The name means ‘straight’: she represents law and order, the goddess of cosmic harmony, truth and justice. Ma’at is depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, and sometimes represented only by the feather. She is closely associated with RA from the beginning and eventually becomes known as the ‘daughter of Ra.’ THOTH is sometimes given as her consort. The pharaohs were said to derive their authority from Ma’at and claimed to uphold the cosmic order embodied in her. In the funerary papyri of the New Kingdom it is Ma’at who sits in judgement at the weighing of the heart ceremony in the Hall of the Two Truths. The heart of the deceased was weighed against the image of Ma’at, often represented simply by the ostrich feather. Her only known sanctuary was in Karnak
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