ot Isty in the Egypt exhibit and the diorama patterned 

 on it. ) 



The statements of innocence involved denials of 

 the following wrongdoings: committing falsehood 

 against people, robbing, being rapacious, stealing, kill- 

 ing, destroying food supplies, doing any "crookedness," 

 stealing the god's offerings, depriving an orphan of his 

 property, lying, stealing food, being sullen, transgress- 

 ing, killing a sacred bull, committing perjury, stealing 

 bread, eavesdropping, babbling, disputing in court ex- 

 cept about one's own property, committing homosex- 

 ual acts, misbehaving, causing terror, being hot- 

 tempered, being deaf to words of truth, making dis- 

 turbance, hoodwinking, misconducting one's self or 

 copulating with a boy, being neglectful, being quarrel- 

 some, being unduly active, being impatient, washing 

 out the image of a god, being voluble in speech, doing 

 wrong or seeing evil, making conjuration against the 

 king, wading in water, being loud-voiced, reviling god, 

 opposing a god in his procession, becoming wealthy 

 except by one's own property, blaspheming god in 

 one's city. 



This list forms Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead, 

 and further details serve as its introduction, while a 

 prayer and the questioning of the deceased follow the 

 list. This forms an extraordinarily tough moral stan- 

 dard. Remarkably, from the Middle Kingdom, when 

 the judgements were introduced, onwards in Egyptian 

 history, surviving texts mark a stronger sense of moral- 

 ity and accountability. Even kings became subject to 

 this set of judgements. The stage next to the judgement 

 involved the weighing of the heart on a balance scale 

 against the feather of the goddess Ma'at, mistress of 

 Justice. 



At this stage, the veracity of the statements made 

 before the 42 assessors was tested. Woe to the deceased 

 whose heart did not balance the feather of the goddess 

 of Justice! At the side of the scale a monster, Ammit, 

 stood ready to devour the errant soul. To help the de- 

 ceased through these judgements, the heart scarab was 

 included with the mummy (fig. 10). The scarab was 

 inscribed with Spell 30B of the Book of the Dead, 

 which called upon the heart not to testify against its 

 owner in the judgement before Osiris. The heart scarab 

 was almost always included in the wrappings of the 

 mummy to accompany and protect its owner in the 

 Afterlife. For this reason also, the heart was not re- 

 moved from the body during mummification. To the 

 Egyptians, the heart was responsible for actions, emo- 

 tions, and thought. Should the heart fail to balance 

 with the feather of truth, torments even worse than 



13. Pharaoh Akhenaton, Dynasty XVIII, reigned 1350-1334BC Detail 

 of statue in the Cairo Museum. 



Frank Yurco photo 



those presented by Ammit might be in store. The 

 ancient version of hell is presented in the story of 

 Setne-Khaemwas and Sa-Osiris, and in scenes from the 

 Bookof Am-Duat (fig. 11). 



If the heart passed the judgement by balancing 

 with the feather or figure of Ma'at, then the deceased 

 was united with Osiris (becoming as Osiris) and en- 

 tered eternal life. Through Osiris he was resurrected as 

 a potent spirit and went on to live in the Fields of the 

 Blessed. Resurrection was thus based upon the resur- 

 rection of Osiris himself through the magic and agency 

 of Isis, after he had been murdered by his brother Seth. 

 In the realm of the Blessed Dead, Hathor of the West 

 offered a cool drink to the soul (the ba, depicted as a 

 bird whose head was that of the deceased), and the 

 deceased lived among all the others who had gone be- 

 fore. This Afterlife world was patterned upon Egypt it- 

 self, but in the Afterlife the Nile always rose to exactly 



25 



