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The Ancient Egyptian Concept of Maat :
Reflections on Social Justice and Natural Order
By Dr R. James Ferguson,
Centre for East-West Cultural
And Economic Studies,
FSD, Bond University,
Qld, Australia.
Abstract:
The ancient Egyptian conception of Maat includes connotations of ‘order’,
‘harmony’, ‘rightness’ and true witness. It is used in a wide range of religious, ethical
and cosmological contexts. Maat as a goddess and idea constituted a fundamental
touchstone of ancient Egyptian religion and social life. It emphasized harmonious
cooperation as a social idea but also represented the constant cosmic struggle against
chaos and disorder. The structural aspects of Maat moved beyond normative
descriptions and came to reinforce individual piety, intercessory and confessional
patterns of prayer, ‘lay’ religious associations and the emergence of saviour cults that
became prominent from the Late Period onward.
For modern thinkers, Maat provides a useful reflection point on human justice
and its relationship to nature and the environment. Beyond the intergenerational
justice required by the ecological need for sustainability into future generations and
the intra-generational demands of social justice, we too need to conceive of the deeper
interconnection between the human and natural orders.
Contents:
1. Maat: A Unique Formulation
2. Maat as Social Order and Social Justice
3. Religious and Moral Dimensions
4. Maat as Royal Justice and State Order
5. Structural Patterns within the Maat Construct
6. Times of Disorder and Other Counter-Images
7. The Justified and Good Life
8. Popular Mentality and Social Discontent
9. Personal Piety and Prayer
10. Emerging Saviour Cults: Late Dynastic Period to the Hellenistic Age
11. Magic, Ethics and Predestination
12. Conclusion: Living by Maat
13. Bibliography
Maat is right order in nature and society, as established by the act of creation, and
hence means, according to the context, what is right, what is correct, law, order,
justice and truth. This state of righteousness needs to be preserved or established, in
great matters as in small. Maat is, therefore, not only right order but also the object of
human activity. Maat is both the task which a man sets himself and also, as
righteousness, the promise and reward that await him on fulfilling it.
8
Rundle Clark goes so far as to suggest that maat is the “earliest approach to the
concept of Nature as understood in Western thought.”
9
Maat is intimately involved
with the fecundity associated with Osiris, as noted in Coffin Text 330:
Whether I live or die I am Osiris,
I enter in and reappear through you,
I decay in you, I grow in you,
I fall down in you, I fall upon my side.
The gods are living in me for I live and grow in the
corn that sustains the Honoured Ones.
I cover the earth,
whether I live or die I am Barley,
I am not destroyed.
I have entered the Order ,
I rely upon the Order,
I become the Master of the Order,
I emerge in the Order,
I make my form distinct...
10
The problem here, of course, is that the term ‘nature’ in normal modern European
thought is an extremely diverse concept, and one which cannot even be easily
correlated with earlier Greek concepts such as cosmos or physis.
11
In the modern
period the concept of nature at the both the philosophical and scientific levels has
turned out be very complex. We therefore need to study the implications of maat ,
interpreted as ‘nature’, with extreme caution.
It is true, however that the concept of maat may have arisen from a physical
image which was then extended to the social world:
8 Morenz, Siegfried Egyptian Religion , trans. A. Keep, London, Methuen, 1973, p113.
9 Rundle Clark, R.T. Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt , London: Thames & Hudson, 1978, p143.
10 Translated in Ibid. p142, brackets added.
11 See Williams, Raymond New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Rev. ed.,
edited by Tony Bennett et al. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005, pp238-240. For parallels between
Maat and the Greek goddess Metis, see Faraone, Christopher & Teeter, Emily “Egyptian Maat and
Hesiodic Metis”, Mnemosyne, 57 no. 2 , 2004, pp177-207.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
Basically, it is probably a physical term, "levelness, evenness, straightness,
correctness," in a sense of regularity or order. From that it can be used in the
metaphorical sense of "uprightness, righteousness, truth, justice." There was a real
emphasis on this ma'at in the Middle Kingdom in the sense of social justice, righteous
dealing with one's fellow men. That was the main theme of the story of the eloquent
peasant, which comes from this period. Throughout his pleadings the peasant
demanded from the high official simple justice as a moral right. Just dealing had its
minimum in the conscientious carrying-out of responsibilities.... justice was not
simply legal commerce but was the seeking-out of good in relation to need: ferrying
across the river the poor man who could not pay and doing good in advance of any
known return.
