Ma'at

Goddess Ma'at in hieroglyphs

Ma'at, reconstructed to have been pronounced as *Muʔʕat (Muh-aht), was the Ancient Egyptian concept of law, morality, and justice which was deified as a goddess. Ma'at was seen as being charged with regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and gods. As a goddess, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes go hand in hand. Like Thoth, she was seen to represent the Logos of Plato. Her primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of words that took place in the underworld, Duat.

Ma'at as a goddess

The goddess Maat

The goddess Ma'at is the personification of physical and moral law, order, and truth represented as a woman, sitting or standing, holding a sceptre in one hand and an ankh in the other. Sometimes she is depicted with wings on each arm or a woman with an ostrich feather for a head.

Because it was the pharaoh's duty to ensure truth and justice, many of them were referred to as Meri-Ma'at (Beloved of Ma'at). Since she was considered as merely the concept of order and truth, it was thought that she came into existence at the moment of creation, having no creator. When beliefs about Thoth arose and started to consume the earlier beliefs at Hermopolis about the Ogdoad, it was said that she was the mother of the Ogdoad and Thoth the father.

In Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were said to be weighed against the single Shu feather, symbolically representing the concept of Ma'at, in the Hall of Two Truths. A heart which was unworthy was devoured by Ammit and its owner condemned to remain in Duat. Those people with good, (and pure), hearts were sent on to Osiris in Aaru. The weighing of the heart, pictured on papyrus, (in the Book of the Dead, typically, or in tomb scenes, etc.), shows Anubis overseeing the weighing, the "lion-like" Ammit seated awaiting the results and the eating of the heart, the vertical heart on one flat surface of the balance scale, and the vertical Shu-feather standing on the other balance scale surface. Other traditions hold that Anubis brought the soul before the posthumous Osiris who performed the actual weighing.

Ma'at was commonly depicted in art as a woman with outstretched wings and a "curved" ostrich feather on her head or sometimes just as a feather. These images are on some sarcophagi as a symbol of protection for the souls of the dead. Egyptians believed that without Ma'at there would be only the primal chaos, ending the world. It was seen as the Pharaoh's necessity to apply just law.

Ma'at as a principle

Ma'at as a principle was at least partially codified into a set of laws, and expressed a ubiquitous concept of right from wrong characterized by concepts of truth and a respect for and adherence to a divine order believed to be set forth at the time of the world's creation. This divine order was primarily conceived of as being modeled in various environmental/agricultural and social relationships. It somewhat resembles the underlying concepts of Taoism and Confucianism at times. Many of these concepts were codified into laws, and many of the concepts were often discussed by ancient Egyptian philosophers and officials who referenced the spiritual text known as the Book of the Dead. Later scholars and philosophers would also embody concepts from the Wisdom Literature, or seboyet. These spiritual texts dealt with common social or professional situations and how each was best to be resolved or addressed in the spirit of ma'at- it was very practical advice, and highly case-based, so that few specific and general rules could be derived from them. During the Greek period, Greek law existed alongside that of the Egyptian law, but usually these laws favored the Greeks. When the Romans took control of Egypt, the Roman legal system which existed throughout the Roman empire was imposed in Egypt. In addition to the importance of the ma'at, several other principles within Ancient Egyptian law were essential, including an adherence to tradition as opposed to change, the importance of rhetorical skill, and the significance of achieving impartiality and social equality. Thus, "to the Egyptian mind, Ma'at bound all things together in an indestructible unity: the universe, the natural world, the state and the individual were all seen as parts of the wider order generated by Ma'at.

One aspect of ancient Egyptian funerary literature which is often mistaken for a codified ethic of ma'at is Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, often called the 42 Declarations of Purity or the Negative Confession. These declarations actually varied somewhat from tomb to tomb, and so can not be considered a canonical definition of ma'at. They appear rather to express each tomb owner's individual conception of ma'at, as well as working as a magical absolution (misdeeds or mistakes made by the tomb owner in life could be declared as not having been done, and through the power of the written word wipe that particular misdeed from his or her afterlife record). Many of the lines are similar, however, and they can help to give the student a "flavor" for the sorts of things which ma'at governed (which was basically everything- from the most formal to the most mundane aspect of life). Many versions are given online, unfortunately seldom do they ever note the tomb from which they came or whether they are a collection from various different tombs. Generally, they are each addressed to a specific deity, described in his or her most fearsome aspect. Ahmed Osman might believe the Book of the Dead preceded the Ten Commandments.^{[citation needed]}

The doctrine of Ma'at is represented in the declarations to Rekhti-merti-f-ent-Ma'at and the 42 negative affirmations listed in the Papyrus of Ani:

Declarations to Rekhti-merti-f-ent-Ma'at

Verily I have come to thee, I have brought to thee Ma'at.

