarchal one, from the royal family down. Kingship passed from
one male to another, men did all thefighting, men held all the
important offices of state, and men were far more prominent than
women in the professions and the general workforce.
But the picture is not totally one-sided. From our texts it’s clear
that women at all levels of Hittite society had certain rights which
were denied them in many other societies. Let’s take a look at the
institution of marriage.
TILL DEATH US DO PART?
To judge from their Laws, the Hittites’approach to marriage was a
comparatively enlightened, liberal, and practical one. De facto as
well as formal marriages were recognised. Pre-nuptial agreements
were often entered into, divorce was apparently not uncommon,
and divorce proceedings could as easily be initiated by a woman as
by a man. Particular concern was given to what happened to the
children of a marriage in the event of a divorce, and what their
inheritance entitlements were. There were provisions to ensure that
a widow was adequately cared for if her husband diedfirst. And if,
following their father’s death, his widow’s sons failed to take care of
her, she had the right to disinherit (and reinstate) them.^3
Much of this we learn from the Laws’numerous clauses relating
to marriage, divorce and inheritance. Property rightsfigure largely
WOMEN,MARRIAGE AND SLAVERY 145