Author's Note: There are many sources for the different Pert Em Hrw: Coffin Texts, Pyramid Texts, the Papyrus of Ani, and various other scrolls. No single Book of the Dead has been found in completion, and there are still debates today over the translation. I love Egyptology, but I'm no expert. Forgive me if you find a variation to the events in this story. Thank you!
Disclaimer: (I hate these things, but I'd hate a court trial even more!) I don't own. Got it?
Coming Forth By Day
The Papyrus of Atem
By Pearl of the Dark Age
The Hall of Ma'at
The voices that were chanting the Hymn to Osiris in the darkness faded away, and Atem awoke. He looked all around him and saw nothing except complete, pitch black darkness. It pressed upon his eyes and weighed upon his heart. But he felt as if his body were weightless. The force of gravity seemed to have disappeared. Where am I? he wondered. What happened to all the bright light? He recalled entering the part in the wall after the Ceremonial Duel was completed, saying goodbye to his friends. I distinctly recall lots of light!
Even though he had been dead for over 3,000 years, Atem still found this whole experience disturbing. He had long ago accepted the fact that he could no longer return to the East Bank, (1) but he had to admit to himself he expected a more glorious reception for a Pharaoh who saved the world from Doomsday several times over.
A ray of orange light, dim at first, slowly increased in luminosity, lighting the darkness. Atem's senses seemed to return to him. A damp chill pained his bones, and a reek of incense and death stung his nostrils. He could hear the drip, drip, drip of water in the far distance. The pattering noise reminded him of a heartbeat. Solid, cold stone could be felt underneath his bare feet, and he strained his eyes in the dark in prayer for more light.
In the far distance, he could just barely make out the orange flame of a torch. As he stared at it, feeling his body weight on the damp, stone floor, more torches lit themselves. All around Atem the torches lit their luminous orange glow, surrounding him in the largest rectangular room he had ever been in, including the temples in Thebes. Surely, several large football stadiums would fit neatly in this room with space to spare.
Atem gazed upwards, expecting to see a ceiling, but there was nothing there except more darkness. It appeared to be endless, and Atem suddenly felt very small. He noticed a statue in the distance next to the only door in the torch-lit walls. The jackal-headed man was easily recognizable. Atem, after all, had been tutored by Shimon, his advisor.
Figuring correctly that he ought to walk towards the door, he was startled out of his wits when the statue moved! Atem's hair stood on straight on end in alarm, golden bangs and all. (Even more so than usual, that is.) Oh my god! Atem realized. This IS the god Anubis!
Anubis stepped forward a few paces and greeted the Pharaoh in a deep, but soft voice that carried across the stretch of distance yet to be traveled, "Welcome Osiris Atem." (2) He gestured for him to hurry. "Mighty Pharaoh, your judgment in the Hall of Ma'at awaits you."
Atem's legs felt as if they were laden with lead. He gulped, suddenly remembering his experiment as a child: he had weighed a human-sized sheep heart on a precisely calibrated set of scales and found that it weighed more than the feather every time. He had no idea how he was supposed to pass this first trial.
Before he knew it, he was bowing his head and raising his hands in homage to Anubis. "Hail to thee, Reverent Diety Anubis, the Great Embalmer. I, Osiris Atem, am ready to be judged by my heart against the Feather of Truth, the Feather of Ma'at, the Goddess of Truth." He hated sounding redundant, but it was better than to be eaten by Ammut.
"Follow me, Great Pharaoh, risen Sun," Anubis replied. He lead Atem through the door out of the unadorned room into a lavishly decorated room of silver, onyx, amethyst, and lapis lazuli. "The Hall of Ma'at," Anubis announced. "The Hall of Truth."
He lead Atem to a large set of golden scales. Beside the scales on either side were the god Thoth with the head of an ibis, and the monster Ammut. Atem glanced at the crocodile-lion-hippo hybrid apprehensively. He had faced an Ammut in a similar trial conducted by Shadi, and the victory helped him to regain his courage. Surely, he thought. I'm a good person!
But there was the simple fact that hearts weighed more than feathers, and the gravity seemed to have been turned back on. Anubis stood before him, facing Thoth and the Scales of Ma'at. "I am Anubis, guardian of the underworld, keeper of the sacred Scales of Truth." He turned around suddenly and plunged his hand into Atem's chest, withdrawing his heart in a painless instant.
Atem almost died from the shock and horror, but he remembered that he was already dead. This encouraged him slightly, and he gazed at his own beating, bloody, purple-red heart and whispered, "Don't betray me, my heart. Be pure and righteous so we don't get eaten. Okay?"
The heart whispered back, "Don't worry, Osiris Atem. I know what I'm doing!"
Again, more shock caused the Pharaoh to stagger on the spot. After all the weirdness in his life in the world of the Living, he surprised himself that he was so unnerved. Then again, he thought, I've never before been in the company of the Gods!
"Pay good head to the weighing of the Heart of Osiris Atem," Anubis declared to the company.
Remembering protocol, Atem spoke up, "My name is Osiris Atem, who seeks to join the Great God Osiris, Lord of the Underworld, in the Fields of Peace, Sekhet-Hetepet. I say, 'O' my heart, don't resist me in judgment, don't repulse me on part of the Divine Chiefs, and don't forsake me in the presence of the Scale Keeper.'"
And the golden scales spoke up, "I am the Scales of Ma'at, the Scales of Truth, on whom the Heart of Osiris Atem shall be weighed."
Then the feather on the scale next to Thoth raised her voice, "I am the Feather of Ma'at, the Feather of Truth, by whom the Heart of Osiris Atem shall be weighed."
The ugly monster next to the empty scale screeched and grumbled in a bone chilling voice like nails on a chalkboard, "I am Ammut. I am very hungry! Feed me the heart and body of the unworthy deceased! He is evil, and his flesh shall be my meal!"
That's not fair! Atem thought indignantly. I haven't even been judged yet!
"I am the Heart of Osiris Atem," the proud organ announced once Anubis had placed it upon the empty scale. "I shall save thee from the jaws of Ammut!"
A cliffhanger! Mwa ha ha ha!
1. The East Bank of the Nile represents the world of the living. That's why all mummies were buried on the West Bank of the Nile. Coming Forth By Day means reincarnation in the afterlife. The Ancient Egyptians believed that since the sun rose in the East and set in the West, the East represented Life and the West represented Death. Hence why everyone lived on the East Bank and were buried on the West Bank.
2. All the dead receive a new name when they enter the afterlife. It's just their old name with the prefix Osiris. It used to be that only Pharaohs received this honor, but that changed as Egypt entered the New Kingdom.
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