12
There is a connection between the basic physical and social meanings of this term.
Thus maat “as the term for justice referred to ‘order’, the law-governed nature of the
cosmos, but at the same time could refer to the ‘basis’ or foundations of order as
virtually substantial.”
13
John Baines has summarised the concept of maat as “both the
harmonious cooperation which was projected as a social ideal and the constant
struggle to maintain the cosmos against the forces which threatened it.”
14
For modern thinkers, maat provides a useful reflection point on human justice
and its relationship to nature and the environment. Beyond the intergenerational
justice required by the ecological need for sustainability into future generations and
the intra-generational justice of social justice, we also need to conceive of the deeper
interconnection between the human and natural orders. The ancient Egyptians had a
unique and beautiful image of this connection in the Goddess Maat, viewed as
“perfection in both cosmic and human order.”
15
Today, we have only weaker concepts
joining these human and natural orders: the contested theory of an anthropic universe
(in which by definition the laws of the cosmos must be structured to allow for life,
12 Frankfort, H. et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in
the Ancient Near East , Chicago: University of Chicago, 1977, pp108-9.
13 Springborg, Patricia Royal Persons: Patriarchical Monarchy and the Feminine Principle , London:
Unwin Hyman, 1990, p233, following Hornung, Erik Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One
and the Many , trans. J. Baines, London: Routledge, 1982, pp213-214. See also Anthes, Rudolf "The
Original Meaning of M3c HRW " , JNES, 13 ( 1954 ), p23-24.
14 Baines, John "Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation", in O'Connor, David & Silverman,
David P. (eds.) Ancient Egyptian Kingship , Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995, p12.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
humorous and ironic aspects.
18
One of the finest metaphorical comparisons for the
utility of justice is found in the First Petition of the peasant:
When you go down to the sea of justice
19
And sail on it with a fair wind,
No squall shall strip away your sail,
Nor will your boat be idle.
No accident will affect your mast,
Your yards will not break.
You will not founder when you touch land,
No flood will carry you away.
You will not taste the river's evils,
You will not see a frightened face.
20
From the large number of surviving Middle Kingdom manuscript copies of this tale, it
seems to have been a highly popular account in which an apparently rustic peasant is
able to instruct the high state official who would judge him.
21
The fundamental theme
of the story, however, remains that of maat.
22
The irony of the text, showing the
humorous situation through the peasant’s eloquent speeches, is also used to
consistently delineate the proper conduct of officials, who should be ‘repellers of evil’
but who have fallen to the level of ‘a wretch of a washerman.’
23
However, it must be
remembered that one of the features of Egyptian thought was the notion of ‘perfect
speech’, which embodied truth and justice to the point of becoming an empowered
utterance (see further below).
18 Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1973, I, p169. On the emergence of moral norms and wisdom literature for Egyptian
officials as protectors of social justice, see Breasted, James Henry Development of Religion and
Thought in Ancient Egypt , N.Y.: Scribner’s Sons, 1912, p216, p230, pp238-239.
19 M3't ( maat ), 'justice', allowing a word play with the next line m3'w , 'fair wind', as noted in
Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1973, I, p183, endnote 10.
20 The Eloquent Peasant , lines 54-61, translated in Ibid., I, p172.
21 Parkinson, R.B. "Literary Form and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant", JEA, 78 ( 1992 ), p164, p168.
22 Ibid., pp172-3, p176. See also Assmann, Jan Maat: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten
Agypten , Munchen: Beck, 1990, pp4 8 - 51.
23 Parkinson, R.B. "Literary Form and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant", JEA, 78 ( 1992 ), pp174-175.
R. B. Parkinson rightly notes that in this context it is not possible to
disentangle the values of rhetoric and justice.
24
It is from this context that we can see
how the words of the peasant can be described as that which “comes forth from the
mouth of Re himself.”
25
Similar sentiments will be found in Late Period biographical
literature. The following is the image of a just man found in the statue inscription of
Harwa, High Steward of the Divine Consort of Amun:
A refuge for the wretched,
A float for the drowning,
A ladder for him who is in the abyss.
One who speaks for the unhappy,
Who assists the unfortunate,
Who helps the oppressed by his good deed;
The one honoured by the King, Harwa.
26
Similar sentiments are expressed in the Sarcophagus-lid inscription of a certain
Wennofer, a prophet of Osiris and royal scribe:
I was true-of heart, impartial, trusted,
One who walked on the water of god.
