Hammurabi's Code

My goal after graduating from GVSU is to go to law school and become a lawyer, I am of course interested in anything that has to do with law and politics. I am always interested in learning new things about our laws, but I have never really thought the laws of the past. When I read the section, in the Reilly text, about Hammurabi’s code I was very interested. It is amazing to think that almost four thousand years ago the first laws were being written, but it is not surprising because the first cities where emerging then too. When there are large populations of people living close together there is a need for structure and leadership. Hammurabi lead his people by creating the first laws and keep a relative amount of peace.

Some of Hammurabi’s laws are fairly obvious for example, “If a man has taken a wife and has not executed a marriage contract, that woman is not a wife.” That same idea is still a law today and makes sense still. There is a law in the Code that says if you break into a house you will be put to death and buried in front of that house. Well, that law does not make one sense to me and is thankfully not a law today. If someone were to break into my house, I do not think they deserve to die for it and I certainly do not want them buried in front of my house either. Then there are a lot of Hammurabi’s law that are irrelevant today, for example the laws about slaves.

It is crazy to think that some of the laws that govern our everyday lives were written thousands of years ago. It shows how important laws are for our society to function civilly. It shows that the past, history, still impacts our lives greatly. Even history from thousands of years ago still can teach us a lot

Greek Religion

In our discussions about ancient Greece during class, I find that I am very interested in this culture. I am particularly drawn to the religious aspect of the culture more than anything else. I have always been interested in religions other than my own, so I always want to learn more.
As humans, we are always seeking something more, something bigger than what we have. This can be seen all the way back to the ancient Greeks. As one of the earlier civilizations, they had sense that there is more to life than what can be seen easily. They filled in what they did not know with their gods.
The Greeks built temples for their gods and goddesses; one of the most well known temples, Delphi, was built in honor of Apollo. Pericles built a temple for the goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. These temples, along with others, were places for the ancient Greeks to go to perform sacrifices, ask for guide, and places of celebration.
So much of the life of the Greeks revolved around the gods and goddesses and their dichotomy. For the god Apollo, there was his brother Dionysus. Apollo represented rationality, amongst other things, where Dionysus was the god of irrationality. For everything in their world, there was an opposite. Everything had balance, and everything was important. The athletic ceremonies of the Greeks heavily involved a religious aspect. The competitions involved sacrifices with great praises to the gods. Winners of the competitions wore laurel on their heads. Laurel comes from Daphne, a human who was pursued by Apollo. She was intimidated by the god since she was only human, and wanted a way out. Daphne asked Zeus for a way to disappear, so he turned her into a laurel tree. It is myths like this that find their way into the daily lives of the Greeks.
Gods played such a huge role not only in private lives, but in politics as well. When citizens were thought to not believe in the gods, or to dishonor them, often they were put to death. Considering that the Greeks had the first democracy, it seems off that religion would play a role in the politics at all. In our world now there is a clear separation of religion and state, which works. I think that the only reason that the Greeks could depend heavily on their gods in politics is that the entire Greek population shared the same religion. If we tried to lean on religion now, there would be chaos due to the myriad of religions we have in this country.
Over time, the Greek gods and goddesses have been turned into myths and central roles for Disney movies. Something that was so important in the lives of the citizens of ancient Greece has now been turned into a means of entertainment in our modern lives.

Ancient Greek Influence on Modern-Day American Politics

To this day there is one civilization in world history that has been more influential to American politics than all of the rest. The Direct Democratic system developed by the Ancient Greeks had a huge influence on the government style that America uses today. I thought it was very interesting to learn about the type of politics that Ancient Greece practiced and how some aspects are still practiced today. Unlike the centralized rule that the Persian Empire used, the Ancient Greek Empire was made up of city states that relied heavily on citizen participation in politics.

The idea of citizenship was an entirely new way of governing an empire at the time. Many non-Greeks during this period could not understand why there was a need for the common people to have a say in how government issues were handled. Ancient Greece paved the way for the representative democratic style of government that is practiced by many countries today, including America. Much like how voting rights started out in America, originally only the wealthy land owners were allowed to vote and call themselves citizens, but soon all men were allowed to have a vote and a voice in their city-state's politics.

In the Greek city-state of Athens they employed the use of an Assembly where all citizens could freely participate in the political proceedings of the city-state. Eventually all members of the Greek Assembly were elected to their positions by the citizens that they represented and were paid for their work in the public office, the same way that we elect public officials today.

The Greek system of direct democracy was an entirely new concept when it was created, and a brilliant one as indicated by its continued presence in politics today. I cannot imagine what America's government would be like without the influence of the Ancient Greek's Direct Democracy.