Maat – The Embodiment of Truth
Maat – The Embodiment of Truth
The central concept of Egyptian cosmology and ethics was Maat.
The word Maat can mean truth justice righteousness or balance and cosmic law.
The primary duty of the Egyptian pharaoh or King was to be the champion of Maat.
to be sure that the kingdom was living in Maat.
The Goddess Maat became the personification of those principals.
Kings were frequently shown offering a miniature figure of Maat
to the chief deity of any particular temple. All daily rituals and sacrifices
would be deemed meaningless unless the King and his people were living righteously.
Judges and high officials wore images of
the goddess to signify that they were enforcing her laws.
Maat was also a part of the death of a soul and an integral
to the success of a soul passing through the Hall of the Two Truth where the
heart was weighed against the feather of Maat.
In the book of coming forth by day the Hall of two truths is
the place where souls of the dead come to be judged. The hearts of the dead
were weighed against a feather of Maat.
If like Ra, the dead person had Maat in his (her) heart the scales were balanced, and the deceased would be clear declared true or voice or justified. If the soul was heavy with untruth and misdeeds they were consumed by a great monster.
Maat was linked to Thoth who was the impartial judge who was
said to have put the laws of Maat into writing. This gave a divine precedent
for the many works of Egyptian literature that teach or debate how to live in Maat
in the real world.
Egyptians’ myth of the golden age include a period when Maat
was ruler of the world. she was sometimes said to have drawn in the heaven
because unrighteous nature of some men.
The goddess Maat was the beloved daughter of RA the creator
sun God. She travels with him in the solar baroque delighting his heart and “giving
him life to his nostrils”.
From the old Kingdom onward, Maat presence were thought to be vital to the
daily regeneration of the sun God. In underworld books she is often shown
standing close to Ra and both the day and night boats of the sun. This or the
dual nature of Egypt as two kingdoms may explain why Maat can appear as two
identical goddesses.
Goddess of cosmic order. Epitomizing the harmonious law of cosmic
order and truth.
She was recognized from at least the middle of the third
millennium and most likely much earlier.
Her only known sanctuary is in the Temple Complex Karnak at
Thebes.
Maat is depicted either in human form wearing an ostrich
plume on her head or by an ostrich feather alone.
The rulers of Egypt believed they were governed under her aegis
and referred to themselves as “beloved of Maat.