I was one praised in his town,
Beneficent in his nome,
Gracious to everyone.
I was well-disposed, popular,
Widely loved, cheerful.
I was self-controlled in the year of distress,
Sweet-tongued, well-spoken.
I was a good shelter for the needy,
One on whom every man could lean.
I was one who welcomed by the stranger,
A helpful adviser, excellent guide.
I was one who protected the weak from the strong,
So as to be a ferryboat for everyone.
I was a worthy noble who did the gods' wish,
I was gracious to his companions.
I was open-handed to the have-not,
My heart did not say, "Give me!"
I was one who loved justice,
Who hated wrongdoing,
For I knew the god abhors it.
27
24 Ibid., p176, correcting the formulation put forward by Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian
Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, I, p169.
25 Parkinson, R.B. "Literary Form and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant", JEA, 78 ( 1992 ), p177.
26 Statue, Berlin Museum 8163, on the front of the body, lines 8-9, translated in Lichtheim, Miriam
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, III,
p26.
perspective the building of any temple was an imitation and repetition of the creation
of the world: as such, the temple is both a centre and focus of physical and spiritual
integration.
33
The primordial temple is prior to history. Indeed, temples may have an
important role in recording historical events and sanctifying them. In the Ptolemaic
period, for instance, “the Edfu temple claimed to be the heir and direct descendant of
the original temple which came into existence before the dawn of history.”
34
Maat is
sometimes represented as having descended to earth in this early period when the
Primeval Gods directly ruled Egypt and there was no falsehood in the land.
35
It will be
no surprise, then, that temples and cult practices are intimately connected with maat ,
both as social justice and the creative renewal and maintenance of world order. This
sense of justice included a strong component of tradition: in large measure the “past
was normative,” with the pharaoh attempting to recreate some kind of primordial
balance.
36
A desire to unite conceptions of order, morality and power may lie behind the
coincidence that the supreme gods in both the Egyptian and Greek worldviews bore a
daughter, Maat and Dike , both of which are personified forms of justice, though the
particular forms and interpretations of these concepts varied across the two cultures.
Both concepts are part of a pre-scientific and pre-reductionist mode of thought in
which Dike and Maat “constitute the all-inclusive calculus of the Universe, but which
Press, 1969, p43, p50; Rundle Clark, R.T. Myth and symbol in Ancient Egypt , London: Thames &
Hudson, 1978, p61, p66.
33 Knipe, David M. "The Temple in Image and Reality" in Fox, M. (ed.) Temple and Society , Winona
Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1988, pp108-112; Turner, Harold W. From Temple to Meeting House: The
Phenomenology and Theology of Places of Worship , The Hague: Mouton, 1979, p26.
34 Reymond, E.A.E. The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple , Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1969, 1969, p268.
35 Fairman, H.W. "The Kingship Rituals of Egypt" in Hooke, S.H. (ed.) Myth, Ritual and Kingship:
Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Near East and in Israel , Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1958, p75, following Edfou V.85.13-15.
36 Frankfort, H. et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in
the Ancient Near East , Chicago: University of Chicago, 1977, p26.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
nevertheless, as living and impersonal powers, possess mana - like character.”
37
Dike is
directly related to her sisters, Eunomia as good government or good law and Eirene as
peace, from at least the time of Hesiod.
38
Gods held to be supreme in the world as
well as the final arbiters of order in human societies came to be associated with
concepts which personify good order, justice and harmony. In this way both Greek
and Egyptian thought arrived at values suitable to extended political organisations
with an agricultural base impacted by the development of tiers of social stratification
and emergent class structures. It is not necessary to posit here a strong historical
influence from Egypt to Greece, in spite of some reflections in Greek legends
supporting this idea, and revisionist scholarship aimed in this direction.
39
There are,
furthermore, very real differences between the diverse ways that Dike/Themis and
Maat are articulated in Greek and Egyptian societies. In Greek thought the gradual
disassociation between mythos and logos
40
allowed a rationalisation of concepts of
justice, a disassociation necessary before the commencement of a critique which
would otherwise have been conceptually difficult as well as counter-indicated as
37 Van Der Leeuw, G. Religion in Essence and Manifestation , I, Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1967,
p30.
