Ma’at - Ancient Egyptian Goddess of Truth, Justice and Balance
Goddess of Truth, Justice and Balance
Ma’at was depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.
Illustration by Christa Galloway
The name Ma'at means 'that which is straight.'
To the Ancient Egyptians, Ma'at was both a goddess and an idea. Ma’at represented order, justice and harmony.
In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Ma’at was a daughter of Ra and the wife of Thoth and played an essential part in the afterlife.
During the Weighing of the Heart of the Soul ceremony in the afterlife, Osiris place the heart of someone who died on a golden scale and weighed it against Ma'at's white feather of truth. If the heart was lighter than the feather, the deceased went to a paradise called the Field of Reeds, but if the heart was heavier, the heart was eaten by Amut.
Ma'at is depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, sometimes winged. Sometimes, she was just pictured as an ostrich feather.
Can you find a hieroglyph in the shape of the feather of Ma’at in the photo below?
Obelisk at Karnak - photo by Christa Galloway