1. I have driven away for thee wickedness.

2. I have not done iniquity to mankind.

3. Not have I done harm unto animals.

4. Not have I done wickedness in the place of Ma'at.

5. Not have I known evil.

6. Not have I acted wickedly.

7. Not have I done each day and every works above what I should do.

8. Not hath come forth my name to the boat of the Prince.

9. Not have I despised God.

10. Not have I caused misery.

11. Not have I caused affliction.

12. Not have I done what is abominable to God.

13. Not have I caused harm to be done to the servant by his chief.

14. Not have I caused pain.

15. Not have I made to weep.

16. Not have I killed.

17. Not have I made the order for killing for me.

18. Not have I done harm to mankind.

19. Not have I taken aught of the oblations in the temples.

20. Not have I purloined the cakes of the gods.

21. Not have I carried off the offerings of the blessed dead.

22. Not have I fornicated.

23. Not have I defiled myself.

24. Not have I added to, not have I diminished the offerings.

25. Not have I stolen from the orchard.

26. Not have I trampled down the fields.

27. I have not added to the weight of the balance.

28. Not have I diminished from the weight of the balance.

29. Not have I carried off the milk from the mouth of the babe.

30. Not have I driven away the cattle which were upon their pastures.

31. Not have I captured the birds of the preserves of the gods.

32. Not have I taken the fishes [with bait] of their own bodies.

33. Not have I turned back water at its season.

34. Not have I cut a cutting in water running.

35. Not have I extinguished a flame at its hour.

36. Not have I violated the times for the chosen offerings.

37. Not have I driven back the cattle of divine things.

38. I have not repulsed God in his manifestations.

I, even I, am pure. Times four.

42 Negative Confessions

1. Not have I done wrong.

2. Not have I despoiled.

3. Not have I robbed.

4. Not have I slain men: twice.

5. Not have I defrauded the offerings.

6. Not have I diminished [oblations].

7. Not have I despoiled the things of the god.

8. Not have I spoken lies.

9. Not have I carried off food.

10. Not have I afflicted [any]

11. Not have I committed fornication.

12. Not have I made to weep.

13. Not have I eaten my heart.

14. Not have I transgressed.

15. Not have I acted deceitfully.

16. Not have I desolated ploughed lands.

17. Not have I been an eavesdropper.

18. Not have I set my mouth in motion [against any man].

19. Not have I raged except with a cause.

20. Not have I defiled the wife of a man.

21. Not have I defiled the wife of a man.

22. Not have I polluted myself.

23. Not have I caused terror.

24. Not have I committed offense

25. Not have I inflamed myself with rage.

26. Not have I made deaf myself to the words of right and truth.

27. Not have I caused grief.

28. Not have I acted insolently.

29. Not have I stirred up strife.

30. Not have I judged hastily.

31. Not have I been an eavesdropper.

32. Not have I multiplied my words upon words.

33. Not have I harmed, not have I done evil.

34. Not have I made curses of the king.

35. Not have I fouled water.

36. Not have I made haughty my voice.

37. Not have I have I cursed God.

38. Not have I committed theft.

39. Not have I defrauded the offerings of the gods.

40. Not have I carried away offerings from the beatified ones.

41. Not have I carried off the food of the infant, not have I sinned against the god of the town.

42. Not have I slaughtered the cattle divine.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Egyptian Book of the Dead: (The Papyrus of Ani) Egyptian Text Transliteration and Translation. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Originally published in 1895.
• Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Gods of the Egyptians: Studies in Egyptian Mythology - Volume 1. New York: Dover Publications, 1969. Originally published in 1904.
• Collier, Mark and Manly, Bill. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Revised Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
• Faulkner, Raymond. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.
• Mancini, Anna. Ma'at Revealed: Philosophy of Justice in Ancient Egypt. New York: Buenos Books America, 2004.
• Strudwick, Helen. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Singapore: De Agostini UK, 2006.

External links

• Principles of Ma'at (negative confessions)
• Egypt: Law and the Legal System in Ancient Egypt by Mark Andrews
• A list of the 42 Principles of Ma'at
• A series of discussions on the meanings of the 42

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