From an early period the King would describe himself as the "Lord of Maat" who decreed with his mouth the Maat he conceived in his heart. The development of such rules sought to avert chaos and it became the basis of Egyptian law. Maat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with conflicting interests. Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator. Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. Īfter her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of souls that took place in the underworld, Duat. As Thoth has been seen to represent the Logos of Plato, so Maat has been viewed as an expression of Divine Wisdom. After the rise of Ra they were depicted together in the Solar Barque. Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes are the same. The earliest surviving records indicating Maat is the norm for nature and society, in this world and the next, was recorded during the Old Kingdom, the earliest substantial surviving examples being found in the pyramid texts of Unas (ca. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Maat or maʻat (thought to have been pronounced * ), also spelled māt or mayet, was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. Maat was both the goddess and the personification of truth and justice. For other uses, see Maat (disambiguation).
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