He adultery , at present, it is no longer a crime in any European country, nor in most Western countries. However, for centuries it was a crime that in many cases entailed terrible penalties. Join us to know the terrifying evidence and punishments of antiquity related to adultery.
Adultery and the tests and punishments of antiquity
Adultery comes from the Latin word "adulterium" and according to the dictionary "refers to the sexual union of two people when one or both are married to other people". For centuries, in most cultures, it has been punishable and has been considered a crime. It is also necessary to mention that due to the widespread machismo in societies, adultery on the part of women has been judged and punished more harshly than that of men, which has been socially tolerated. Let's see what happened in different cultures in ancient times:
Ancient Greece
The ancient Greece had its own laws and customs about adultery . This one was only considered that way if the woman was married. The man could have sex with other women whenever they were single. If a wife was considered an adulteress, she was expelled from the family and excluded from religious ceremonies. Those who knew of the adultery and had not said anything, were considered accomplices and could also be punished.
The most severe punishments affected the slaves. When a landlord found one of his servants with a woman of the family, right to kill him immediately . Another punishment mentioned by some Athenian authors is the so-called "Punishment of the radish" . This never applied to a noble and consisted in the introduction of a large radish for the year of the "guilty".
Ancient Rome
Along the Roman empire the laws on adultery suffered variations. In the Roman law known as "Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis", from 17 a.C., the exile and the confiscation of part of their property was the punishment for adultery. Each of the "culprits" was banished to a different island . He also recognized the father's right to kill his daughters and their partners if they were caught in the act and the husband, under certain circumstances, to end the lover's life. The husband had the obligation to divorce his wife if he denounced her as an adulteress.
Judaism
In Judaism, the seventh commandment forbids adultery and therefore, in principle, the punishment applied equally to both sexes, although the existence of adultery depended exclusively on the civil status of the woman involved. If she was single, there was no adultery . The Torah prescribed the penalty of death by strangulation in most cases, but it demanded Two witnesses of proven reputation and other requirements, so the maximum penalty was rarely applied. The stoning mentioned in the New Testament, apparently was not customary in the more traditional and ancient Judaism.
Islam
For Islam, adultery was the sexual act with a person who had not contracted marriage and was one of the main sins because it violated the marriage contract. Theoretically, only the authorities could apply punishments to adulterers and they needed the testimony of four reliable and reputable witnesses. This requirement was for protect women from defamation and false accusations . How the witnesses should have been present and seeing two naked adults, it was considered that only by this fact they were no longer respectable people and therefore their testimony was not worth it. The only option was that the accused confess four times their fault . For this reason, cases of adultery tried legally were very rare.
The penalty to apply was 100 lashes for the single person who committed fornication or adultery and the death by stoning for the married .
Teutons (tribe that lived in an area of present-day Germany)
Teutons punished adulterous women with death. Them they cut their hair and the they undressed to be beaten by the people until death or drowned in the marshes.
Aztecs
The Aztecs also punished adultery. Sometimes wives who were found guilty of adultery could impaled , although the normal thing is that both adulterers were stoned to death .
Mesopotamia
The Code of Hammurabi, which brought together the Babylonian law and dated to 1772 BC, specified as punishment for adultery the drowning .
Ogûz from Turkey
The Arab traveler and writer Ibn Fadlan , which we already talked about in Supercurioso as the character that inspired Guerrero No. 13, described in his writings what he saw among the Ogûz peoples of today's Turkey . Although they did not have the concept of adultery as such, when someone was considered an adulterer he was condemned to death penalty in a horrible way. The branches of two different trees were joined and the person was tied to the two branches, when they returned to their place, the individual it was split in two .
Medieval Europe
In many places in Europe, during the Middle Ages, despite being Christian peoples, Jesus said that "He who is free from sin, let him throw the first stone at them." It was custom stoning the adulterers , especially to women.
In France, as in many European countries, the legislation was unequal for adulterous men and women. The females were locked in convents after being punished shaving their heads and whipping them with whips . The French Revolution changed this situation and initiated the decriminalization of adultery.
Native Americans of Illinois
Finally, the case of Native Americans who lived in the area that today occupies the state of Illinois and how they punished female adultery. In addition to cut their hair women who are considered adulterers are I cut my nose and in some cases they could suffer a collective violation.
The disfigurement as punishment for the woman considered adulterous to stop being desirable was a practice that was followed throughout history in places as diverse as Egypt, India, Byzantium or the Arab countries.
Fortunately, in the West all these execrable practices, many of them with a clear macho background, have been left behind, but there are still many places in the world anchored in the past and whose barbarous customs it is necessary to denounce and change. What do you think of these ancient practices? Share your opinion with us!