Assessors of Maat
The Assessors of Maat were 42 minor ancient Egyptian deities of the Maat charged with judging the souls of the dead in the afterlife by joining the judgment of Osiris in the Weighing of the Heart.[1][2]
Description
Negative Confessions and psychostasia
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Chapter 125[3] of the Book of the Dead lists names and provenances (either geographical or atmospheric) of the Assessors of Maat. A declaration of innocence corresponds to each deity: it is pronounced by the dead himself, to avoid being damned for specific "sins" that each of the 42 Judges is in charge of punishing.[1][2]
The deceased was accompanied in the presence of Osiris by the psychopomp god Anubis – where he would have declared that he was guilty of none of the "42 sins" against justice and truth by reciting a text known as "Negative confessions".[4] The heart (ib / jb) of the deceased was then weighed on a two-plate scale: a plate for the heart, the other for the feather of Maat. Maat, in whose name the 42 judges who flanked Osiris acted, was the deification of truth, justice, rectitude, and order of the cosmos and was often symbolized by an ostrich feather (the hieroglyphic sign of her name).[5][6] If the heart and the feather were equal, then the deities were convinced of the rectitude of the deceased, who could therefore access eternal life becoming mꜣꜥ-ḫrw (Egyptological pronunciation: Maa Kheru), which means "vindicated / justified", literally "true of voice" ("blessed" in a broad sense).[7] But, if the heart was heavier than Maat's feather, then a terrifying monster named ꜥmmt "the Devourer" ("Ammit") devoured it by destroying the soul of the deceased.[8][9]
The psychostasia episode is remarkable not only for its symbolic and even dramatic vivacity, but also because it is one of the few parts of the Book of the Dead with moral connotations. The judgment by Osiris and by the other 42 judicial deities,[10] and the "Negative Confessions" themselves, depict the ethics and morality of the Egyptians. These 42 declarations of innocence were interpreted by some as possible historical precedents of the Ten Commandments:[11] but, while the Ten Commandments of Judeo-Christian ethics consist of norms attributed to a divine revelation, the "Negative confessions" seem rather as divine transpositions (each corresponding to one of the 42 judging deities) of daily morality.[12]
List of names, provenances and tasks (Wilkinson)
The American egyptologist Richard Herbert Wilkinson thus inventoried, in his The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (2003), the 42 Assessors of Maat:[2]
| Name of the deity | Identified with | Sin | Name of the deity | Identified with | Sin | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Far-Strider" | Heliopolis | falsehood | 22 | "Demolisher" | Xois | Transgressing |
| 2 | "Fire-Embracer" | Kheraha | Robbery | 23 | "Disturber" | Weryt | Being hot-tempered |
| 3 | "Nosey One" | Hermopolis | Stealing | 24 | "Youth" | Heliopolitan nome | Unhearing of truth |
| 4 | "Swallower of Shades" | "The Cavern" | Murder | 25 | "Foreteller" | Wenes | Making disturbance |
| 5 | "Dangerous One" | Rosetau | Stealing grain | 26 | "You of the Altar" | "the secret place" | Violence |
| 6 | "Double Lion" | "The sky" | Prolonging offerings | 27 | "Face Behind Him" | "Cavern of wrong" | copulating with a boy |
| 7 | "Fiery Eyes" | Letopolis | Stealing Gods property | 28 | "Hot-Foot" | "The dusk" | Transgression |
| 8 | "Flame" | "Came forth
backwards" |
Lying | 29 | "You of the Darkness" | "The darkness" | Quarrelling |
| 9 | "Bone Breaker" | Heracleopolis | Taking food | 30 | "Bringer of Your Offerings" | Sais | Unduly active |
| 10 | "Green of Flame" | Memphis | Cursing | 31 | "Owner of Faces" | Nedjefet
(13th / 14th Upper Egyptian nome) |
Impatience |
| 11 | "You of the Cavern" | "The West" | Adultery | 32 | "Accuser" | Wetjenet | damaging a god's image |
| 12 | "White of Teeth" | Faiyum | Causing tears | 33 | "Owner of Horns" | Asyut | Volubility of speech |
| 13 | "Blood-Eater" | "The shambles" | Killing a sacred bull | 34 | Nefertem | Memphis | Wrongdoing |
| 14 | "Eater of Entrails" | "House of Thirty" | Stealing land | 35 | Temsep | Busiris | Conjuration against
the king |
| 15 | "Lord of Truth" | Maaty | Eavesdropping | 36 | "You Who Acted Willfully" | Tjebu | Stopping water flow |
| 16 | "Wanderer" | Bubastis | Complaints | 37 | "Water-Smiter" | "The abyss" | Being loud voiced |
| 17 | "Pale One" | Heliopolis | Being angry | 38 | "Commander of Mankind" | "Your house" | Reviling God |
| 18 | "Doubly Evil" | Andjet | Adultery | 39 | "Bestower of Good" | The Harpoon Nome
(7th / 8th Lower |
Doing ... ? |
| 19 | "Wememty-Snake" | "Place of execution" | Adultery | 40 | "Bestower of Powers" | "The city" | Making distinctions
For self |
| 20 | "See Whom You Bring" | "House of Min" | Polluting the body | 41 | "Serpent With Raised Head" | "The cavern" | dishonest wealth |
| 21 | "Over the Old One" | Imau | Terrorizing | 42 | "Serpent Who Brings and
Gives" |
"The silent land" | Blasphemy |
All 42 Judges of Maat are depicted above this scene of psychostasia from the Temple of Hathor at Deir el-Medina. Each of them has on his head the ostrich feather of their mistress Maat.
References
Notes
- Hart 1986, pp. 34–5.
- Wilkinson 2003, pp. 84–5.
- Budge 2008, pp. 355–78.
- Taylor 2010, p. 208.
- "Ma'at". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- Taylor 2010, p. 209.
- Taylor 2010, p. 215.
- "Gods of Ancient Egypt; Ammit". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- Taylor 2010, p. 212.
- Hart 1986, pp. 34–5.
- Faulkner 1994, p. 14.
- Taylor 2010, pp. 204–5.
- Sheehan, Peter (2015). Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789774167317.
- "Gods of Ancient Egypt: Sokar". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- O'Connor, David; Quirke, Stephen (3 June 2016). Mysterious Lands. Routledge. ISBN 9781315423807.
- "The Nomes of Lower Egypt". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
Bibliography
- Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Londra, New York, Penguin Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0140455502.
- Faulkner, Raymond O., von Dassow, Eva (editors), The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going forth by Day. The First Authentic Presentation of the Complete Papyrus of Ani, San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1994.
- Hart, George, A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Routledge, 1986, ISBN 0-415-05909-7.
- Taylor, John H. (editor), Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey through the afterlife, Londra, British Museum Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7141-1993-9.
- Wilkinson, Richard H., The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson, 2003, ISBN 0-500-05120-8.