38 Hesiod II.901- 3.
39 Several prominent figures in early Greek history are said to have visited Egypt, beginning with
Menelaus, who in the Odyssey stayed a considerable time in Egypt and accumulated valuable
possessions which he brought back to Greece. Odysseus himself was said to have visited Egypt in the
company of roving pirates, though we should not place too much reliance on these legends, Stubbings,
Frank H. "The Recession of Mycenaean Civilization", Cambridge Ancient History , 3
rd
. rev. ed.,
Cambridge: CUP, 1975, Vol. II, Part 2, Chapter 27, p354. Later visitors include Hecataeus of Abdera
(likely), Solon (possible), Herodotus (likely) and Plato (improbable) in order to benefit from Egyptian
learning, especially from the wisdom of her priests. In later periods we know of Polybius, Strabo, and
Juvenal visiting or residing in Egypt, though by second century some of these visits might be better
termed 'site-seeing'. A useful overview of early contacts will be found in Boardman, John The Greeks
Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade , London: Thames & Hudson, 1980, pp111-153. For a
controversial, and highly speculative, account of early ‘African’ influence on Greek culture, see Bernal,
Martin Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilisation , New Brunswick, Rutgers
University Press, 1987. For a useful corrective within the context of modern political debates, see
Adeleke, Tunde The Case Against Afrocentrism , Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011, pp89-
40 Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Piety , trans. H.J. Rose, N.Y., W.W. Norton, 1969, pp70-91.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
3. Religious and Moral Dimensions
Beneath these general articulations of maat , it is possible to detect a deeper pattern of
understandings which show a close correlation of meaning across separate spheres of
the Egyptian world experience. Whether as part of their view of the cosmos, part of
the nature of the Two Lands, or as part of the proper relationship between persons,
maat remained an essentially positive image which is contrasted with destructive and
fearful alternatives. Maat was not just a normative concept, but was deeply embedded
in social and religious practice. Furthermore, it remained a central symbol, as distinct
from an integrated and logically consistent concept, in Egyptian sensibility.
In the world order, as we have seen, even the gods live by maat. In Utterance
573 of the Pepi I Pyramid Texts , where the king prays for admittance into the sky, we
are told: “For Pepi is one with these four gods: Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, Kebhsenuf,
Who live by maat .”
44
Furthermore, the gods are said to feed on maat , which is
reflected in the daily rituals whereby the gods are offered a figure of the goddess,
together with food and drink.
45
In cosmological sequences Maat is one of the
offspring gods held to the nostrils of Atum/Re to allow him to breathe and be strong,
and indeed, it is said that he would eat of his daughter Maat.
46
This complex imagery
goes so far as to call Maat the k3 (ka) of Re: “Ma-a-t is the power by which Re
lives.”
47
Likewise, Amen-Ra is said to rest on Maat.
48
In the ceremonies at Edfu, an
44 Translated in Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1973, I, p49. These four gods are the sons of Horus, who guard the
Canopic jars of the burial.
45 Frankfort, H. et al. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in
the Ancient Near East , Chicago, University of Chicago, 1977, p14.
46 Coffin Texts II 76 35b-36c translated in Shirun-Grumach, Irene "Remarks on the Goddess Maat", in
Israelit-Groll, S. (ed.) Pharaonic Egypt , The Hebrew University, Magnes Press, 1985, p191, see also
p177; Rundle Clark, R.T. Myth and symbol in Ancient Egypt , London: Thames & Hudson, 1978, p27,
p43.
47 Bleeker, C. J. Egyptian Festivals: Enactments of Religious Renewal , Leiden: Brill, 1967, p126.
48 Budge, E.A. Egyptian Religion: Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life , N.Y.: Bell Publishing, 1954, p50.
image of Maat was presented to the sun-god after the chanting of a hymn in praise of
Re and just after the summoning of the gods to their feast.
49
Maat is also presented to
Amen-Re in the Abydos Decree of Seti I at Nauri.
50
The religious function of maat seems to include a kind of promise, or hope, for
humans concerning the ultimate justice and rightness of the cosmos in which they
existed. In general terms the gods were directly involved in redressing injustices,
51
both in this life and after death. By the Ramesside period maat is still emphasised in
spite of the knowledge that injustice occurs in everyday life:
Maat is a great gift of god,
He gives it to whom he wishes.
The might of him who resembles him,
It saves the poor from his tormentor.
Do not make for yourself false documents,
They are a deadly provocation;
They (mean) the great restraining oath,
They (mean) a hearing by the herald.
Don't falsify the oracles in the scrolls,
And thus disturb the plans of god;
Don't use for yourself the might of god,
As if there were no Fate and Destiny.
Hand over property to it owners,
Thus do you seek life for yourself;
Don't raise your desire in their house,
Or your bones belong to the execution block.
