User:The Land/Weighing of the heart

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The Weighing of the Heart was a ritual of judgement from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead describes how, after death, a person would enter the Duat, or underworld, and deal with many challenges there. At some point in their journey through the Duat, the deceased would be led by the god Anubis into the 'Hall of the Two Ma'ats'. There he would recite the 'Negative Confession' in the presence of a number of divine judges, pleading his innocence of up to 42 sins. After this confession, the deceased's heart—representing their intellect and personality—would be weighed against the goddess Ma'at, representing truth and justice, and often represented by her symbol of a feather. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru, meaning "vindicated" or "true of voice".[1] If the heart was out of balance with Ma'at, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an early and unpleasant end.[2]

Journey in the Duat

If you could make it across the river and know the right prayers you can make confessions and have your heart weighed. you are stupid

Negative Confession

  1. I have not committed sin.
  2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
  3. I have not stolen.
  4. I have not slain men and women.
  5. I have not stolen grain.
  6. I have not purloined offerings.
  7. I have not stolen the property of the god.
  8. I have not uttered lies.
  9. I have not carried away food.
  10. I have not uttered curses.
  11. I have not committed adultery.
  12. I have not lain with men.
  13. I have made none to weep.
  14. I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
  15. I have not attacked any man.
  16. I am not a man of deceit.
  17. I have not stolen cultivated land.
  18. I have not been an eavesdropper.
  19. I have slandered [no man].
  20. I have not been angry without just cause(?).
  21. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
  22. I have not polluted myself.
  23. I have terrorised none.
  24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
  25. I have not been wroth.
  26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
  27. I have not blasphemed.
  28. I am not a man of violence.
  29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
  30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
  31. I have not pried into matters.
  32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
  33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
  34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
  35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
  36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
  37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
  38. I have not acted with arrogance(?).
  39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
  40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
  41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
  42. I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god.[3]

Judgement

If all the obstacles of the Duat could be negotiated, the deceased would be judged in the Weighing of the Heart ritual, depicted in Spell 125. The deceased was led by the god Anubis into the presence of Osiris. There, the dead person swore that he had not committed any one of a list of 42 sins,[4] reciting a text known as the "Negative Confession". Then the dead person's heart was weighed on a pair of scales, against the goddess Ma'at, who embodied truth and justice. often Ma'at was represented by an ostrich feather (the hieroglyphic sign for her name).[5] At this point, there was a risk that the deceased's heart would bear witness, owning up to sins committed in life; Spell 30B guarded against this eventuality. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru, meaning "vindicated" or "true of voice".[6] If the heart was out of balance with Ma'at, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an early and unpleasant end.[7]

Interpretation

This scene is remarkable not only for its vividness but as one of the only parts of the Book of the Dead with any explicit moral content. The judgement of the dead and the Negative Confession were a representation of the conventional moral code which governed Egyptian society. for every "I have not..." in the Negative Confession, it is possible to read an unexpressed "Thou shalt not".[8] While the Ten Commandments of Judaeo-Christian ethics are rules of conduct laid down by divine revelation, the Negative Confession is more a divine enforcement of everyday morality.[9] The wording of Spells 30B and 125 also suggests a pragmatic approach to morality; by preventing his heart from contradicting him with any inconvenient truths, it seems that the deceased could enter the afterlife even if his life had not been entirely pure.[10] Views differ among Egyptologists about how far the Negative Confession represents a moral absolute, with ethical purity being necessary for progress to the Afterlife. Ogden Goelet says "without an exemplary and moral existence, there was no hope for a successful afterlife"[11]; Geraldine Pinch suggests that the Negative Confession is essentially similar to the spells protecting from demons, and that the success of the Weighing of the Heart depended on the mystical knowledge of the true names of the judges rather than on the deceased's moral behaviour.[12]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Taylor 2010, p.215
  2. ^ Taylor 2010, p.212
  3. ^ (Budge The Egyptian Book of the Dead pp. 576 - 582 of final edition, 1913, ISBN 0-517-12283-9) The text has been modified, keeping Budge's numbering but removing the "Hail, insert name," at the beginning of the declarations. Repeated statements are made to two different entities.
  4. ^ Taylor 2010, p. 208
  5. ^ Taylor 2010, p.209
  6. ^ Taylor 2010, p.215
  7. ^ Taylor 2010, p.212
  8. ^ Faulkner 1994, p.14
  9. ^ Taylor 2010,p.204–5
  10. ^ Taylor 2010, p.212
  11. ^ Faulkner 1994, p.14
  12. ^ Pinch 1994, p.155

Bibliography

  • Allen, James P., Middle Egyptian - An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, first edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-77483-7
  • Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, (The Papyrus of Ani), Egyptian Text, Transliteration, and Translation.
  • D'Auria, S (et al) Mummies and Magic: the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989. ISBN 0878463070
  • Faulkner, Raymond O (translator); von Dassow, Eva (editor), The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going forth by Day. The First Authentic Presentation of the Complete Papyrus of Ani. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994.
  • Pinch, Geraldine, Magic in Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press, London, 1994. ISBn 0-7141-0797-1
  • Taylor, John H. (Editor), Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey through the afterlife. British Museum Press, London, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7141-1993-9
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