adultery

adultery, sexual relations between a married person and someone other than the spouse. Written or customary prohibitions or taboos against adultery constitute part of the marriage code of virtually every society. Indeed, adultery seems to be as universal and, in some instances, as common as marriage. The Code of Hammurabi (18th century bc) in Babylonia provided a punishment of death by drowning for adultery. In ancient Greece and in Roman law, an offending female spouse...