Babylonian tradition (Roth 1989 : 26 – 28 ).^8 In all periods, the bride appears to have
had full control over some property, including parts of the dowry and other gifts
from her family (including, in some cases, the terhatumitself; Malul 1991 : 280 ) and/or
husband; in the Old Babylonian period, the bride’s discretionary funds might be
bound “in her hem” (Westbrook 1991 , 1988 ), while in the Neo-Babylonian period,
they were said to be kept in her “basket” (Roth 1989 – 1990 , cited in Stol 1995 b).
The not infrequent dissolution of marriages is illuminated by divorce and adultery
clauses of marriage agreements, as well as by contracts and legal cases involving
extramarital affairs and polygamy. Old Babylonian divorce was usually effected rather
simply, either when one party voiced the verba solemnia“you are not my husband/wife”
or when a husband formally “cut his wife’s hem” (Westbrook 1988 : 69 ff.). Throughout
Mesopotamian history, however, “clauses in the private contracts tried to curb [the
wife’s right to divorce] by imposing formidable penalties, thus rendering it virtually
impossible... [whereas] no such penalties were imposed upon the husband’s right
to divorce” (Malul 1991 : 282 ).^9 Significantly, a number of Neo-Babylonian marriage
contracts foresee the explicit possibility that a wife might be caught with another
man, but only one anticipates that a wife might initiate divorce (Roth 1989 : 14 – 15 );
the Old Babylonian agreements, on the other hand, often envisage a wife’s repudi-
ation of her husband, while remaining silent on the issue of adultery in particular
(cf. Westbrook 1988 : 83 ). Thus, we may consider whether the general legal category
of repudiation subsumes uxorial adultery in the Old Babylonian sources – hence,
perhaps, the severity of the consequences for the former – whereas the Neo-Babylonian
sources generally consider that a woman could cause the dissolution of her marriage
only by reason of her infidelity, because women rarely had the legal right to divorce
for any other reason.^10
The evidence suggests that most husbands who sought new wives had been frustrated
in their efforts to secure an heir, either because their first wives did not bear sons at
all, or because their wives’ potentially adulterous behavior cast doubt on the paternity
of their children. In the first instance, childless wives of the Old Babylonian period
could be “released” and compensated by their husbands (Westbrook 1988 : 71 – 75 ),
leaving both parties free to remarry. By the Neo-Babylonian period, many divorce
clauses anticipate the possibility that the husband might take another wife; in these
cases, the first marriage either ended in divorce with compensation or continued
concurrently with the second (Roth 1989 : 13 – 14 ). A comparable legal (double)
standard applied to cases of adultery. Men could take on secondary wives and/or
concubines in addition to their primary wives, and could solicit intercourse from men
or women, prostitutes or non-professionals, outside the marriage (cf. Bottéro 1992 :
186 ). Women, on the other hand, faced harsh penalties for adultery, including
death by drowning in Old Babylonia (Westbrook 1991 ) or “by the iron dagger” in
Late Babylonia (Roth 1988 a, 1989 : 15 ). Even so, the accusation of adultery must
have been difficult to prove unless a wife was caught in flagrante delicto(cf. Westbrook
1988 : 75 – 76 ); according to an oral proverb cited in a Neo-Assyrian letter, “in court
the word of a sinful woman prevails over her husband’s” (ABL 403 ; Lambert 1960 :
281 ).^11 Indeed, legal and other texts demonstrate that women persistently engaged
in extramarital sex despite the prohibitions against it.^12
Female sexuality, both within and outside marital relationships, comes to the fore
in a number of Babylonian sources. Middle- and Neo-Babylonian women who are
— Laura D. Steele —