Note 4 — Chapter III · WOMAN IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND ASSYRIA

We find, then, in ancient Mesopotamia that woman generally had no sex disabilities. In some clauses relating to divorce and unfaithfulness we find the inevitable advantage of the male, but in practice the woman had little to complain of. As in Egypt, the political system was a sacred and absolute monarchy, so that neither men nor women had any control, or any idea of aspiring to it. Queens could occupy the throne. Semiramis is probably a mythic personage; but a Babylonian princess, Sammuramat, ruled at Nineveh (whose king she had married) about 800 B.C. with great success. Once more, however, this was exceptional and vicarious. Political power was in the hands of men—the king and his council of nobles; and over all the community again were the castes of warriors and priests, though the latter body could be penetrated by women to some extent, owing to the immense popularity of the goddess Ishtar.[4]