Saturday, April 14, 2012

Blogging from A to Z - Day 13 - M for Ma'at

Today's post I'm dedicating to Ma'at - goddess of cosmic harmony, truth, justice and moral integrity.

Ma'at seemed to be more of a concept than an actual goddess. Her name, literally, meant 'truth' in Egyptian. She was truth, order, balance and justice personified. She was harmony, she was what was right, she was what things should be. It was thought that if Ma'at didn't exist, the universe would become chaos, once again!

Egyptians believed that the universe was above everything else an ordered and rational place. It functioned with predictability and regularity; the cycles of the universe always remained constant; in the moral sphere, purity was rewarded and sin was punished. Both morally and physically, the universe was in perfect balance.

There is a small temple dedicated to Ma'at (in ruins) at Karnak. The temple is inside Precinct of Montu, the smallest of three enclosures at Karnak. The temple seems to have been built by Hatshepsut, then reconstructed by Thuthmose III.

Ma'at did not exist until Ra rose from the waters of Nun (various gods and goddesses of Chaos). She was known as a Neter goddess, and as such, was described as a daughter of Ra. But without Ma'at, Egyptians believed that Nun would reclaim the universe. She was also thought to be the wife of Thoth, moon god and god of the wisdom.

She was, really, the most important deity of them all.

So long my friends,
Evalina 

3 comments:

  1. Hello, Evalina! This post is fascinating. Thanks for teaching me something new!

    Have a lovely weekend and happy A to Z!!

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  2. I love the auncient Egyptian culture and have included it in some of my novels. Ma'at makes a lovely image. I guess she's the equivalent of our scales of justice. Your background picture is fantastic. Blog on!

    http://francene-wordstitcher.blogspot.com

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  3. i love learning about ancient Egyptian myths and legends:
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com
    Happy A-Zing!

    ReplyDelete

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