The Evils of Ancient Egypt

by Jimmy Dunn writing as Jefferson Monet

Passing into the afterlife in ancient Egypt was no insignificant matter, for as early as the Pyramid Texts, one would be judged by an entire tribunal of gods after death. These references become clear by the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts, and in the Book of the Dead, the judgment of the Dead by this tribunal became the most important focal point in the deceased's entrance to the afterlife.

Furthermore, once an evil was committed, there is no evidence until the Late Period that the individual could be cleansed of such a sin, though certain spells were created to perhaps help the deceased overcome his transgressions and there was also the heart, that could be weighed, perhaps allowing the deceased's good deeds help overcome any evil that he had participated in.

Judgment of the deceased in the Hall of Justice from the 19th Dynasty Book of the Dead of Hunefer

Spell 125 in the Book of the Dead provides what Egyptologist refer to as the "negative confession" or "declaration of innocence" so that the deceased could announce his innocence before the forty-two who were the assessors that judged the dead in the netherworld Hall of Justice, also known as the "Hall of the Two Truths". Hence, this spell takes the form of an address to each of these "judgment gods", who is named along with the specific plea before each god. These names of these gods were listed, together with an identification that was either a geographical region or some other identifying characteristic.

The tribunal of assessor gods is frequently depicted in the illustrations accompanying Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, though only occasionally are all forty-two gods represented at once. More commonly, a representative selection of the gods is made, normally in the squatting position common to "seated god" hieroglyph, or standing. Sometimes they may hold knives, and at other times the feathers of ma'at as symbols of their judicial power.

These forty-two gods apparently were believed to judge all forms of evil, though some might overlap to some extent. For example, two gods represented robbery and stealing, respectively, but apparently stealing offerings, food and bread specifically each deserved the attention of an individual member of the tribunal.

However, it should probably be noted that these evils did not include all taboos specifically, which might include anything that upset ma'at. Ma'at has generally been described as "world order" or truth, but which also implied plenty and abundance of food. As an example, fairly early in Egyptian history it was considered to be an affront to ma'at, to enter a temple unless having abstained from sexual activity, observed certain rules of cleanliness and avoided various foods. Of course, all such acts could have come under general classifications of evil such as misbehavior or transgression.

The Judges and Evils of Ancient Egypt

Name of God	Identification	Crime Judged
Far-strider	Heliopolis	falsehood
Fire-embracer	Kherara	robbery
Nosey	Hermopolis	rapaciousness
Swallower of shades	the cavern	stealing
Dangerous One	Rosetau	murder
Double lion	the sky	destruction of food
Fiery eyes	Letopolis	crookedness
Flame	Came forth backwards	stealing offerings
Bone Breaker	Herakleopolis	lying
Green of flame	Memphis	taking food
You of the cavern	the West	sullenness
White of teeth	Fayoum	transgression
Blood-eater	the shambles	killing a sacred bull
Eater of entrails	House of Thirty	perjury
Lord of truth	Maaty	stealing bread
Wanderer	Bubastis	eavesdropping
Pale One	Heliopolis	babbling
Doubly evil	Andjet	disputing
Wememty-snake	place of execution	homosexuality
See whom you bring	House of Min	misbehavior
Over the Old One	mau	terrorizing
Demolisher	Chois	transgressing
Disturber	Weryt	being hot-tempered
Youth	heliopolitan nome	unhearing of truth
Foreteller	Wenes	making disturbance
You of the altar	the secret place	hoodwinking
Face behind him	cavern of wrong	copulating with a boy
Hot-foot	the dusk	neglect
You of the darkness	the darkness	quarrelling
Bringer of your offering	Sais	unduly active
Owner of aces	Nedjefet	impatience
Accuser	Wetjenet	damaging a god's image
Owner of horns	Asyut	volubility of speech
Nefertem	Memphis	wrongdoing, beholding evil
Temsep	Busiris	conjuration against the King
You who acted willfully	Tjebu	wading in water
Water-smiter	the abyss	being loud voiced
Commander of mankind	your house	reviling God
Bestower of good	the Harpoon nome	doing...?
Bestower of powers	the city	making distinctions for self
Serpent with raised head	the cavern	dishonest wealth
Serpent who brings and gives	the silent land	blasphemy

See Also:

• Ethics in Ancient Egyptians

References:

Title	Author	Date	Publisher	Reference Number
Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, The	Wilkinson, Richard H.	2003	Thames & Hudson, LTD	ISBN 0-500-05120-8
Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, A	Hart, George	1986	Routledge	ISBN 0-415-05909-7
Egyptian Religion	Morenz, Siegfried	1973	Cornell University Press	ISBN 0-8014-8029-9
Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt	Armour, Robert A.	1986	American University in Cairo Press, The	ISBN 977 424 669 1