Moses does not stand alone. Deities frequently ga\e law to a human leader to transmit to his people. In his skeptieal, hut not cynical wav, Diodorus Siculus records that Hermes ga\'e laws to Mneves of I'^gypt who was the first to persuade many to follow the written law; Zeus ga\ e laws to .Minos in Cirete; Apollo ga\ e laws to Lycurgus in Sparta; among the Ar\ ans, Zauthraustes was gi\ en his laws hv the (jood Spirit; Zalmo.xis claimed that the laws for the (ietae were gi- \ en him hv the goddess I lestia.'' Diodorus' conclusion about these human lawmakers was: riiev all did rlii.s eitlicr hccau.se they believed that a eoiieeption wliicli wouki lielp hunianitv was niarx elous anti w holh' tli\ ine, or hecause the\ held that the eoninion crowd would he more likeK' to ohev the laws it their ya/.e were directed towards the maiestv and power of those to whom their laws were ascribed. Other ancient lawmakers did not claim that a deit\' ga\ e them the laws hut that the\' legislated with the deitv's help, rhus, the king Lipit-lshtar of Sumer and Akkad made his law code, probably in the earlv l^^th centurv b.c. "in accordance with the word of khilil.'"^ I lammurahi, king of Babylon in the 18th century b.c., was placed on the throne by hnlil," was commissioned by Marduk to guide the peopie and direct the land hut "I established law and justice in the language of the land.'"" He also claims authorship in the epilogue: "'Hie laws of justice which Hammurabi the efficient king set up, and by which he caused the land to take the right way and have good go- 5See the debates in 2de Kamer, 1992-1993, 23012 B pp. sff.; 23012 nr. 3, pp. lof.; 23012 nr. 4., pp. 6ff.; 1993-1994, 23012 nr. 5, pp. 6ff.; 1993-1994, 23012 nr. 7; 1193-1994, 23012 nr. 8, pp. 7ff. 6 Diodorus Siculus 1.94.2 7 The myth of Lucurgus is found also in Herodotus 1.65; Plutarch Lycurgus 5.3; Plato Laws 1. P 624; see also for the myth of Numa and the nymph Egeria, Dionysius of Halicarnassus2.6i; of Zeus and the Cretans, Plato Laws, 1, p. 624. 8 So stated in the prologue. See also the epilogue. 9 See the prologue to his code. 10 So stated in prologue 20 of Hammurabi's code. 91
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