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Ma'at
Feb 24, 2007 1:47:51 GMT -5
Post by Lt Colonel John Sheppard on Feb 24, 2007 1:47:51 GMT -5
Ma'at - Egypt - Daughter of the sun god, Ra, Ma'at was more of a concept than an actual persona in Egyptian mythology. She was pictured as a beautiful woman bearing an ostrich feather, instrumental in the judgment of the dead. When the deceased was presented to Anubis, god of the dead, he would hold a pair of scales into which Ma'at would place her feather in one tray and the heart of the departed one would be placed into the other. If the heart was filled with evil, it would weigh more than the feather and the soul would be eaten by the Devourer of Souls, Ammit, committing them to oblivion. If the heart of the deceased was unburdened by guilt, it would be light as a feather, and the dead person would go to eternal reward in the afterlife. She was considered the greatest of all Egyptian deities. Ma'at - Egypt - Wasn't present in the episode but referenced in the funeral rites observed for Sha're. Sha're's husband, Daniel Jackson, participated in the Abydonian ceremony in which a feather was placed in a set of scales presided over by a baboon figurine, symbolic of Thoth, whose responsibility it was to record the final judgment of the dead. (Forever In A Day)
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