I decided to share all my notes which im making on Egpytology with you guys because i dont know if im the only one but sometimes the info on egyptology is all over the place, so i hope you enjoy and after this one the next one will be about how the world was viewd in egpytian mythology:
Maat which is also known as ma’at or mꜣꜥt in Egyptian it’s both a belief but also a Goddess, in both ways it signifies law, balance, harmony, morality, justice and peace. In Mythology maat was seen as the moral code for both humans and nature, you followed it if you wanted happiness and essentially life. Back then Egyptians saw Pharaohs as the human maintainers of maat because they were believed to have been the son of various deities so he would be their representative making sure maat was being followed throughout the kingdom. Maat as a belief was said to have been created at the creation of the world and it was a way to help the world identify chaos. There’s various deities that are gods of natrual forcees and the myths are supposed to represent how the world should be functioning and the reward of life itself. The earliest surviving evidence of Maat being the norm is from 2375BCE to 2345BCE in the Pyramid Texts of Unas in the Old Kingdom. Later on when goddess’s were paired with god’s hers was Thoth because their attributes were very similar but in some accounts Thoth was paired with Seshat the goddess of writing and measure. After her role in creation and stopping the world from turning into chaos she took a primary role in the Weighing of Hearts which happened in the Duat. Her feather would determine if a soul was worthy to reach paradise or not. From the 18th Dynasty Maat was also seen as the daughter of Ra which showed that the Pharaohs were believed to rule through her authority.
As a goddess Maat was the goddess of truth, harmony and justice. She was symbolised with wings on each arm or as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head. The meaning of the symbols are unclear in the myths but Shu who was considered her brother also wore them. Ra came from the primeaval mound of creation only when he set his daughter Maat into the place of ‘isfet’ which means chaos. Kings then would inherit the duty of making sure she remained there and with Ra they were said to “live on Maat”. Ahkenaten emphasised it so much that his people viewed it as fantacism and intolerance. Some kings though incorperated Maat’s name into theirs with names like “Lords of Maat” or Meri-Maat (Beloved of Maat).
Maat as a principle told people to act with honor and truth in all situations including family, environment, community, nation and god. As a princple people think it was formed to meet the complex needs of the Egyptian state which welcomed people with conflicting interests. It was supposed to stop chaos and eventually even became Egyptian Law. Maat developed to a point that it embraced all aspects of existence, the relationship between consitutent parts, the cycle of the seasons, religious observations, good faith, honesty, truthfulness and social interactions. Ancient Egyptians had a deep need to have underlying holiness and unity within the universe and cosmic harmony was said to be achieved by correct public and ritual life set by Maat. Any disturbance of it was said to have consequences for not just the individual but for the kingdom as well. There’s also the concept of isfet which is of course chaos, lies and violence. There was also other principles added like following tradition, the importance of persuassion, impartiality(aka no prejudice in justice) and doing righteous actions. To Egyptians Maat bounded everything together in the universe. A passage from the Instruction of Ptanhotep presents Maat as follows:
“Maat is good and it’s worth lasting,
It has not been distrubed since the day of it’s creator,
Whereas he who transgresses its ordinance is punished.
It lies as a path in front of even of him who knows nothing.
Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port.
It is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts,
A man can say ‘it was the property of my father’.”
Not much is found in literature about how it was practiced in law other than Maat was there in spirit and from the 5th Dynasty onwards a vizer (a high ranking political advisor or minister) was called the Priest of Maat and even wore images of her to show they were responisble for justice. There’s also the Sebayt (pharanoic interpretations/literature) which later scholars and philosophers embodied concepts from and it was filled with spiritual texts on how common social and professional situations were dealt with and how each was best to be resolved or addressed in the spirit of Maat. It was very practical and case-based so only a few specific and general rule scould be derived from them. During the time the Greeks came to Egypt Greek law existed alongside Egyptian law which preserved the rights of women being allowed to be independent from men and own propery which also influenced the most restrive conventions of the Greeks and Romans.
Maat also had temples and the earliest one that was recorded was in the New Kingdom era from Amenhotep III in the Karnak complex and there is textual evidence that suggests other temples of Maat were around Memphis and Deir el-Medina. The temple in Karnak was also used by courts to meet to discuss the robberies of royal tombs during the rule of Ramesses IX. In the Papyrus of Ani (also known as The Coming Forth By Day) the lines were often collectively called the 42 declorations of purity where people would write down things to appease Maat and they thought through the power of writing down about how they did no wrongs in their life that it would wipe away anything wrong they did do away from their afterlife. It would also include their own personal practices in their lives to please Maat. The doctrine of Maat is represented in the declorations to Rekhti-Merti-f-ent-Maat and the 42 negative confessions listed in the papyrus of Ani.
Annnd that’s all the notes I have, I’ll go more in depth of her part in the weighing of hearts when I get to that topic, this was just meant to be all about Maat both as a concept and as a goddess. I hope you enjoyed!
Edit: ffs why doesn’t it show up when u write Maat in Egyptian 💀
People who work with or know Khonsu can you guys message me because like idk if he’s rlly around or not n I wanna hear about your experiences with him since there’s not rlly that many online resources about him :’)
Would you guys like me share my notes on Egyptology which features ofc stuff about the myths? Bc I just might, I’m trying to put it all together so I have it all in one space to study it
If I find anything useful on my Egyptology Shamanism course I may post it on here, it looks rlly interesting but I have a few other courses to do first it’s rlly exciting!
Nah it’s the way I just found out there’s a myth about Khonsu loving Senet and that game was the first thing I rlly learned about from ancient Egypt and can spot it within seconds in any documentary I watch before they can say it
- Make Amelia and Emerson both descendents of Moores, and that’s why Ramses looks more Arabic than traditionally English, and due to prejudices at the time decided they shouldn't have more children because people might be suspicious.
- Nefret would be half Native, but look English (and really make the whole oasis storyline less white savior-y).
- Ramses, David, and Nefret OT3 forever cannon.
- Honestly I want an AU where Amelia meets Sethos first, becomes a master criminal herself and had occasional run-ins with Emerson.