52
The gods not only give and maintain maat , they themselves receive it. Part of the
normal cult for most major gods was the offering of meals to the gods, in theory by
the pharaoh, in practice by suitably pure priests. This included “two symbolic acts, the
offering of incense and the offering of Maat, the return to the god of his bounty and
49 Blackman, A.M. & Fairman, H.W. "The Consecration of an Egyptian Temple According to the Use
of Edfu", JEA, 32 ( 1946 ), p90.
50 In Griffith, F. "The Abydos Decree of Seti I at Nauri", JEA, 13 ( 1927 ), pp195-197.
51 ERMAN, Adolf The Ancient Egyptians: A Source Book of Their Writings , trans. A. Blackman,
N.Y., Harper Torchbooks, 1966, p302.
52 The Instruction of Amenemope , British Museum Papyrus 10474, Chapter 20, lines 5-20, translated in
Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1976, II, pp158-9.
Indeed, I am a gentle one before God,
One wise, one calm, who listens to maat.
58
These scenes of judgement and justification of the individual after death involve the
weighing of the dead person's heart against a feather, “the symbol of Maat or
‘Truth’”.
59
Then and only then, if the person has passed this test, will they have
continued existence. By the time of the Late Period this notion of judgement takes on
strongly moral tones, and goes beyond merely prescriptive concerns with ritual
conduct or mortuary customs.
60
Likewise, judgement also ceases to be absolute and
involves the notion of a person doing well in terms of the situation that life had
provided them.
The Declaration to the Forty-Two Gods , which are denials of ‘evil’ behaviour,
is expressed in more normative terms, and gives some idea of the specific items of
behaviour which were good and bad acts.
61
But this procedure of purification is not
distinct from moral concerns. As noted by Erik Hornung:
Each denial of a specific form of injustice cleanses another layer of the earthly taint,
bringing forth unblemished justice - maat - and ensuring the purity of the deceased, a
requirement for a blessed life in the Beyond. 'I am pure!' Four times this simple cry
echoes through the Hall of Justice, and this is sufficient for the deceased 'to be
purged of all the evil he has done,'... Magic is at work here: not as a substitute for
ethically spotless behaviour, but rather as an additional measure available to men in
the most dangerous episode of human existence.
62
Magic is not inherently opposed to religion in Egyptian conceptions of the divine, and
is one of the foundations of the gods’ power and creativity. Likewise, texts, drawings
58 Ibid.
59 Shorter, Alan W. The Egyptian Gods: A Handbook , London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978, p54.
60 Morenz, Siegfried Egyptian Religion , trans. A. Keep, London: Methuen, 1973, p247.
61 See Chapter 125 'The Judgement of the Dead' from The Book of the Dead , translated in Lichtheim,
Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of California Press,
1976, II, p124-132, based on the Naville edition. This includes a declaration of innocence and two
interrogations by the gods.
62 Hornung, Erik The Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity , trans. David Warburton, N.Y.: Timken
Publishers, 1990, p150.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
and statues often have a performative ritual function that means that they must be
used carefully.
63
This blending of magical power and ethical concerns is also seen in specific
formulas found in The Book of the Dead. The following, for example, concerns the
heart as witness:
O my heart of my mother,
O my heart of my mother,
O my heart of my being!
Do not rise up against me as witness,
Do not oppose me in the tribunal,
Do not rebel against me before the guardian of the scales!
You are my ka within my body,
The Khnum who prospers my limbs.
Go to the good place prepared for us,
Do not make my name stink before them,
The magistrates who put people in their places!
If it's good for us it's good for the judge,
It pleases him who renders judgement.
Do not invent lies before the god,
Before the great god, the lord of the west,
Lo, your uprightness brings vindication!
64
Here there seems to be a fear that the heart will inform against the dead person.
Though this is described as “inventing lies,” there remains a certain ambiguity in the
phrase “if it's good for us it's good for the judge.” There seems to be a fear of bad faith
here, that the heart and the mind of the person will not be in accord in this most
formidable of tests. “My heart of my mother” refers to the original heart with which
the person was born,
65
and may include some notion of original wholeness which was
lost at a later stage. Another example of this blending of magical practices and ethical
standards is found in Coffin Text 228, the “Spell for becoming the first to enter and the
63 Indeed, Egyptian magic associated with notions of creation and protection, and seems to correlate in
many ways to Malinowski's idea of 'ritualized optimism', Pinch, Geraldine Magic in Ancient Egypt ,
Austin, University of Texas Press, 1994, pp9-17. See also Ritner, Robert Kriech The Mechanics of
Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice , Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1993.
