Egyptian

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Egyptian

Maat

The Goddess of Truth and Order

Domain: Truth, Justice & Balance
Alignment: Lawful Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Feather of Truth

Speak with Maat

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Egyptians

Region

Nile Valley, Egypt

Period

c. 3100 BC – 400 AD

The Egyptian gods were worshipped for over three millennia along the banks of the Nile, with monumental temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Heliopolis. The pharaohs were held to be divine, and life revolved around cosmic order (Maat) and preparation for the afterlife. The cult endured until the rise of Christianity in Roman Egypt.

At the Opet festival, Amun's sacred barque sailed from Karnak to Luxor amid celebrating crowds. In the temples, priests woke, dressed, and fed the god's statue every day, and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley carried the deities to visit the shore of the dead.

At a glance

Ma'at is the ancient Egyptian goddess and cosmic embodiment of truth, justice, moral balance, and divine universal order. Beloved daughter of Ra and consort of Thoth, she constitutes the ontological bulwark preserving creation from the encroaching entropy of chaos (Isfet), with her ostrich feather serving as the decisive counterweight during the weighing of the soul in the netherworld.

4 min read · Reviewed on September 25, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Ostrich feather, the scales, the throne and the outstretched wings

Family

Parents

Siblings

Hathor Sekhmet Bastet

Maat

Unions

Thoth

Genealogy according to Textos dos Sarcófagos (feitiço 80); Livro dos Mortos (capítulo 125); Máximas de Ptahhotep 5

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Budge, E. A. Wallis (trad.), The Book of the Dead (The Papyrus of Ani). read
Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians. read

Studies

Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs. 2003.
Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. 2003.
Emily Teeter, The Presentation of Maat: Ritual and Legitimacy in Ancient Egypt. 1997.
Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. 1982.

Name and epithets

The theonym Mꜣꜥt originates from the root mꜣꜥ, signifying straightness, rectitude, uprightness, and mathematical accuracy, indicated in hieroglyphic script by the decisive determinative of a pristine ostrich plume (𓆄).…

In the ancient sources

Book of the Dead, c. 1500 BCE (New Kingdom). The definitive liturgical text of the Hall of the Two Truths, detailing the Negative Confession before 42 judges and the psychostasia. Coffin Texts, c.

The myths

The Primordial Breath of Cosmic Order. Before the structuring of the terrestrial sphere, when Atum floated solitary amidst the boundless, inert waters of the primeval Nun, the creator conceived within his heart the nece…

Worship and archaeology

Ma'at possessed dedicated chapels and liturgical personnel throughout the Nile Valley, most prominently at North Karnak and the craft village of Deir el-Medina.

How the god was depicted

In tomb murals, papyrus scrolls, and relief carvings, Ma'at is represented as an elegant woman seated on her heels or standing, adorned with an ostrich feather set vertically into her fillet headband.

What scholars debate

Abstract Principle versus Personal Devotional Deity. Distinguished Egyptologists including Jan Assmann and Emily Teeter examine whether Ma'at was primarily an abstract socio-cosmic norm and state ideology, or maintained…

After antiquity

The conceptual framework of Ma'at represents ancient Egypt's most profound philosophical legacy to universal ethical thought.

Did you know?

The chief magistrate and vizier of ancient Egypt concluded difficult judicial disputes by touching the gold pendant of Maat against the winning litigant, silently confirming the verdict of truth.

Codex relic

Feather of Truth. An ostrich feather against which the hearts of the dead are weighed to judge their lives.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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