Ma'at, 200612x16 Print $30.00 (shipping included)

Ma'at - In Egyptian mythology, Ma'at was the goddess, or rather the concept, of truth, justice and order. Because it was the pharaoh 's duty to ensure truth and justice, many of them were referred to as Meri-Maàt (Beloved of Maàt ). Since she was considered as merely the concept of order and truth, it was thought that she came into existence at the moment of creation, having no creator. When beliefs about Thoth arose and started to consume the earlier beliefs at Hermopolis about the Ogdoad, it was said that she was the mother of the Ogdoad and Thoth the father.

In Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were said to be weighed against the single Shu feather, symbolically representing the concept of Maàt, in the Hall of Two Truths. A heart which was unworthy was devoured by Ammit and its owner condemned to remain in Duat. Those people with good, (and pure), hearts were sent on to Osiris in Aaru. The weighing of the heart, pictured on papyrus, (in the Book of the Dead, typically, or in tomb scenes, etc.), shows Anubis overseeing the weighing, the "lion-like" Ammit seated awaiting the results and the eating of the heart, the vertical heart on one flat surface of the balance scale, and the vertical Shu-feather standing on the other balance scale surface.

Maàt was depicted in art as a woman with wings and a "curved" ostrich feather on her head or sometimes just as a feather. These images are on some sarcophogi as a symbol of protection for the souls of the dead. Egyptians believed that without Maàt there would be only the primal chaos , ending the world. It was seen as the Pharaoh's necessity to apply just law.

Source:
wikipedia.org