The top of the stele depicts Utu (or the Akkadian Shamash) the seated sun god giving a scepter and ring to King Hammurabi c. 1790-1750 BCE. Louvre Museum Paris

In Babylonian mythology Shamash had two children, Kittu and Mishara, Law and Justice. The god of the sun, Shamash rose in the east in the morning bringing light to the world and descended in the west in the evening. He traveled by night in the evening through the underworld to rise again in the morning.

The Hammurabi Stela
Louvre Museum

The Code of Hammurabi

The Ancient
Near East

Mesopotamia

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