the mental element. This is due, however, to their casuistic structure,
which leads to a great deal of information being omitted from any
given paragraph. The mental element may be omitted because the
paragraph is concerned to illustrate some other aspect of the rule,
or because it was regarded as self-evident in that case. Certain stan-
dard examples were used to discuss the mental element; it does not
mean that it applied only to those instances.^53 Of course, there were
significant offenses for which a mental element was not necessary.8.4 Status
The gravity of the offense could vary according to the status of the
parties, especially the victim. If the victim were a head of house-
hold, the consequences for the culprit could be considerably more
serious than for a son, daughter, or wife. In some systems, even the
class of the parties, aristocrat or commoner, could make a difference.
A slave was considered property and did not enter into the same
category of offenses at all.8.5 Punishments
8.5.1 It was considered perfect justice to “let the punishment fit
the crime.” The most notorious example is talion (like for like). It
was used most typically for physical injuries—“an eye for an eye”—
where it was particularly appropriate as a judicial limitation on
revenge. The death penalty was too widely employed to be regarded
as specifically talionic but could be given a talionic character, as
when an Old Babylonian king ordered a murderer who had thrown
his victim into an oven to suffer the same death (BIN 7 10). A spe-
cial form was vicarious talion: if the victim was a subordinate mem-
ber of household, punishment was inflicted on a parallel member of
the culprit’s household, for example, a son killed for a son (LH
229–30), or a wife violated for a daughter raped (MAL A 55).8.5.2 “Ironic punishments” sought to make a similar association,
for example, severing the hand that strikes (LH 195; MAL A 8;
Deut. 25:11–12), the lip that steals a kiss (MAL A 9), the pudenda(^53) The standard case concerns non-permanent injury: LH 206–8; HL 10; Exod.
21:18–19. Note that LH 207 extends the case to homicide.
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