Marriage in antiquity
In the prehistoric period, men and women hunted together, in small groups. Then it was necessary that someone hunted, and someone stayed at home to cook food and support the fire.
About eight thousand years before our era, profound cultural changes took place that had a radical impact on marriage. From hunting and gathering people began to transfer to domestication of animals and a settled way of life. As a result, rural settlements gradually emerged. Children began to represent a kind of value. As well as on modern farms, they could take care of animals, go for water, weed crops. Gradually, the importance of property ownership increased. At the same time, laws developed about inheritance.
The emergence of urban civilization, the development of writing and reading skills led to the first written laws on marriage. These were the laws of Hammurabi1 - the code of civil and criminal law that appeared in Ancient Babylon. According to these laws, the girls belonged to their fathers until they were bought by their future husband. Marriage, therefore, was simultaneously an economic transaction determined by the contract between husband and wife. Infertile women were allowed to take servants who gave birth to children in order to give them to their childless mistresses. If women who are married but not capable of procreation refused to consider their children as servants, then their husbands were allowed to have a concubine.
In all ancient cultures, marriage-agreement and marriage-bargain were common. The groom paid a ransom for the bride, which often included a piece of land, which later became the basis of their farming for young spouses. In the event of a divorce on the initiative of the husband, the property received for the ransom, and the children who were born in marriage, went to his wife. If the husband refused to fulfill these conditions, the woman could apply to the court to preserve her legal rights.
The husband, in turn, could blame his wife for being a bad wife, and therefore had the right to make her his slave. The wife had the opportunity to blame her husband for cruelty, could even demand compensation for this. In cases where the spouses were unable to resolve their disputes, the custom of testing water was practiced in Babylon: if the accused could swim, it was believed that the gods protected him, and he confessed innocent. If a person began to sink, it was a weighty proof of his guilt.
In ancient Egypt, marriage was also, as a rule, for economic or political reasons. Often, brothers and sisters entered into marriage so as not to divide the hereditary land or inherited state posts. In the period of matriarchy, inheritance always went along the women's peninsula, and in the marriage agreements the property of the groom was often transferred into the possession of the bride. Many pharaohs married in this connection on their sisters and even daughters, as this helped to preserve the throne, dynasty and inheritance. This custom existed in Egypt and after its conquest by Rome in 30 BC.e. So, Cleopatra1 was first the wife of her elder brother, then, after his death, the wife of a younger brother. Each marriage granted them the right to own Egypt. The same privileges were granted to Mark Antony, who became her last husband.
However, it would be wrong to consider marriage in Ancient Egypt only a business agreement. Poetry and love songs of the Egyptians of that distant time glorify romantic love. Differing from the style of our songs about love( "If I kiss her and her lips open, I'll be happy even without beer"), they in a poetic form chant quite modern feelings for us.
In many of these songs there are the words "brother" and "sister", used in the meaning of "favorite", "close", "beloved":
I saw my sister and my soul rejoiced, And my hands opened wide to embrace, And my heart leaped with happiness from my chest, When I saw you, oh my lady, coming to me, because if I embrace you and your hands open, I feel like I'm falling into a land of fragrances.