64 Chapter 30B "The Heart as Witness' from The Book of the Dead , translated in Lichtheim, Miriam
Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, II,
p121, based on the Naville edition.
Culture Mandala, Volume 13, special issue 3, March 2020 © R. James Ferguson
identification of the King with Horus, a trend which was one of the bases of Egyptian
views reinforcing the divine nature of kingship.
70
In the end, moreover, it is the just person who prospers, even when poor, in
one account being given the clothes and funerary items of a rich man who did not pass
this moral judgement. Indeed, the theme of moral worth becomes an integral part of
Egyptian autobiography,
71
which we would expect since most of these
autobiographies are part of the wall decorations for private tombs, and therefore are
intimately connected with future expectations for the dead. Maat is an essential
feature of these accounts.
72
The just reward for the moral person is once again tied
into cosmic notions:
But justice (lasts) forever and goes down into the necropolis with him who renders it.
When he is buried and joined to the earth, his name is not wiped out on earth, but he
is remembered for goodness. That is a principle of divine order.
73
This affirmation of moral worth is found even in the Old Kingdom, though there it is
often associated with fulfilling specific social roles in relation to individuals of high
authority, to town and nome (province), to family and society at large. The inscription
of Nefer-Seshem-Re from the 6th Dynasty, found on the false door of his tomb at
Saqqara states:
I have come from my town,
70 Griffiths, Gwyn J. "Egyptian Nationalism in the Edfu Temple Texts", in Ruffle, John et al. (ed.)
Glimpses of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honour of H.W. Fairman , Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1979,
p175; Fairman, H.W. "The Kingship Rituals of Egypt" in Hooke, S.H. (ed.) Myth, Ritual and Kingship:
Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Near East and in Israel , Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1958, pp75-6, p80. The dead king, of course, is usually identified with Osiris, and
during the Ramesside period with Amun as well, Fairman, H.W. "The Kingship Rituals of Egypt" in
Hooke, S.H. (ed.) Myth, Ritual and Kingship: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Kingship in the
Ancient Near East and in Israel , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958, p104. For tensions between the divine
nature of kingship as an institution and the human nature of individual kings, see O'Connor, David &
Silverman, David P. (eds.) Ancient Egyptian Kingship , Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995, pp xxiv-xxvi ; Baines,
John "Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation", in Ibid., pp6-11.
71 Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1973, I, p4.
72 See Lichtheim, Miriam Maat in Egyptian Autobiographies and Related Studies , Freiburg:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992, pp9-102.
73 The Eloquent Peasant , B307-11, translated in Frankfort, H. et al. The Intellectual Adventure of
Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East , Chicago: University of
Chicago, 1977, p84.
I have descended from my nome,
I have done justice to its lord,
I have satisfied him with what he loves.
I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
74
We find this connection between life after death, the goodwill of the gods, and moral
order expressed even more clearly in the Instruction Addressed to King Merikaret
75
Make firm your station in the graveyard,
By being upright, by doing justice,
Upon which men's hearts rely.
The loaf of the upright is preferred
To the ox of the evildoer.
Work for god, he will work for you also,
With offerings that make the altar flourish,
With carvings that proclaim your name,
God thinks of him who works for him.
76
4. Maat as Royal Justice and State Order
Maat as rightness and moral order is central to notions of the legitimate rule of the
Two Lands, and is found reflected in pharaonic administrative and judicial accounts.
The fertile ‘Black Land’ (as Egypt was called) was especially blessed, with the Nile
being given for its sustenance, in direct contrast to the desert Red Land and other
countries which had to rely on rainfall, and whose inhabitants were deprived,
grumbling and nomadic.
77
Maat was an essential attribute of the Egyptian state and one of the chief
functions of the pharaoh was to ensure ‘right dealings in relation to persons and
74 Section I of Inscription of Nefer-Seshem-Re Called Sheshi , translated in Lichtheim, Miriam Ancient
Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings , Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, I, p17.
75 Surviving in papyri from the 18th Dynasty, though probably reflecting an earlier tradition of the late
Middle Kingdom, see Ibid., I, p97.
76 Instruction Addressed to King Merikaret , lines 126-132, translated in Ibid., I, p106.
77 Velde, H. Te. Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of his role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion ,
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1977, pp111-3.
