Assessors_of_Maat

Assessors of Maat

Assessors of Maat

42 minor ancient Egyptian deities

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]

Papyrus of Ani: some of the 42 Judges of Maat are visible, seated and in small size. British Museum, London.

Description

Further information: Book of the Dead

Negative Confessions and psychostasia

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]

More information Name of the deity, Identified with ...

References

Notes

  1. [1]
    Hart 1986, pp. 34–5.
  2. [2]
    Wilkinson 2003, pp. 84–5.
  3. [3]
    Budge 2008, pp. 355–78.
  4. [4]
    Taylor 2010, p. 208.
  5. [5]
    "Ma'at". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  6. [6]
    Taylor 2010, p. 209.
  7. [7]
    Taylor 2010, p. 215.
  8. [8]
    "Gods of Ancient Egypt; Ammit". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  9. [9]
    Taylor 2010, p. 212.
  10. [10]
    Hart 1986, pp. 34–5.
  11. [11]
    Faulkner 1994, p. 14.
  12. [12]
    Taylor 2010, pp. 204–5.
  13. [13]
    Sheehan, Peter (2015). Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9789774167317.
  14. [14]
    "Gods of Ancient Egypt: Sokar". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  15. [15]
    O'Connor, David; Quirke, Stephen (3 June 2016). Mysterious Lands. Routledge. ISBN 9781315423807.
  16. [16]
    "The Nomes of Lower Egypt". ancientegyptonline.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2018.

Bibliography
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