fyeahmythologicalcreatures:

This picture shows the Weighing of the Heart. In ancient Egypt, people believed that the heart of a deceased person was weighed against a feather of the goddess Maat. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife. If the heart was out of balance with the feather then Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person’s afterlife to an early and unpleasant end.

(Picture source: Das alte Ägypten by Christian Heinrich)

NOO NOT THIS MYTH

Once in my Greek myth class the professor was talking about how the gods often weighed the souls of warriors in battle to determine who would win. Then he asked if anyone knew of anything similar in Egyptian myth, and no one in the entire class of Classics and History majors raised their hand. He kept waiting for like 3 minutes and it was so awkward. So I tentatively raised my hand and said, “Egyptians believed that when you died, a similar weighing test was performed on your heart.”

And the prof asked, “Do you remember what the heart was weighed against?”

I was a bio major, I had never taken Egyptology, but these kids had and they were just all staring and I was like “Uhh um they weighed…it on a scale…with a thing…and…and there as a crocodile…and a scale…I don’t…remember”

Then this girl in the front row raised her hand and said “A FEATHER (duh)”

WHY DIDN’T SHE SAY ANYTHING IN THE FIRST PLACE GRR