In the
Egyptian mythology of the
afterlife, as described in the
Book of the Dead, the soul's final judgement takes place in the Hall of the
Two Truths. Here, the
heart of the deceased is placed on a scale, to be weighed against the Feather of
Ma'at, which represents truth.
Anubis, who oversees
embalming, and the
scribe god
Thoth preside over the process.
The deceased soul must recite the Negative Confession, in which he or she declares innocence and purity, renouncing an entire litany of sins, from murder to questionable fishing practices. By the end of the recitation, the soul has sworn innocence of more than 40 sins. He or she would also recite the following prayer:
O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart of my different ages!
Do not stand up as a witness against me.
do not be opposed to me in the tribunal,
do not be hostile to me in the presence of
the keeper of the Balance...
If the soul was lying, the weight of falsehood would cause the heart to become heavy, tipping the scales. With such a long list of assertions, it seems that some of them would inevitably be false -- even Mother Theresa probably knew one or two useless men -- so I'd like to think that it took more than one lie to outweigh the feather. Regardless, if the heart was too heavy, it was devoured by a chimeric beast called Amemet. Truthful souls, on the other hand, get a plot of land to live on in the afterlife (and they'd better hope their family packed plenty of servant statues into their tombs, or there will be nobody to till the soil).