Maat - Maat Themes Found in The Book of The Dead and On Tomb Inscriptions

Maat Themes Found in The Book of The Dead and On Tomb Inscriptions

One aspect of ancient Egyptian funerary literature which often is mistaken for a codified ethic of Maat is Spell (Chapter) 125 of the Book of the Dead or Papyrus of Ani (known to the ancient Egyptians as The Book of Going Forth by Day). The lines of this spell are often collectively called the "Forty-Two Declarations of Purity" or the Negative Confessions. These declarations varied somewhat from tomb to tomb and so cannot be considered a canonical definition of Maat. Rather, they appear to express each tomb owner's individual conception of Maat, as well as working as a magical absolution—misdeeds or mistakes made by the tomb owner in life could be declared as not having been done, and through the power of the written word, wipe that particular misdeed from the afterlife record of the deceased.

Many of the lines are similar, however, and they can help to give the student a "flavor" for the sorts of things which Maat governed — essentially everything, from the most formal to the most mundane aspects of life.

The doctrine of Maat is represented in the declarations to Rekhti-merti-f-ent-Maat and the 42 Negative Confessions listed in the Papyrus of Ani. The following are taken from public domain translations made by E. A. Wallis Budge in the early part of the 20th century; more recent translations may differ in the light of modern scholarship.