The Egyptian Book of the Dead

PLATE III.

Vignette: Scene of the weighing of the Heart of the Dead. Ani and his wife enter the Hall of Double Law or Truth, wherein the heart, emblematical of the conscience, is to be weighed in the balance against the feather, emblematical of law. Above, twelve gods, each holding a sceptre are seated upon thrones before a table of offerings of fruit, flowers, etc. Their names are: Harmachis, "the great god within his boat"; Tmu; Shu; Tefnut, "lady of heaven"; Seb; Nut, "lady of Heaven" Isis; Nephthys; Horus, "the great god"; Hathor, "lady of Amenta"; and Sa. Upon the beam of the scales sits the dog-headed ape which was associated

[1. A name of the underworld.

2. Or Sexet-Anru, a division of the Sexet-hetepu (see Plate XXXV.), the Elysian fields wherein the souls of the blessed were supposed to reap and sow.

3. In British Museum papyrus No. 9901 the goddess Maat is seated on the centre of the beam of the balance. The double Maat goddesses are at times represented standing beside the balance to watch the result of the weighing, and at the same time Maat is also placed in the scale to be weighed against the heart of the deceased (Fig. x) (see Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 136, Pa.). {footnote page 256} In the papyrus of Qenna the head of Anubis is on the beam, and the ape, wearing disk and crescent, is seated upon a pylon-shaped pedestal beside the balance (Fig. 2). Another vignette shows Horus holding Maat in his band, weighing the heart in the presence of the Maat goddesses, and Anubis, holding the deceased by the hand, presents the heart to Osiris while Isis and Nephthys in the form of apes sit near (Fig. 3).